Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/61383
"I'm a salesman. When I can convince someone to give $1 million to a college that I didn't even attend, I'm a salesman. This means I can borrow money, because I can convince banks I'm good at what I do." business meetings. All of them, by the time they're eight, have attended at least one black-tie business dinner where I'm a speaker. That's also a part of giving back. On a personal level, I take my grandchildren with me to you going to major in economics? You aren't going to be able to get a job. Why would you want to major in business when no corporation is even going to consider you? Why major in business when you know your chances of getting credit to start a business or borrow money are zero?" Keep in mind, the Civil Rights movement was just beginning in 1957 when I was graduating. There were no recruiters on campus. But now all these young people see that Ken Chenault is CEO of American Express, Richard Parsons is CEO of AOL Time Warner, Stan O'Neal is CEO of Merrill Lynch, and Franklin Raines is CEO of Fannie Mae. And African American students can say, "Well, I might not be the chairman, but I've got a shot at this." Business schools are concerned that they are receiving fewer applications from minority students than they would like. Why do you think young black students are not interested in business school? The way I see it, the numbers would tell a different story. The largest school at Morgan State University is now the school of business. North Carolina State and Howard University have very successful business schools. Maybe I'm so close to the trees, I can't see the forest. Most of the schools I address are primarily African American. When I was in school, people would ask me, "Why are looking around.Watch the television coverage of the NASA Space Center when they're showing pictures of the Mars rover. This just comes as second nature to me. I pan the audience to see if I see a dark face, a face of color. There are a hundred engineers there. I know there's got to be some- body, and I'm just praying it won't be somebody bringing 24 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2004 So you think corporations have been more successful at bringing diversity to the workplace? This might cause a little controversy, but I think the issues concerning African Americans and people of color have been marginalized by the word "diversity." There are cor- porations that have boards that include 15 different interest groups, from left-handed white men to right-handed gay women. But at the end of the day, those who are the low people on the totem pole are not white women, and they're not white men. They're people of color. And I don't see it getting better, at least under this administration. When you start saying "diversity in numbers," I start in the sandwiches. So I look—and we all have to be that sen- sitive. Until then, diversity has a different meaning. You founded Black Enterprise more than 30 years ago. You've said you didn't know much about maga- zine publishing at the time, and yet it was profitable within ten months. To what do you attribute your quick success? I'm a salesman. When I can convince someone to give $1 million to a college that I didn't even attend, I'ma salesman. When I can convince the chairman of some board I'msitting on that he ought to give an opportunity to a white female, I'm a salesman. This means I can borrow money, because I can convince banks I'mgood at what I do.We recently start- ed a private equity fund, the Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street Growth Partners, and the reason it took off and did as well as it did is that I'm a salesman. It's also important to believe in yourself and have a posi- tive attitude. If you tell someone you're going to do some- thing, do it. If you say to the bank, "I will pay you back on this date," it is better to be a half hour early than five min- utes late. If you say to a person, "If you do such-and-such, there's a promotion for you," you make sure it happens. You have to live by your word. I also think it's important to be able to communicate, to be able to make another person understand what your posi- tion is. It sounds like a very simple thing, but young people are not skilled in communication. They can't pick up a pen- cil and write. I'm talking about kids with master's degrees, and I'm certainly not just talking about black kids. It's also important to carry yourself a certain way. We work in New York City with all sorts of people, and you can identify my employees not by the fact that 99 percent of them are African American, but by the fact that the men wear jackets and ties, and the ladies are dressed in a very tai- lored way. They look as if they came to work. I think that's key. I think that setting certain standards and certain goals for yourself is very important in business. In addition to being a businessman, you're extremely active in organizations like the Boy Scouts of America, the New American Schools Development Corporation, and the Black Business Council. Why is it important to you to serve in such organizations? Is this a critical part of leadership for today's CEOs, or is it a more personal mission for you? I do it for a couple reasons. First of all, as I mentioned before, I think you have to give back. My wife and I decid-