For
years, Ohio has had the goal of awarding 15 percent of state contracts to
minority-owned businesses. It has never
come close. From
2008 to the 2012, the percentage of such contracts ranged from a low of nearly
3 percent in 2008 to a high of nearly 7 percent in 2011.
The
reasons range from a lack of outreach to the minority community to a shortage
of minority-owned businesses in fields where the state awards contacts. But the
biggest cause seems to be an application process that involves three times as
many steps as necessary to be certified as a Minority Business Enterprise, or MBE. …….
Gov. John Kasich is pushing state departments to meet the 15 percent goal. The
first step in the effort is streamlining the MBE application process, required
before a company can bid on a contract in the program.
The new approach came out of a one-week session held this
month with state employees and groups that work with minority businesses. The
session was based on principles of Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy in which
government and other industries strive for continuous improvement by focusing
on such things as customer service and overall efficiency. …..To Read More…..
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