All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
Welcome to Veterans Radio.
I am Jim Fossone.
I'm the officer of the deck today.
We've got some great programs for you.
We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook
site or at the web veteransradio.org where we're on the web 24-7.
You can find a lot of our podcasts there as well.
We post new ones every Tuesday so you can get a new story, a new interview, something
you didn't know before by going to veteransradio.org.
And before we get started we want to thank our sponsors.
Next up we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.
It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses.
You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.
We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.
Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.
You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at legalhelpforveterans.com.
And finally, PuroClean.
PuroClean is the paramedics of property damage.
It provides water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation,
mold removal, biohazard cleanup.
It also has a focus on veteran franchisees.
You can learn more about them by going to puroclean.com.
Welcome I am Jim Fosso and this is Veterans Radio Spotlight on National Veterans Business
Development Council, better known as NVBDC.org.
Veterans Radio America Nonprofit has a partnership with NVBDC, which is the nation's leading
third party authority for certification of veteran owned businesses of really all sizes.
This 501C3 non-profit was established in 2013 and addressed the growing need to identify
and certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses in the commercial or corporate
marketplace as well as for government work.
It administers a vigorous certification process designed to withstand scrutiny of governmental
and corporate entities seeking to utilize certified veteran owned businesses.
We are really pleased today of all the interviews we have done on NVBDC.
We have never spoken to its current president, Reg. Gen. Richard S. Miller, retired.
Dick Miller, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you for having me.
Well it has been an effort to get on each other's schedule to get this done.
We have had the opportunity to speak with NVBDC's founder Keith King many times.
You have been involved for quite a while.
Tell us how you got involved with NVBDC.
Well I like to say that if you look at the organizational chart, I am employee number
one.
There you go.
I met Keith at a meeting and I had just retired and I had been out floundering around trying
to find something to do.
My lovely wife suggested I get out of her kitchen.
So that is a true story.
But anyway at the end of the day Keith and I met at a Starbucks at 12 mile and mound
in Detroit.
And he said look I am starting up this organization to help our fellow veterans and would you
be willing to join me.
And I said yeah why not.
It is a good program and I like what he is doing.
So he and I joined forces and the rest is history.
Well and timing was everything here.
You had just retired in 2012.
You had done some consulting and sales work and getting familiar with the business world
again.
And as we said earlier NVBDC started in 2013 which is how you became employee number one.
But why don't you talk about the vision that was now a decade ago as you guys were starting
this up and saying what are we trying to accomplish here with NVBDC.
Well corporate America at that time was frustrated by certification agencies or groups because
of fraud.
And there wasn't a lot of accountability for these people.
You know you could just say you were XYZ and there was no way to verify it.
So they suggested to us and I am talking about as a matter of fact it was GM Chrysler and
Ford that we take a look at we bank the NVBDC Minority Supplier Development Council and
pattern ourselves after them.
Their certification programs were vetted.
They were accepted.
And if we patterned ourselves after them we would be in good shape.
And we did just that.
We banked the women's organization mentored us, helped us develop our policy procedures
and we did just that.
Keith and I did it and it was just him and I at the time and they were really gracious
about helping us through that process.
So we ended up having a group, I mean this was GM Chrysler Ford, Consumers Energy, Kellogs,
all came to our facility and we actually vetted three companies.
I can't remember who they were at the time.
They are now.
But anyway we vetted three companies.
They approved our process and that is when the spigot turned on and we went forward from
there.
But the whole process and the vision was to assist our fellow veterans with the certification
process with corporate America.
And you know I got to tell you we did everything by hand.
All the applications, the processing was all done by hand and now we are at a point where
we have a very sophisticated computer system.
But the one thing that the corporate America wanted was access to our database.
You know when they became sponsors of ours we would give them access to all these veterans.
Yeah and that is sort of the interesting thing about NVBDC is there are two sides to this.
There is the corporate partners who had a need to fill that you guys filled and then
the members of who go and get certified and then have the ability to connect, network.
Talk about each side of this equation.
Well the one thing we kept hearing from corporate America was we want to do business with veterans
but we can't find them.
Where do we go to find a veteran?
Well you know that sounds easy on the surface but they were 100% correct.
You may have what we will tell you Ford Motor Company for example.
They had a number of veteran owned businesses in their database for suppliers.
They didn't know they were.
They didn't know they were veterans and so we helped them vet that list.
We went through and we identified all these veteran owned businesses and Son of a gun
it was like 40 million dollars worth of spend.
That they were already spending with veteran owned businesses who needed to be vetted or
certified so you could recognize that spend then.
Exactly.
And then that was like the light bulb moment that maybe there's a whole bunch of other
people out there have that same situation.
And then I will tell you that you're probably more aware than most but we fast forward now
as of last year we have just revised the numbers from the billion dollar round table.
They have spent $6 billion with our certified vendors or suppliers.
That's an amazing number.
$6 billion with a B.
That's correct.
And how many corporate well first of all let me stick with this.
The billion dollar round table is not all of corporate America.
It's sort of the big guys right.
Oh most of the big guys they spend they call the billion dollar round table because they
spend a billion dollars every single year with supplier diversity suppliers I guess.
Diversity suppliers.
And you have corporate program partners who are in the billion dollar round table but
you have a much broader list of partners.
Tell us a little bit about that.
There are currently 37 corporations that are in the billion dollar round table.
We have currently 187 corporate America or corporate partners if you will and it is a
who's who of America.
I mean my goodness it's here.
If you look at the people that we have as our supplier or sponsors you know Amazon.
And Express.
Best Buy.
BMW.
I'm just looking at the list here.
I played this game with Keith a while ago and I said well A to Z who's Z and he actually
he knew who Z was so it was pretty funny.
It's 187 corporate sponsors and those are the people who wanted who want access to meet
with NVBDC certified companies and hopefully place work with them.
And how many companies have been certified?
We have over 3,000 at this point.
And as I mentioned at the outset it's a rigorous process.
The veteran really has to own it.
You get into the corporate records.
You figure out do they have all the articles and bylaws and operating agreements in place
to protect the veteran and make sure he's not just being scammed.
But it's not just big companies.
I want to get across to people.
You don't have to be a $10 million company to be with NVBDC.
You're able to certify smaller companies and help them network and grow if I understand
it.
Absolutely.
As a matter of fact I'm just making this number up.
But probably 70, 75% of all our members are small business.
And I think that's important for folks who are out there maybe just starting their veteran
owned business.
It's not generational.
And they're going well, I don't know if it's for me.
I think this is one of those groups that's for you.
There's going to be a cost associated with doing it, both internal and external costs.
But there's a lot of value that can be received.
Talk a little bit, Dick Miller, president of NVBDC, retired Brigadier General.
US Army, tell us a little bit about the benefits that members do get.
Well, the members, we do, well, for example, this Thursday we have what we call a jump
start.
And we have a number of corporations.
I mentioned all those corporations.
And we have a how to do business with these people.
And well, for example, Eli Lilly, they'll be on their corporate purchasing folks will
be on the line.
We typically end up about 40, 50 people that are on these webinars.
And they basically tell the company, young, they take the deep dive into how do you do
business with Eli Lilly?
We have a supplier portal.
You can do all these things.
And the people that show up to these webinars, the corporate purchasing people take the
time to talk to them, to help them and understand and help them with their process.
For example, capability statements, different things.
And we've been doing this for a couple of three years now.
It's free.
We just do it to be supportive.
Yeah, that's one of the things that things really great about NVBDC is they don't just
certify you, patch on the button and say good luck.
There's a whole method here for, hey, if you want to participate and you want to grow and
you want to seize maybe some opportunities outside the box, use the certification by
being with NVBDC on these networking and marketing opportunities.
Dick, if somebody is interested in either being a corporate sponsor or being a member
of NVBDC, what's the best way for them to get some information?
Just go out to our website, NVBDC.org.
And everything you need is there.
It is correct, yes.
And you can call in.
The staff is extremely helpful.
So don't be put off by the process.
I'd encourage our veteran radio listeners to dive in and see if it's something that
their company should do.
Dick, thanks for your time today to put a spotlight on NVBDC.org.
Well thank you for having me.
And we're all about serving our fellow veterans.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fawcone.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans.
And you can reach us at 800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio
shows.
By visiting us at veteransradio.org, that's veteransradio.org.
We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development
Council, NVBDC.org.
Legal Help for Veterans, a Veterans Disability Law Firm with a national practice before the
VA can help you on your claims and your appeals.
Preparations can be reached at legalhelpforveterans.com or 1-800-693-4800.
And PuroClean, a leader in property emergency services.
It's the paramedics of property damage, providing water damage remediation, flood water removal,
fire and smoke damage remediation, mold and biohazard cleanups.
You can reach them at puroclean.com or 800-775-7876.
We also want to thank our local sponsors.
This would include the Charles S. Kettles chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America,
that's chapter 310.
VFW, Graff O'Hara post 423, the American Legion, Irwin Preskin post 46 in Ann Arbor
as well, the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and certainly the National Vietnam Veterans
of America Association.
You can be a sponsor by going to veteransradio.org, clicking on the about us and our sponsors,
and help us out.
Keep this program alive for the 21 and 22 years.
Keep us going for another 20.
Thank you.