Malik Ali promotes minority businesses for the Florida Minority Supplier Development Council by blending technology, quality, and creativity.

The Florida Minority Supplier Development Council (FMSDC)  is “The Council of the Future.” So says Malik Ali, the Council’s President.

They have an integrated information management system that allows them to respond immediately to requests for suppliers to meet corporate needs. Data can be communicated email or fax. Their certified supplier directory is on the website instead of on paper. It is searchable by any number of fields. 

"We want to provide our Corporate Members with innovative quality services that exceed their expectations," says Malik.  "To ensure that customer satisfaction is our primary focus.  We were the first Council to be ISO certified."

Malik is a president with MBE program manager experience. He started the Walt Disney Company’s MBE program in 1983 and was responsible for managing a diverse company that is in the theme park, motion picture, home video, television, real estate, music, and publishing business. They have their own sport teams (Anaheim Mighty Ducks and California Angels); and also, they have a power plant, telephone company and more buses than most major cities.

“Coming from that environment, I understand the challenges that face purchasing managers.” says Malik. “The FMSDC is a corporate member organization, and our primary objective is to help corporations with their supplier diversity efforts.”

“We have to be aware of the changes in the marketplace,” says Malik, “and also be responsive to the issues that affect what corporations need in today’s environment.”

His Harvard MBA has helped him analyze the bottom line impact of change and develop results orientated solutions. One change is time perception. With tighter budgets and less manpower, customers’ expectation of the value of their time has dramatically increased. A second change is that people expect answers now, rather than in a few weeks. What this means to the FMSDC is that they minimize the use of voicemail and empower everyone in the office to provide real time answers.

“We email information immediately rather than print a newsletter,” Malik tells us. "The information would be dated by the time it was received in the mail."  FMSDC encourages their membership to go to their web site where all information is updated daily. 

One of the results has been a high level of customer satisfaction. In a recent study by the Gill-Wright Consulting Group of the 39 affiliated NMSDC Councils, the FMSDC ranked third overall and was first by both Corporate members and certified suppliers in the use of technology.

“One of the biggest issues that corporations have is tracking their M/WBE dollars. Some companies have not configured their Accounts Payable systems to track M/WBE spending” says Malik. There is also a big discrepancy on how companies count minority businesses. The leaders only count NMSDC certified suppliers. Others, however, will count M/WBE’s that have certifications from government agencies.

The biggest problem with this method is that government agencies have different criteria. For instance, the State of Florida certifies non-US Citizens and classifies non-ethnic women as minorities. The State of New York once had Hassidic Jews in its minority classification.  Some states count people from Spain, Portugal or other countries as minorities.

Corporations also have trouble getting companies to certify if that minority owned firm is already doing business with their company. What can they do if a “known” MBE firm refuses to certify? For example, if your marketing department cuts a check to Michael Jordan, do you think he is going fill out the certification documents?

Another problem that corporations have is categorizing companies in their Accounts Payable file. Some companies have mailed post cards to all their vendors asking if they are small businesses or minority or women owned. Others have mailed their firm’s “Supplier Profile” to all their vendors. This usually is not effective because of the low response rate. Some companies such as Verizon have added electronic registration of their M/WBE suppliers or all their suppliers to reduce administration expense.

The FMSDC can help guide you through this maze. They stay on top of the trends and technology to provide the best and fastest service possible so that they can truly be called “The Council of the Future". You can reach them by email (of course) at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .