Audio clip
Deborah Levine
The ability to market internationally and be more open to foreign investment is a key component in the growth of the local economy, business leaders said Thursday.
“We now live in a global economy, so even our smallest start-up businesses have the opportunity to market internationally,” said J.Ed. Marston, a panelist for the “Business Trend and Plans: Local & Global” class and vice president for marketing and communication at the Greater Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
“As a community we have to be open to having new companies from other countries invest (here) and find ways to make them feel at home,” he said.
Sheila Boyington, former president of the India Association of Chattanooga and a panelist, said discussions on the acceptance of diversity when doing business nationally and internationally are important.
She said that 20 years ago the faces of Chattanooga’s business owners were more uniform.
“Now you can definitely see that business owners are of many diverse cultures and backgrounds, and there is certainly more acceptance of that ... but there is still hesitance in doing business with a company that might not be of the same background as you,” she said.
Mr. Marston said he has seen a significant increase in the number of businesses owned by women and other minorities in the area.
Marj Flemming, a business owner and former president of the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, said that nationally women are opening more businesses and employing more people than men.
“We have an exploding number of women starting business after 45,” she said. “Maybe it is women who are tired of being held down or who have already done their family responsibilities.”
Ms. Flemming said that within the last 10 years a lot more younger women in Chattanooga have been looking for ways to take leadership roles.
Mrs. Boyington said that when she moved to Chattanooga to work at an engineering company her boss told her she could work on a project but would not be able to see it.
“He said (that was) because they wouldn’t be able to accept a women engineer for one thing, but No. 2, an Indian woman engineer,” she told the group. “That was about 20 years ago, and I’m hoping that things have changed. I think they have in some way, but there is still the need for education on the value of diversity.”
Mr. Marston said the Chamber is working to encourage people to start their own businesses through the Business Development Center, helping existing businesses grow and recruiting new companies by establishing relationships abroad.
Deborah Levine, president of Communication Prose Ink and organizer of the leadership class, said she included this session in her diversity class to try to create a global business perspective.
“I want to foster conversation around how it may be done and what needs to be done, and in that way we are doing our part to change the economy here into a more global, more sophisticated and more attractive destination for businesses in general,” she said.
CHATTANOOGA FACTS
* American Indians and Alaska natives own 388 firms
* Asians own 614 firms
* Blacks own 1,833 firms
* Hispanics own 318 firms
* Women own 10,551 firms
Source: U.S. Census figures, 2002
FAST FACTS
* In 2002, minorities owned about 18 percent of the 23 million U.S. companies.
* In 2002, 1.1 million Asian-owned nonfarm businesses in the United States employed more than 2.2 million people and generated almost $327 billion in revenue.
* A majority of Asians and Hispanics in the U.S. labor force are immigrants, either naturalized or not. Among self-employed Asians, 80.8 percent are immigrants, compared with 56.8 percent of Hispanics.
* Nationwide, the immigrant population grew by 57 percent in the 1990s, bringing the share of the U.S. population that is foreign-born to a higher level than at any time since 1930.
Sources: U.S. Small Business Administration, Center for an Urban Future
FOR MORE INFORMATION
* The Global Leadership Class 2008-09 will begin Sept. 18
* Class fee: $175, $50 deposit by July 11
* Call Deborah Levine at (423) 867-5564 or e-mail Deborah@americandiversityreport.com
Perla Trevizo joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2007 and covers immigration/diversity issues and higher education. She holds a master’s degree in newswire journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas. In 2011 she participated in the Bringing Home the World international reporting fellowship program sponsored by the International Center for Journalists, producing a series on Guatemalan immigrants for which she ...
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