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Networks Can Open a Seat at the Table for Minorities

March, 2004

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—African American business men and women need to network with those behind them on the corporate ladder as well as those already ahead, said speakers at the 21st annual conference of the Stanford Black Business Student Association, held February 28 at the Graduate School of Business.

"The real question is, as black professionals, can we trust traditional networks?" asked Tony Brown, MBA '91, director of staffing at Bear Stearns.

The technology industry may be a colorblind meritocracy, but panelists said it is still critical for African Americans interested in high-tech careers to build and nurture relationships with other African Americans—those coming up behind as well as those already ahead in the corporate world.

"Networking is the most important factor of success for African Americans in this country," said Roy Clay, a key figure in the development of Silicon Valley since the early 1970s and CEO of ROD-L Electronics. Clay was first introduced to computer programming in 1955—an event that changed his life—by a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. "Everybody needs help. My mother helped me. My wife helped me. Someone has to care enough and believe in you enough to reach out and give you a chance."

There were plenty of examples of networking. David Bowen, MBA '88, is a general partner at Ascend Venture Group LLC, a private investment firm. From its beginnings as an informal group of angel investors, Ascend has specifically sought out "undermined opportunities" for women and minority entrepreneurs. This focus gave the firm an edge when being considered as a potential investor for Snap Appliance, a leading global maker of network attached storage devices. "As capital becomes a commodity, the way you get a seat at the table is through the network," Bowen said, pointing across the podium to another panelist, Eric Kelly.

Kelly, the president and CEO of Snap Appliance, convinced his board to go with Ascend at least partly because he felt that a venture capital firm committed to diversity and headed by African Americans would "understand things others simply wouldn't be able to understand."

Robert Ash, MBA '90, a senior product manager at Oracle Corp., said that it is critical to seek out mentors of all ethnicities when building a career. "It's going to be typical that you will be the only African American in a department or group. You're going to be pretty much alone wherever you are," he said.

"There are not enough of us out there yet to pull all the levers," agreed Kelly.

The panel touched briefly on what moderator Jennifer Wilds, MBA '00, director of business planning for CNET Networks Inc., called "the D-word": diversity. "We're a global company," said Kelly. "It's critical to have people on my team that have been used to taking different paths and making different decisions. We can translate that understanding to other cultures."

Another panel disagreed about the best way for African Americans to break through what moderator Jan Barker Alexander, assistant dean of students and director of the Black Community Services Center, called "the cement ceiling."

Ward Connerly, founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute and a member of the University of California Board of Regents, said the "biggest problem" facing African Americans is that they rely too much on external forces for help. "We need to think about being leaders of all people. We need to break the mindset that we represent a limited group of people," he said.

Bear Stearns' Tony Brown disagreed. He argued there are differences between official tracks for success within companies like Bear Stearns—which considers itself a meritocracy—and reality. "Certainly you make your breaks and you make your own way. But there are official routes to success and there are real-life routes to success. I am hard pressed to agree that self-preparation alone can do it."

Margaret Fortune, superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools, a model K-12 charter public school district in Sacramento, talked about taking a middle path. "We need to work as a collective—individually choosing our own paths but being wary of systems that have not served us well."

The keynote speaker was Kathryn Leary, MBA '77, president and CEO of the Leary Group Inc., an international marketing, trade development, and executive training firm. "Leadership is about stepping up," she said. "It's about the need to act when there's an opportunity—or challenge—facing you." But although Leary agrees that African Americans need to "recognize and own their own power," she still believes it's not a level playing field out there. "Racism is still here. It's more subtle, but it's still here."

As a high school student, Leary recalled, she worked for General Foods as part of a minority hiring initiative. Most of the jobs were low-level—women were clerk/typists, men worked in the mailroom—but one manager lobbied for one student to be given a chance as a marketing intern. That student was Leary. "They got a pretty decent mind for $2.50 an hour," she said.

African Americans actually have an advantage in the global economy, said Leary. "You're so used to being a minority in this country, you don't mind being a minority in another country. You listen. You don't try to force your ways upon others."

Leary lobbied strongly for reaching out to fellow African Americans throughout all stages of their careers. "We need to do more to keep the opportunities open for the people coming behind us," said Leary. "As leaders, we need to take the initiative, take responsibility, and perform truly courageous acts to help those around us."

—Alice LaPlante