University Of Missouri System's First Graduates Of Its Advocacy - Mentoring Programs

Online, July 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - University of Missouri System's efforts in assisting small entrepreneurs across the state have launched the Advocacy - Mentoring Programs 2 years ago that is developed for businesses managed by women and minorities, now honors its first graduates of the program.

4 entrepreneurs have successfully completed the 2 year program and it is expected that 5 new companies will emerge soon.

The University of Missouri's Advocacy - Mentoring Program is designed to increase the rate of new businesses and firms owned by women who are interested to do business with the university's 4 campuses. Minority owned companies are classified as business firms wherin 51% of its ownership is managed by the minority or women.

The first mentored class consisted of 4 firms, namely City Design Group, Simms Building Group of St Louis, OBI Consulting Engineers, and Pendulum Studio of Kansas City. Each of these company owners had the opportunity to have a mentor from an established firm and one of University of Missouri's team leaders.

Participants of this program were also guided by MBA students that are supervised by Gregg Martin, PhD, an associate professor of management at MU's Trulaske College of Business, through a consulting class.
This program of University of Missouri System aims to help companies understand the importance of pricing, service area and services offered that will allow them to grow and be more competitive in today's business world.

The Advocacy - Mentoring Program was initiated at the proposal of the Women and Minority - Owned Business Enterprise Advisory Council which is a volunteer group that creates ideas to help increase the percentage of companies managed by women and minorities that works with University of Missouri. In addition, the program has also made it easy for any business and individual that is interested to learn about business needs by simply signing up for notifications through their email.

This program also aims to improve the prospective supply of companies that can efficiently bid on University of Missouri's contracts and concurrently keeping the university's values of diversity, respect and promoting their mission to increase the state's economy.

As of today, University of Missouri System has already seen improvements in the ability of the businesses mentioned to compete in today's aggressive business world and has hosted an event to honor, not just the graduates but also the Women and Minority - Owned Business Enterprise Advisory Council that played a big part in developing this program.

For more information, contact Jennifer Hollingshead at (573) 882 0601.