After working with Accenture for several years, certified LGBTBE, Neil Cerbone Associates (NCA), was invited to participate in Accenture's Diverse Supplier Development Program (DSDP).
This formal mentoring program pairs Accenture executives with diverse company owners for 18 months of one-on-one meetings and quarterly symposiums with a goal of building their capacity to better serve their clients.
During the program, Neil Cerbone, president of NCA, an organizational development firm, found that his expertise was also beneficial to other participants.
"Because NCA is a firm dedicated to human interactions and performance improvement, we had the unique opportunity to share our experiences, insight and methodologies with our colleague firms," Cerbone said. "Over the course of the 18-month DSDP, we were able to bring some of our own thought leadership to the program."
Launched in 2006, the DSDP helps Accenture's diverse suppliers learn more about their own businesses so they can increase capacity, improve client service, further engage their employees and refine existing processes through mentorship, networking and training.
After graduation from the program, Cerbone, the first LGBT-certified business owner to participate, was also named Accenture's Protégé Company of the Year.
NCA, which received its National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce® LGBTBE certification in September 2008, supplies Accenture's clients with professional skills training programs. NCA also provides trainers for some educational programs for Accenture managers in the United Kingdom.
In a recent interview with BIZ, Cerbone discussed his experience in the DSDP and what he took away from his time in the program.
BIZ: What were the most valuable things that you learned over the course of the program for your own business?
NC: How a small company like NCA can navigate in the Federal space, global market technology trends, and that synergy and opportunity are often found lurking in unexpected places. I was able to share best practices with other minority-owned and certified-diverse businesses, and I learned that business challenges that feel unique to your own firm are actually shared by many firms.
BIZ: What did you learn from the program that you think would be most valuable for other business owners to know?
NC: Being a participant in the DSDP does not provide automatic benefits-it is incumbent on the member entrepreneurs to leverage the access it provides. Our participation introduced us to resources and people we might never have encountered; establishing and maintaining those relationships in meaningful ways requires a great deal of forethought, time, energy and finesse. The access we were afforded provided opportunities for NCA to differentiate itself amongst the thousands of other firms that are knocking at Accenture's door every week.
BIZ: How did it feel to be the first LGBT-owned business to participate in the program?
NC: It felt extremely significant. In some small way, we were pioneers. The Accenture team and all of the other DSDP members could not have been more welcoming.
BIZ: Was Accenture's program able to address the unique needs of an LGBT-owned business?
NC: Minority-owned and certified-diverse companies all face the challenges of prejudice and micro-inequities in the marketplace. We face obstacles that are often generated by ignorance rather than straightforward market competitiveness. The mission of the DSDP is not to address the challenges of exclusion or discrimination, but to take actionable steps in direct opposition to them. Accenture's senior executives dedicate significant time and energy to provide world-class thought leadership and mentoring to the DSDP members. This does much more than address unique LGBT needs-it replaces rhetoric with action.
