Presentation at the first annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Conference at Alabama State University - Johnathan M. Holifield, Co-founder, Black Innovation and Competitiveness Initiative

1. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI
Johnathan M. Holifield
CEO, Black Innovation and Competitiveness Initiative
Johnathan@BlackInnovation.org
March 8, 2011
www.BlackInnovation.org

2. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Significance of this Moment and Place
Montgomery, Alabama
 At the close of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, the annual
commemoration of the Selma to Montgomery March and a
pilgrimage to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge . . .
 The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially started on December 1,
1955, was a seminal moment in Black America’s quest for
Constitutional Citizenship . . .
 First Annual Alabama State University-HBCU Conference started
on March 7, 2011, is a seminal moment in Black America’s quest
for Equity Citizenship!

3. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Where we are: New Narrative
Innovation Economy: The economic period of the late 20th and early 21st
centuries marked by radical socioeconomic changes brought about by the
further globalization of commerce, democratization of information,
exponential growth of entrepreneurship and acceleration of new
knowledge creation.
Constitutional Citizenship: Citizens of the United States by birthright, as
enshrined in the Constitution. Constitutional citizens are full and equal
American citizens under law, but they do not have much, if any,
underlying ownership interests in the nation and do not share in the best
national opportunities.
Equity Citizenship: Citizens of the United States who are partners and
have meaningful ownership interests in the nation. Equity citizens are
entitled and able to access an equitable proportion of America’s best
opportunities to achieve economic prosperity.

4. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI: What is it?
The Black Innovation and Competitiveness Initiative (BICI), is a
national startup not-for-profit corporation providing an online
community platform and a wide range of intermediary advocacy
and advisory services to governments, communities,
organizations, education institutions and businesses, designed to
aggressively address the innovation and competitiveness crisis in
Black America.

5. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI Mission Statement
The Black Innovation and Competitiveness Initiative is an open,
collaborative and innovative platform that fosters solutions-based
approaches to 21st century community economic development.
Supported by three essential pillars of innovation — education, capital
and entrepreneurship — the BICI strategy seeks to leverage existing
assets within Black American communities to create new opportunities
and ensure competitiveness in the global Innovation Economy.
The BICI will facilitate a new narrative to inspire free exchange of
innovative ideas among community, business, government and
education leaders, students and entrepreneurs, with a goal of
achieving exponentially greater economic growth and prosperity
throughout Black America.

6. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI:
The Crisis

7. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Funding 2010
%
Black-owned tech businesses received just 1% of
angel and venture capital funding compared to:
12% for Asians and 87% for Whites.
source CB Insights Report 2010

8. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BLACK AMERICA GDP
$137.4B
% $14T
Black America produced
LESS THAN ONE PERCENT
of the total U.S. GDP in 2010.
Source: U.S. Census based on 2007 data

9. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
TOTAL ACADEMIC R&D AT HBCUs
$448M % $52B
Total academic research and
development expenditures in 2008
were $52 billion, of which
$448 million, or 0.9%, were expended
by HBCUs.
Source: NSF WebCASPAR, Last accessed December 2009

10. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
FEDERAL R&D SUPPORT AT HBCUs
$336M % $31B
Federal funding sources accounted for
$31 billion of academic research and
development expenditures.
Of that amount, HBCUs expended $336
million, or 1.2%.
Source: NSF WebCASPAR, Last accessed December 2009

11. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
CARNEGIE FOUNDATION RANKINGS
1 HBCU 205 INSTITUTIONS
In 2010, there were 205 institutions ranked by the
Carnegie Foundation as “high research activity” and
“very high research activity.” Of those 205
institutions, only one (1) HBCU is ranked.
Source: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

12. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Average Annual Sales 2010
$439K
White Business: $439,579
$74K
Black Business: $74,018
Firms with number of employees (thousands)
Total Firms None 1 - 4 5-9 10-19 20-49 50-99 100-499 500+
Black 95 19 47 14 7 4 1 1 <
Women 917 161 462 149 83 43 11 7 1
Hispanic 200 37 100 31 18 9 3 1 <
Asian 319 54 161 55 30 15 3 2 <
< symbol means less than 500 firms
Source: U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners 2002

13. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Black
Percentage of Black-to-White Wealth since 1970 Wealth
As percentage
of White wealth
1970
25%
2007
6%
In 1970 (in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement) the median Black
family's net worth was one-fourth (25 percent) that of the median
White family. By 1980 the ratio had fallen to 15 percent. By 1990 it had
fallen to twelve percent, by 2004 to nine percent, and the latest
measure (2007) is at six percent.
U.S. Black/White Net Worth Gap

14. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Income and Earnings
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, in 2006, the average
Black American household annually earned $18,700 less than
the average White American household. That means that Black
American households earned 268,477,216,000 billion dollars –
that’s billion with a “B” – less than our White American
counterparts
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006
In other words, today, if Black American households were keeping pace
with White American households – not exceeding, but simply keeping pace
– then our households would be nearly $300 billion wealthier!
$300,000,000,000

15. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Median Wealth
White women in their prime working years of
$42,600 $5 ages 36-49 have a median wealth of $42,600.
(61% of their white male counterparts).
5
The median wealth for Black women is only $5.
$
Survey of Consumer Finances (2007; before the economic collapse)
Overall Median Wealth
Black $2,100
White $94,400
Economic Policy Institute Report: State of Working America 2009

16. 47%
Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
U.S. High School graduation rate for Black Males
New York = 25% (In New York alone, more than 100,000
Black males do not graduate high school each year.)
Overall, more than 1.3 million students
in the U.S. fail to earn high school diplomas each
year.
(source: Schott Report 2008)
(source: Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, June 2010)
47% overall college graduation rate for Black students
36% Black males

17. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Adult:
16%
Youth:
45%

18. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI:
New
Opportunity

19. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
7%
“All entrepreneurial activity is
important, but high-growth
entrepreneurial activity is Less than 7 percent
70%
particularly so.” of startups will
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report 2007 produce more than
70% of new jobs.
(GEM Report 2007)
United States:
STARTUPS
Between 1980 and 2005, virtually all new
jobs were created by firms 5 years or
younger. Roughly 40 million jobs.
Kauffman Foundation
Entrepreneurial Activity
Worldwide: 12.3%

20. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
70% FASTER
Fueling Entrepreneurial Growth
STEM fields employment expected to grow 70% faster than non-STEM fields.
Federal investment in R&D: $373B in 2007; $398B in 2008
Currently 2.7% of GDP with a goal of 3%.
Small businesses perform 19% of the nation’s R&D ($55B)
Universities received $51B in R&D funding in 2010.
(source: Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! Speech to President's Entrepreneur Summit, April 2010)

21. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
High-Growth Entrepreneurship
Despite their relatively small numbers, these entrepreneurs nonetheless account for
a disproportionate share of job and wealth creation. For example:
 In any given year, the top-performing 1 percent of firms generates roughly 40
percent of new job creation.
 Fast-growing young firms, comprising less than 1 percent of all companies,
generate roughly 10 percent of new jobs in any given year.
To succeed, HGEs require access to leadership/management talent, risk and
growth capital, clusters of peer networks and a robust infrastructure of service
providers and institutional/governmental support.
Source: Kauffman Foundation Research Series: Firm Formation and Economic Growth, High-Growth Firms and the Future of the American
1% 40%
Economy, March 2010
=
Of firms Of new job creation

22. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI:
How do we
connect?

23. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI:
Easy –
Public/Private
Relationships

24. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI:
More difficult –
Demands of the
Innovation Economy

25. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI: Innovation Economy Demands
• New kind of leaders
• New kind of leadership organizations
• New kind of leadership movement

26. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI: Innovation Economy Demands
Trim Tab
Effect

27. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI: Meeting Innovation Economy Demands
Trim Tabbers: Persons whose capabilities provide the exponentially
higher leverage leadership needed to turn a matter of importance in the
desired direction. Their actions significantly increase the achievement
potential of the group, considerably enhancing the probability of mission
success.
Trim Tab Organizations: Entities that have an operational approach to
mission impact based on aggregating key resources, organizing those
resources into actionable, collaborative forms and highly leveraging
them to achieve exponential impact, rather than incremental outcomes.
Trim Tab Movement: A series of high-leverage, organized actions and
events that are of national or global scale, yet local in implementation
and impact, which take place over an extended period of time, working
toward the single objective of exponential progress and advancement.

28. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI Can Help
• HBCUs
• Local/City/County Governments
• Economic/Community
Development Organizations
To develop and implement
strategic plans to connect to the
Innovation Economy

29. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI Summit BICI Expo
We will convene stakeholders in Black We will invite demonstrations of best
America to address important questions practices, innovations and competitive ideas
pertaining to three core community pillars. for networking and funding opportunities.
OPPORTUNITY
Partnerships:
Media
Corporate
Government
Educators
Incubators / Accelerators
Capital Investors

30. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
BICI Needs You . . .
• Go to www.BlackInnovation.org and join the Innovation Nation
• Make sure I have your business card
• Join the effort to advance a coalition of HBCUs in the Innovation
Economy
• Join our growing network of sponsors (Summit and Expo)
• Help us proliferate awareness and engagement
• Become a Trim Tab institution or individual resource
• Help catalyze Trim Tab Movement for 21st century, Equity
Citizenship

31. Black Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative
Johnathan Holifield, CEO
Founder, Trim Tab System, LLC
Innovation Economy Executive: Established CincyTechUSA, leading regional technology and innovation organization
15+ years economic development, legal, governmental and nonprofit executive leadership experience
Created 21st Century public high schools focused on technology
Designed community benefits strategies for projects totaling $1.5 billion
Economic Development Institute Leader
Athlete, civil rights lawyer and civic entrepreneur
Chad Womack, Ph.D., COO Mike Green, CIO
Founder, President, Chair TBED21.org Award-winning reporter, columnist, editor
Technology Based Economic Development for the 14 years media experience
21st Century New York Times Leadership Academy Fellow
Founder, Philadelphia Biotechnology and Life CNN.com training
Sciences Institute
Dow Jones: Led award-winning online community
Co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer, NanoVec, Inc. engagement projects for Dow Jones Local Media Group
Co-Founder, President, Chair National Association
Huffington Post blogger
for Blacks in Bio (NABB)
CEO of Internet innovation startup, Vizitnow3D
Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Howard
University College of Medicine
Research Fellow:
National Institute of Health (NIH) Contact BICI
National Institute for Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (Senior Fellow) info@BlackInnovation.org
Harvard AIDS Institute (International Research)