Can The Canadian Black Community Rise Without Permanent Institutions, Consortiums, Think Tanks, and Initial Product Offerings (IPOs)?

This paper briefly explores the question above, starting with the word ‘rise.’ Rise is not a passive term but an active one, signifying the transition from a lower to a higher state of being. It denotes the act of assuming one’s rightful place in society, a position earned through purposeful contribution to society’s progress. More importantly, it signifies the recognition of one’s sovereignty and autonomy as people of a nation. But what does it mean for a nation or the Black community to ‘rise?’ First, there are three perspectives to contemplate regarding the word ‘rise’ as follows:

1. Rise of the Individual
2. Rise of the Community
3. Rise of the Nation

To ‘rise’ is a trichotomy (individual, community, nation). However, the criteria are the same, punctuated by the following twelve words that underpin the condition to rise:

Spirituality	Vision	Enlightenment	Empathy	Purpose	Cooperation
Education	Career	Business	Health	Investment	Wealth

Each word put into action has the potential to cause us to grow, implement, and sustain permanent institutions, consortiums, and ‘think tanks’ and release initial product offerings (IPOs). But what institutions engender stability to support Black ‘rise?’

WHAT ARE INSTITUTIONS?

Institutions are the principal foundations for solving complex problems requiring institutionalizing a solution – building and maintaining institutions. For instance, traffic lights are instrumental in the orderly flow of traffic. Similarly, schools, colleges, and universities are pivotal in the growth of education, thereby elevating the status of the general citizenry. Furthermore, banking institutions regulate financial transactions. Therefore, if we are to empower the Black community, it is not just crucial, but it is of utmost importance to establish, nurture, and sustain some critical Black institutions. The urgency of this task cannot be overstated, as the empowerment of the Black community rise is a matter of great importance for our society.

Informed Black leaders articulate the need for Black institutions, but why are these institutions necessary, and are they fundamentally different from the general institutions in society? This is an important question because many studies point to Blacks as being underserved by institutional exclusion. But can Black institutions function parallel or integrated within the more prominent societies’ institutional ecosystems?

We must attempt to answer these foundational questions before we set out to build Black institutions. Moreover, can these institutions self-regulate or function outside the nations’ rules within Federal, Provincial, and Municipal jurisdictions? From a generic perspective, institutions are human constructs underpinned by a structure of policies, regulations, guidelines to help influence people’s behavior.

Most, if not all, societies have built their foundation upon a standard set of crucial institutions such as these seven institutions:

1. Marriage
2. Family
3. Religion
4. Government
5. Education
6. Business
7. Economy

Homogeneous[1] societies have their challenges, but they also present a significant opportunity to establish institutions that serve their populations, united by shared cultural and social norms, hopes, needs, and aspirations. In our postmodern era, the diversity of cultures blends into a ‘melting pot’ with a veneer of ‘culture synthesis.’ However, the dominant culture often dictates the agenda, which may not always benefit all cultures; hence, Blacks must consider one of three pathways to empowerment as follows:

1. Work to help influence the majority institutional mindset
2. Work to build and integrate parallel Black institutions
3. Work to achieve the two objectives (1 and 2) concurrently

This paper presents the Black community rise with these three pathways for contemplation, viewed from a Western European perspective. These choices are difficult because the Black community is a diverse, non-autonomous cultural body of individuals with a complex mixture of cultural expressions—needs, wants, and emergencies. However, the more significant challenges to Black ‘rise’ are lack of vision, capital, and cooperation. We must address these challenges. Hence, Blacks need to explore the importance of wide-ranging consortiums, but we must act with a sense of urgency.

WHAT IS A CONSORTIUM?

Merriam-Webster’s definition is “an agreement, combination, or group (as of companies [partnership]) formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member.” The word is Latin, derived from “con” (together) and “sors” (fate). From a Black community’s perspective, the takeaway from his definition is: “a group formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member.”

Following are fifteen potential advantages and benefits to forming consortiums:

1. Pooling of financial resources
2. Enhancing cooperation
3. Levering of human potential
4. Sharing of technological expertise
5. Greater access to capital financing
6. Sharing of physical infrastructure
7. Maximizing consultancy potential
8. Breaking through the procurement ceiling
9. Higher purchasing capacity
10. Operating cost reduction
11. Expanding geographic reach
12. Increasing of market share
13. Higher potential for growth
14. Leveraging negotiating power
15. Enhancing business credibility

Although a consortium’s fifteen potential advantages and benefits argue in favor of its development, it is crucial to understand the nature of the following seven disadvantages. Consortium partners must strive to manage the successful functioning of the various consortiums (enterprises) as follows:

1. Dominant leadership aspirations
2. Miss-alignment of expectations
3. Enterprise leadership interests
4. Inequitable profit sharing
5. Conflicting leadership interests
6. Staying true to the vision and mission
7. Miss-alignment of accountabilities and responsibilities

Private and public researchers of Black data point to the following eleven shortcomings in the growth of Black businesses, consistently lacking in the following areas of Black empowerment:

1. Corporate vision
2. Capital financing
3. Access to capital
4. Digital infrastructure
5. Physical infrastructure
6. Purchasing power
7. Business feasibility
8. Business acumen
9. Partnership trust
10. Market analysis
11. Procurement capacity

Consortiums should be a top priority for every entrepreneur and seasoned businessperson, as they offer the potential to build capacity and seize business opportunities from a Black empowerment perspective. However, addressing all the areas highlighted in the listings above is crucial. The Black community should recognize the vital role of ‘think tanks’ in rapidly devising solutions to our array of challenges, paving the way for our ‘rise.’

WHAT IS A THINK TANK?

The term think tank was first used in military jargon during World War II to describe a safe place where plans and strategies could be discussed. However, its meaning began to change during the 1960s when it came to be used in the United States to describe private non-profit policy research organizations. It has been proposed that the first think tank was the socialist Fabian Society, founded in Great Britain in the late 19^th century, which sought to influence the country’s public policy.^[2]

FAS.research says that the image shows a selection of US think tanks and their affiliated institutions. Red represents conservative think tanks and their affiliates. Blue represents liberal think tanks and their affiliates. Purple indicates that the institution is linked to both conservative and liberal think tanks.

The critical role of ‘think tanks’ is to provide research-based evidence and information to demonstrate (business and project) feasibility, viability, and practicability to engender high-level policy and decision-making. They research and advocate for private and public organizations from a comprehensive range of perspectives, including social, educational, technological, economic, cultural, military, community, and political. This comprehensive approach ensures that all aspects of a problem are considered, leading to well-informed policies and decisions. They also conduct seminars, conferences, and academic exchanges, write policies, and help advance interest groups’ causes.

The importance of ‘think tanks’ to the social and economic growth and civil societies is punctuated by the 2000 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report.[3] Additionally, researchers point to the top five countries with the highest number of think tanks included in the database are the United States (452 organisations, 15% of the database), China (188, 6%), Germany (184, 6%), United Kingdom (150, 5%) and France (99, 3%). Likewise, is a compilation of some of the think tanks currently operating in Canada to give you an idea of the range of organizations that can fall under this category.[4]

The ‘think tanks’ funding source comes from public and private donors. From a perspective of Black empowerment, ‘think tanks’ are critical to the growth and functioning of the Black community rise. One could argue further that ‘think tanks’ are the first essentials for the “rise” and empowerment of the Black community because the solution to every significant problem ‘must’ begin with defining the problem and gathering the relevant data to identify the various elements of the problem—a critical role of the ‘think tank’ ‘big thinkers,’ visionaries, and strategists, at the top of the Hierarchical Leadership Pyramid (HLP).

Think tanks are general autonomous bodies centrally focused on solutions to the problem(s) of the enterprise. Unfortunately, Blacks are missing out on opportunities to build wealth within the Black community by not deploying ‘think tanks’ as force multipliers to solve problems. A suggested strategy could be to commission “think tanks,” within the Black Economic Ecosystem (BEE) to research, investigate, and provide guidance on five respective fields delineated herein for wealth creation as follows:

1. Public and Private Procurement Integration
2. Public and Private Supplier Chain Integration
3. Graduate and Entrepreneurship Corporate Integration
4. Stock Market Investment Integration
5. Initial Product Offering IPOs[5]

It is important to note that these five wealth-building initiatives are not exclusive to a select few. They can benefit everyone within the Black community, including individuals, entrepreneurs, seasoned business persons, groups, and family foundations. When combined with other investment strategies such as personal and business insurance, real estate, ownership of copyrights, patents, trademarks, and industrial designs, can be powerful tools for Black empowerment. More importantly, the five strategies enable Black individuals, entrepreneurs, and seasoned businesspeople to raise capital financing for their business endeavors.

WHAT IS THE STOCK MARKET?

Researchers define the stock market as a network of stock exchanges where traders and investors buy and sell shares of publicly traded companies. Private companies list shares of their stock on an exchange through a process called an initial public offering (IPO). Referred to as a stock market, equity market, or share market is referred to as the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks, which represent ownership claims on businesses, as public shareholders, those with major and minor shares in companies—including securities listed on a public stock exchange. 

The stock market is a significant sector of the investment portfolio of many sophisticated investors, making them wealthy individuals. For instance:

What would $10,000 invested in Apple in 1997 be worth today?

Jake Lerch (Apple): A relatively modest investment of $10,000 in Apple when Steve Jobs returned to the company in February 1997 would have grown to more than $14 million today. AAPL total return level data by YCharts. Most of that astonishing return can be chalked up to the iPhone.Oct 8, 2023.

Conversely, many other individuals consider the stock market too unfamiliar and risky to navigate. The Black community rightly exhibits caution entering the stock market without investment knowledge or guidance. But the opportunity to release products on the national and international stock market as IPOs has tremendous benefits for innovators and creative minds. Moreover, stock ownership has additional benefits such as:

• Access to companies globally
• Building a diversified portfolio
• A hedge against inflation
• Minimizing taxes
• Building a nest egg for retirement

Finally: on a cautionary note, not all IPOs are successful. For instance, wrong pricing before the offering, unclear market price, unavailable company operating history, market competitiveness, and unproven long-term viability can discourage investors from investing in the IPO.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dunn, Pierre, Barnett & Company Canada Ltd
First Canadian Place
100 King Street West
Suite 5700, Toronto, ON
M5X 1C7, CANADA
Cell: 647-966-4783  Fax: 416.915.4260
Email: jpierre@dpbglobal.com 
Email: cjustinepierre@gmail.com  
Website: http://www.dpbglobal.com

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Footnotes:

[1] “Homogeneous.” Vocabulary.com Dictionary, Vocabulary.com (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/homogeneous. Accessed 26 Jul. 2024).

[2] Britannica: Think Tank: ORIGINS: Stella Ladi, Senior lecturer in Public Management, Queen Mary University of London, England. Her contributions to SAGE Publications’ International Encyclopedia of Political Science (2011) formed the basis of her contributions to Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/topic/think-tank/additional-info#history).

[3] Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP) © 2021, Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania

(https://www.bruegel.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-Global-Go-To-Think-Tank-Index-Report_Bruegel.pdf).

[4] Canadian Think Tanks:  https://www.mcgill.ca/caps/files/caps/guide_canadianthinktanks.pdf

[5] IPOs: The first modern IPO took place on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in March 1602, when the Dutch East India Company sold shares of the company to the public, making it the first ‘public’ company (sometimes referred to as a ‘listed’ company) (https://dealroom.net/blog/biggest-ipos-of-all-time).