What is the Gazelle Index® Product?
The Gazelle Index product measures the capacity and performance of minority, small and diverse businesses and corporate suppliers. The Index is a product of EuQuant (pronounced U-Quant), an economic research company that specializes in data analytics and performance evaluations for businesses and organizations. EuQuant created the Index to fill the glaring gap in knowledge about the capacity and performance of minority and diverse suppliers. Www.gazelleindex.com has a special portal for EuQuant clients who subscribe to services provided by the Gazelle Index.
What is www.gazelleindex.com?
Www.GazelleIndex.com is EuQuant’s business blog that publishes some of our latest research findings from the index and independent research. The blog publishes time-sensitive information that is relevant to improving the performance of minority and diverse businesses and the quality of their communities. The blog is designed to help small, minority and diverse business owners succeed. The site’s content includes periodic surveys of CEOs, news and opinion articles on the state of the economy, strategic advice regarding how to operate businesses more effectively, and summaries of key research findings related to high-performing minority and small businesses.
Why focus on High Performing Businesses?
The Gazelle Index defines high-performing minority and small businesses as those with 10 to 100 employees. Businesses of that size comprise 4% of all small firms but employ 24% of all workers. They provide the majority of new jobs created in the economy. Furthermore, their performance is a leading indicator of future economic activity. CEOs of small businesses are not like the managers of Fortune 500 corporations. Rather than operating within the confines of CEO suites, they get involved in every aspect of business decision-making. As such, they are more attuned to changes in the direction of economic activity.
Why Focus on the Capacity of Minority and Diverse Businesses?
EuQuant has operated for almost 25 years, first as Boston Research Group and Starting in 2007 as EuQuant. During this time, the company heard clients repeatedly complain about their inability to find minority and diverse suppliers with the capacity to perform successfully as subcontractors and corporate suppliers. Capacity means the volume of work a company is capable of performing efficiently during a specified period. Many companies have created lists of diverse suppliers which include the industries in which they operate. However, EuQuant goes several steps beyond. The company uses a proprietary database of over one- half million businesses to measure the volume of work each firm is capable of performing and makes that information instantly available to the client through its website portal. The information allows organizations to match diverse suppliers with market opportunities efficiently, thereby reducing costs and increasing profitability.
Why should you care about the information provided at www.gazelleindex.com?
The majority of US jobs are in small businesses. Furthermore, the start-up high-growth small business sector is the only segment of the economy that creates more jobs than it eliminates. The site hopes to reduce unemployment and underemployment by improving the success of small and diverse businesses. Official government figures indicate that no matter how rapidly the economy grows, Blacks and Latinos still experience twice the amount of unemployment. Diverse businesses are more likely to create jobs targeted toward that segment.
Why Highlight Minority Businesses?
Most gazelle index readers are not aware that minority businesses comprise 29% of the nation’s 27 million small firms. Furthermore, their share of the small business sector is growing as fast as is the share of minority workers in the US economy. American public policy must focus more on the scale and capacity of minority and diverse businesses to maintain a high quality of life in the future.
Why are Women-owned and Minority-owned businesses becoming more or less important?
The number of Minority businesses increased by 600% over the last 15 years; women businesses increased by 200%, while nonminority-owned businesses increased by only 47%. Over the last five years, nonminority-owned businesses (i.e. those owned by whites) declined in absolute number, which means that diverse businesses are the key to America’s economic future.