Baton Rouge Business Report

Baton Rouge contractor Keith Tillage will readily admit helping others comes with a benefit beyond the warm fuzzies of altruism. “If I can go back and build an alliance of strong people, then it makes me a stronger, more powerful company,” says Tillage, who runs Tillage Construction with his father, Ken Tillage is one of the area contractors working with CSRS/The Facility Group to encourage the expansion of local minority-owned businesses in the construction field.

CSRS/The Facility Group is in charge of project management for the East Baton Rouge Parish schools’ Tax Plan facilities program. The Tax Plan was first passed in 1998 and is up for renewal every five years. The plan’s current budget has $138 million available for construction projects at parish schools. For parish-funded construction, there is no requirement for hiring minority workers, nor is there an incentive to do so. However, project manager Curtis Soderberg says the plan provides an opportunity to focus on creating opportunities in a market. “Our overall goal is to build capacity,” says Soderberg “We feel like we can use the opportunities of the Tax Plan. There are major funds available to involve WMBE (Women and Minority Business Enterprises) contractors and help develop their business.”

Tillage says the program works because local minority contractors and subcontractors are only looking for a hand, not a hand-out, and CSRS/The Facility Group is going beyond lip service and making a sincere effort to help. “They’re really trying to fill a need we have in the local community,” he says. The program is not meant to serve as a type of apprenticeship program to train craftsmen in various fields; instead, it seeks out people with the necessary skills looking to grow their businesses. “We start out with those people ready to participate,” says project manager Keisha West. Adds Soderberg. “There’s a difference between doing the work and running the business of the work.” To develop the program, West looked at similar programs around the country that focused on the growth of WMBE companies. The three companies CSRS/The Facility Group most closely drew from JPMorgan, Ford and Unisys. West says the program looked at JPMorgan’s culture of inclusion, Ford’s community-based involvement and company-to-company mentor plans, and Unisys’ use of developmental seminars and scholarship programs. “We want to take the best of these programs and kind of blend them to get the best model for this area,” says West.

CSRS/The Facility Group brought in independent consultant John F. Smith to help the program participants in the area of relationship building, a significant component of this program. In fact, it could be argued relationship-building is the key part of the program since pre-existing relationships play a big role in landing construction work. When CSRS/The Facility Group holds a seminar, its invitees spend the initial time being introduced to each other and area contractors. “That’s the uniqueness in our approach,” says Soderberg. Following the introductory period, there is a formal presentation addressing specific topics, which can range from sharing knowledge of bid laws to tips on how the companies can successfully market themselves. Then a successful business owner affiliated with the program, such as Tillage, speaks to the group. Having someone who has hands-on experience with the program is meant to develop role models for participants, thus motivating them to take the necessary steps to increase the success of their business. Following the seminars, program managers follow up with the participants to make sure they have kept appointments they have made and others have kept appointments with them. A key part of the follow-up process, Smith says, is making sure participants are attending pre-bid conferences, so they know who is bidding on a project. “In the past, you didn’t know who you needed to talk to,” he says. So has the program worked? Soderberg says the project managers don’t track participants if they get work outside the Tax Plan, but he says it’s hard to imagine participants aren’t moving on to other projects. “If someone’s growing and being successful, they’re going to get business outside the program,” he says.

Tillage looks at the success of the program in simpler terms: “Everyday you’re in business is a step toward growth.” Now that Tillage has grown into the role of mentor, he recognizes the program offers advantages for those contractors hiring WMBE who are in the program. “Any time you have increased resources the benefits are astronomical,” he says. The resources have certainly come in handy since Katrina, now that labor demands far outweigh the current supply. Furthermore, each success of the program is going to create yet another opportunity for businesses where none may have otherwise existed. “Anytime someone on any level of society is successful, it should be a trickle-down effect,” says Tillage. And that, Soderberg maintains, is the very point of the program. “It’s just the right thing to do. A strong community is the one that has equal access to opportunity.”

–by Seth Fox