In taking the liberty of paraphrasing Alexander Hamilton, all corporations are citizens of the United States and must therefore be attendant to their civic responsibilities. With this in mind, corporate social responsibility should be regarded as a critical-agenda item in the strategic plans of all corporations. The inclusion of Minority and Women Business Enterprises (M/WBE's) into the supply chain of major corporations should be seen as a critical part of that strategy. Why? Because the tried-and-true process of inclusion is a proven way of leveling the playing field. No one argues that giving large contracts to major corporations is wrong. The argument is that the contracts are necessary because they create jobs, which is the fuel for our market-place.

The truth, however, is that most major corporations are in a perpetual state of contraction and the employment slack, picked up by the M/WBE's has kept out economy humming. If employment is the fuel for the economy then major corporations should be finding ways of partnering with M/WBE's and not the opposite. Nonetheless, the convergence of suppliers doing more business with fewer suppliers, which extolls the virtue of partnering with larger companies, can be the deathknell of small companies.

America needs small companies. It is in our genes. We are an entrepreneurial society that begins as a one-person show and grows to IBM and GM sizes. The small businesses cannot allow themselves to perish; they must be resilient and understand their sphere of influence by following the trends and doing what is necessary to grow. Sometimes they should follow the lead of the major corporations. M/WBE's, for example, must become eCommerece literate because it is now the way of doing business. They must look for opportunities for merging or for acquisitions because convergence of suppliers means less opportunity for small businesses.

Corporations must develop strategies for growing businesses within the minority communities. With exploding demographic growth, it makes sense for major corporations to partner with M/WBE's because they contribute discretionary incomes to buy the products of the major corporations and serve as the eyes and ears for the trends of the minority communities.

The actual dollars spent in these communities make up the success of many bottom lines. The value of corporate social responsibility is that it allows the corporation to meet its civic responsibility and support the marketing and ROI strategy of the company.

The minority business community on the other hand must take advantage of the important role it plays in the bottom-line success of the major companies. It must become knowledgeable about corporate social responsibility strategies, and be versatile in using the Internet as a business tool. There is a great role to be played by true entrepreneurs in and out of the minority communities.

Fitzroy Hilaire is director of Global Supplier Development at Avon Products Inc., and chairman of the Advisory Board of Directors for the council on Economic Priorities, an organization that supports supplier ethics. He can be reached at Fitzroy.Hilaire@avon.com