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Welcome to Mosaic Xpressions first edition! Welcome to the first edition of Mosiac Xpressions, the quarterly newsletter brought to you by ASG Renaissance. ASG Renaissance is a minority and woman-owned professional services firm specializing in Human Capital, Consulting and Marketing. We are proud to present today’s most diverse issues and events in business and media. Although Mosaic Xpressions has been created with the business community in mind, be on the lookout for topics the entire family can enjoy! Sincerely,
By Lizabeth Ardisana I try not to have opinions about reality television. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but more of a general principal grounded by common sense. However, CBS’s decision to segregate the “tribes” of “Survivor: Cook Islands” by race and ethnicity this season is hard to ignore. And for CBS, that was probably the point. Has CBS created must see television? "We won’t know until after November sweeps when the networks measure their audience size, but it’s already been rejected by television’s most important audience: advertisers." Last month, General Motors decided to end its sponsorship of CBS’s hit series “Survivor.” The world’s largest automaker said that the decision had nothing to do with the reality show’s controversial decision to divide contestants into four racial and ethnic groups – white, black, Asian and Hispanic. GM’s announcement, which the company claims was coincidence and not related to the controversy, was quickly followed by similar announcements from three other major sponsors: Coca-Cola, Home Depot and Campbell’s Soup. These advertisers know that success in a multicultural marketplace means accepting and embracing diversity rather than segregating and pitting groups against each other. The show’s Jeff Probst defends the decision and said that the idea came from criticism that the show was not ethically diverse enough. “We’re criticized for ‘Survivor’ being, basically, a white show,” said Probst in an interview with Associated Press. “The truth is 80 percent of the people that apply are white. And television in general is white. We said ‘Is it possible to bring more ethnic diversity to this show?’ “One thing we were cognizant of in casting the show, we weren’t looking to put white supremacist on with a member of the NAACP.” The problem with CBS’s decision is that with reality shows there’s always unspoken and sometimes spoken racial tension. This season, the show will pit races against each other in ways that we have not seen before. Given television's propensity to follow the leader and raise – or lower – the bar to achieve ratings, doesn’t this start us down the slippery slope that ends with Jeff Probst’s nightmare scenario or worst?
Mosaic Advantage
U.S. Media Relations ASG Renaissance provided some media relations muscle to promote JCB’s diesel land speed record breaking program. When ASG began working with JCB, we were faced with a unique and exciting challenge: How to promote a diesel land speed record attempt by a company that had nearly zero public awareness in the U.S? JCB is the fifth largest manufacturer of construction equipment in the world with 17 manufacturing plants on four continents. It’s such a popular brand in the UK that residents often use the term “JCB” as a substitute for backhoe loader in the same way Americans use Kleenex for tissue or Band-Aid for an adhesive bandage. In the U.S. however, its entire U.S.-based manufacturing and sales operation is smaller than the sales operation of the regional Caterpillar dealership. Therefore, educating journalists about JCB was the first key to success. We started the education process as soon as the program was announced in April. The timing, immediately following the New York Auto Show and while many people were on Easter break, wasn’t optimum, but we worked with the hand we were dealt. We immediately sent out press kits, press releases and began calling radio and television programs. The second challenge we faced was the Britishness of team and the attempt. Selling a diesel land speed record, where at best we would still be hundreds of miles per hour slower than any jet driven land speed racer, is difficult enough. But when the car, the driver, the team and the company behind it are all British, it becomes incrementally more difficult. While those of us in the U.S. were trying to downplay the fact that this was a British attempt, we weren’t getting much help from the team, which painted the Union Jack on the tail fin of the car and talked about how setting the diesel land speed record would be a “great British achievement.” It amazes me that a company that sells products all over the world and has 7 manufacturing plants outside of the U.K., doesn’t see that people in China, Germany, Brazil or the U.S. wouldn’t be as excited to celebrate a great British achievement as they are. It was a lesson learned for me and should be for other companies seeking publicity that do business overseas – be respectful of the audience you are trying to reach. We left the great British achievement out of our press releases and media alerts and rewrote releases for American ears, changing liters to gallons and “bespoke’s” to “modified’s”. In fact, we didn’t use the driver’s correct title “Wing Commander Andy Green” until we were several months into the program, when we thought people would be comfortable with the Royal Air Force title. In the end, we found that persistence pays off. As a result of a nearly continuous PR barrage, we achieved some significant media placements including: ABC News, CNN, ESPN, Discover Channel, Speed Channel, National Geographic, Associated Press, New York Times, Popular Science, Wired magazine, Hot Rod Magazine, Motor Trend, Automobile Magazine, and Diesel Power magazine among others.
In the summer of 2006, ASG Renaissance began using the Red Condor Message Assurance Gateway (MAG) email security system. Red Condor is a Managed Service Provider of comprehensive email security solutions that eliminate spam, viruses, spyware, phishing schemes, and offensive content – dynamic, living threats to an organization’s security and productivity. “Since the installation of Red Condor, ASG Renaissance staff has seen a marked improvement in their email experience,” commented Josh Matta, ASG Renaissance IT Services. “The quantity of spam and junk mail is dramatically reduced, email delivery time is shorter and more consistent, and our staff is able to manage their mail accounts much more efficiently because they are not being barraged by spam night and day. We feel we have regained control of our email system after installing Red Condor.” Several anti-spam/anti-virus products were reviewed prior to selecting Red Condor. Ultimately, it was Red Condor’s combination of security, service, and simplicity that were the deciding factors. The Red Condor Message Assurance Gateway delivers high-performance, comprehensive email security backed by 24x7x365 managed service. “We were interested in the Zero AdministrationTM capability of the Red Condor system,” added Josh. “We were constantly watching for spam on our previous solution and having to devise ways to keep it from coming through. We were spending hours a week fighting spam. Red Condor’s Zero Administration assures that someone else is implementing spam/virus prevention best practices on ASG’s mail stream.”
“The phenomenal support we have received has been the high point in our Red Condor experience.”
Josh Matta How it Works The Red Condor Message Assurance Gateway is a perimeter defense system that filters incoming email before it reaches the domain mail servers. Red Condor’s Adaptive Threat DetectionTM technology provides real-time behavior-based perimeter defense against distributed denial of service (DDoS) and dictionary harvest attacks (DHA) that does not impact the transfer of legitimate email. Unlike traditional solutions that rely on black lists, rate-limiters, and other brute-force methods to protect the domain from service attacks, the Red Condor solution gathers real-time awareness of spam campaigns and implements a feedback driven response appropriate to the abusiveness of the attack. Once an email message is accepted by the perimeter defense layer, it is passed to the Red Condor Message Analysis Engine – proprietary computational technology influenced by Human-in-the-Loop analysis that provides dynamic and successive filtering until the message intent is clear. Two independent virus filter engines are used, as well as a judicious use of many filters and defense techniques that collectively block malicious and fraudulent email with near certainty. This unique application of fraud message filters result in near-zero false positives, and does not require initial filter training or ongoing tuning. Mailbox owners do not need to report spam or develop individual rules. The spam problem simply disappears. For more information on the Red Condor Message Assurance Gateway, please contact jmatta@asgren.com, or call 248-477-5020.
Leverage Diversity with Mosaic Advantage Many organizations find it difficult to locate minority firms for their specific business needs. Mosaic Advantage helps to facilitate the search and selection process. All network suppliers are pre-qualified, certified and provide best in class services. So, whether you are a minority firm interested in joining Mosaic Advantage or you have sourcing needs for best in class services, contact us today at (313) 565-4700 or visit our website at: www.mosaicadvantage.net
DIR’s 11th Annual Best Practices Seminar Diversity professionals from across the country gathered in New York City at Ernst & Young headquarters on August 9th & 10th 2006 to share best practices in Supplier Diversity at Diversity Information Resources (DIR) 11th annual seminar. The presenter and participant roster was reflective of some of the nation’s top companies, including PepsiCo, Raytheon, IBM, DaimlerChrysler, Kraft Foods, Target, Shell Oil, Merck & Co and the National Football League just to name a few. The two-day seminar agenda was overflowing with strategies and initiatives to address Diversity Program Development and Management in regard to government and non-government contracting, second tier programs, strategic alliances, networking, and resources. Of particular importance was the need for diversity professionals to be on target when developing the business case for diversity program management. A networking reception capped off the first day of the seminar, which added value for the participants. The seminar also presented valuable assessment techniques to help companies determine their level of the program development and how to raise the bar. I found the content and networking opportunities of this seminar very rewarding. I look forward to next year’s format! 2006 Hispanic Business Alliance This was my first year attending the HBA Business Expo at the Detroit Marriot Renaissance Center. I am certain that by all accounts, it was a big success. From corporate sponsors, the business community, public/private enterprise and the general public, the event was well attended, informative, inspiring, and entertaining. The networking opportunities were certainly available and all participants were engaging and receptive, especially to a newcomer like me. Muchas gracias y nos veemos el proximo ano. Toni K. Walton
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email: mosaic@asgren.com
phone: 313-565-4700
web: www.mosaicadvantage.com
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