Mellody Hobson's Project Black is boosting minority executives; overcoming interview anxiety; and more

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This week, we’re looking at Mellody Hobson’s Project Black initiative, which invests in minority-owned, middle-market companies to help them sell to large corporations working to diversify their supply chains. Then, we dive into the era of the digital pink slip, and explore strategies for overcoming job interview anxiety.?

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Success Story of the Week:?

Wall Street’s Most Connected Black Woman Has An Ingenious Idea To Narrow The Wealth Gap

To boost more talented minority executives into the corporate stratosphere, Ariel Investments’ Mellody Hobson wants to install them at the top of existing businesses—and connect them with the customers and capital to succeed.

Hobson, the 53-year-old co-CEO and president of the firm, is making it all happen through Project Black, a private equity fund that invests in middle-market companies and provides them with capital—and, more crucially, the contacts—needed to sell to large corporations eager to diversify their supply chains. Spearheaded with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the initiative looks to help minority-owned businesses grow large enough to become suppliers to the Walmarts of the world. While Black entrepreneurs start lots of businesses, out of roughly 500 private companies in the U.S. with more than $1 billion a year in sales, just five are Black-owned.

In her words: “When people talk about Black businesses, they talk about access to capital, access to capital, access to capital,” Hobson says. “Access to customers may be more important.” Currently, a meager 2% of corporate spending goes to minority-owned suppliers.

Success Edge: Project Black aims to bridge that gap by acquiring companies with $100 million to $1 billion in sales and, if they’re not already minority-run, installing Black and Latino executives to manage them—“minoritizing” the companies, as Hobson puts it. That positions firms to acquire smaller enterprises owned by underrepresented minorities and to grow into competitive top-tier suppliers—satisfying big companies’ supply chain needs and diversity goals at the same time.

Ariel closed its first Project Black fund with $1.45 billion in commitments from AmerisourceBergen, Amgen, Lowe’s, Merck, NextEra, Nuveen, Salesforce, Synchrony, Truist, Walmart, the Qatar Investment Authority, Hobson’s family foundation and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who put $200 million in. That sum is more than five times the size of the average first-time private equity fund.

Project Black made its first investment last year, acquiring 52.5% of Utah-based Sorenson Communications from other private equity investors at an enterprise value of $1.3 billion. In less than 12 months, the company has gone from one person of color to 13 across its C-suite and boardroom. In the coming years, Project Black plans to similarly buy, minoritize and expand companies in up to 10 other areas where it sees room for growth, such as financial and professional services, health care, technology, manufacturing and logistics.

Read the full story here.?

Tips and Strategies:

Forget Zoom Layoffs. Job Cuts By Email Are Tech’s Latest Digital Pink Slip

Welcome to the era of companies notifying workers they’ve been laid off—via email. Recruiting, outplacement and employment experts are seeing a spike in the practice particularly in tech, led by giants like Alphabet, Twitter, Meta and Salesforce.?

It might boil down to companies trying to communicate with an increasingly remote, global staff, or a lack of human resources employees available to manage layoff discussions. Still, many experts say that emailed layoff notifications aren’t the way to go, labeling them impersonal and detached at best, or even “heartless.”?

Read the full story here.?

How To Overcome Interview Stress And Anxiety

Job interview jitters are perfectly normal and to be expected. To soothe them as much as possible before the big chat, conduct ample research on your potential new employer. Get a feel for its people, management, online reputation, products and services. Do you have anything in common with your interviewers, such as education or work history? Shared connections could help you break the ice.

Take a moment to polish up your LinkedIn profile and social media pages. And ultimately remember, interviewing is a numbers game. The more interviews you have, the greater your chances of hitting it off with the hiring manager and other decision makers.

Read the full story here.

More:

• Your Quick Guide To Tax Refunds In 2023
• A New ‘Flex Index’ Is Collecting Companies’ Remote Work Policies In One Searchable Tool
• Engaged & Exhausted: The Burnout Profile Leaders Need To Monitor

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Thank you for reading! We'll be back next Tuesday morning with another Forbes Edge.?

Forbes Edge is curated and written by Forbes Staff Writer Laura Smythe.