This week on the The Urban Business Roundtable our Executive Producer TaQuoya Kennedy speaks with Bill Strickland, president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corp. and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center. The MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award winner has changed thousands of lives of economically disadvantaged urban teens and welfare mothers through his world-class arts centers and career training centers, winning global acclaim for using mentorship and skills training to prepare them for productive and hopeful lives.
Strickland is the author of Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary, which includes his story of going from a childhood in the Pittsburgh’s ghetto to lecturing at Harvard and serving on the National Endowment of the Arts board. He’s is also featured in the documentary film on America’s troubled public education system, Waiting for Superman. Strickland sits down at the roundtable with Kennedy to talk about what it takes to literally make the impossible, possible.
Also, this week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita Young speaks with Ernest Lang, a distributor for Rudolph Foods, the world’s largest distributor of pork rinds. Young chats with Lang about how he launched his venture and and built a lucrative business relationship.
Of course, every week on UBR you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today Business Correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR Economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.
And finally, on my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment this week, I share some of the steps that entrepreneurs should take in order to tap lucrative global business opportunities. You can learn more on this topic by picking up the December 2010 issue of Black Enterprise and checking out the feature article, “Tapping The Global Markets.” Also, check out these additional resources:
8 Rules for Doing Business Overseas
Ready to Take Your Business Global?
Four Steps to Taking Your Business Global
If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, send me an e-mail at edmonda@blackenterprise.com or to me at Twitter or Facebook.
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Alfred Edmond Jr.
Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each Wednesday for The UBR Morning Post, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.
