Janice Bryant Howroyd: The First African-American Woman Billion Dollar Company Founder (Episode # 466)

According to American Express, Black women start businesses at six times the national average. Black women also hold more advanced degrees than any other group of women. In this episode, Dr. Karen celebrates the life and journey of Janice Bryant Howroyd, a remarkable and inspirational African-American woman who was the first to create and operate a multi-billion-dollar company.

Janice Bryant Howroyd’s parents raised her with the admonition to “Turn challenges into opportunities.” Her lifelong personal motto is “Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally.”

Dr. Karen shares the amazing life and accomplishments of this great innovator, and she summarizes 10 leadership lessons we can all embrace.

Go to actonegroup.com to learn more about Janice Bryant Howroyd’s company

The post Janice Bryant Howroyd: The First African-American Woman Billion Dollar Company Founder (Episode # 466) first appeared on TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC®.

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Janice Bryant Howroyd: The First African-American Woman Billion Dollar Company Founder

Introducing Janice Bryant Howroyd

According to American Express, Black women are starting businesses at six times the national average, and even in spite of the challenges that Black women face the double whammy of being Black and also being women they have unique abilities. They have unique experiences to share with others, and that includes the perseverance that it takes to be successful.

Some of the issues that people of color face in general include a lack of startup capital for their businesses. It is very difficult to get bank loans and to get the resources that are necessary because of both racial and gender discrimination, especially in the finance and tech sectors. Nevertheless, Black women are some of the most educated groups of women out there in terms of the number and percentage of undergraduate degrees.

I want to talk about a particular Black woman who is exceptionally successful, and her name is Janice Bryant Howroyd. She is the first Black woman to own a $1 billion company, and that’s a multi-billion-dollar company. It is the largest privately held minority woman-owned personnel company founded in the United States. Imagine that privately held as well.

Janice’s Humble Beginnings In Beverly Hills

You might wonder, how did she start this business, and how did she grow it to over $1 billion? That’s what we are going to talk about a little bit about her story and how she made it happen. In 1978, she started a small office in Beverly Hills, California, a long way from her state of origin, which was North Carolina. She went out to California to do some work as an executive assistant, essentially for her brother-in-law, who worked for Billboard Magazine. While she was there, he introduced her to lots of executives, celebrity people, and other partners who would be wonderful for her to know for what she ultimately would start.

One of the things she did was she noticed that even at Billboard, it was challenging to find the right talent and to get that talent working in the way they needed to work. Seeing this, she saw an opportunity and a way that she could make a difference in employment, and that’s when she launched her staffing agency. She wanted to help her brother-in-law’s company be more successful.

He was the first client. As she worked with him and got success, she reached out to other people and got more clients. She ended up at some point having clients such as the Ford Motor Company and also other companies of a similar genre like Toyota. She worked in telecommunications, energy companies, and some of the top ones as well. What she noticed and how she made this all work was that she would look around and find out what her clients needed next. Whatever they needed next, she would end up creating it. That’s why her company is called ActOne Group because it is a constellation of many companies that have been put together.

Over time, she’s had companies like AgileOne, which focuses on management solutions that businesses need. She has a staffing company called AppleOne, and she has A-Check, which is a company that does background checks for personnel. She noticed that her clients needed to have background checks and to create a secure environment.

One of her secrets to success and one of her success factors is making the candidates, the applicants, the focus of her attention. These are the ones who are looking for the jobs, looking for the postings, and her objective is to bring great people together with great companies so that they can make their magic together. In focusing on the applicant, one of the things she did, which was different from a lot of staffing companies at the time, was that she trained her applicants to meet the employer’s expectations and to become and be a better fit. She said, “We can teach that. We could teach them how to be a better fit.”

People have to come to work with the right attitude. The rest can be taught and trained. Click To Tweet

What she’s looking for in the search, however, is the right attitude. People have to come with the right attitude. All the rest she can teach and train. She also focused on globalization because she does have a global company and localization. Not only was it global, and paying attention to the regulations and all that pertained to global, but she had to understand what was important in each local context where her applicants ultimately would be hired, where they’d be working, and where clients in terms of the big companies and employers would need in their workforce.

These were some of the things that she paid attention to. It’s interesting even though she had a wonderful Beverly Hills, California, address for the company, it was in the front of a rug store. So it was not glamorous, per se, but she did want a glamorous address that she could grow into and live into ultimately. That was the first office.

One of the things she did to get traction in the marketplace and she would have been an unknown at the time is that she would say to her prospects and the employers, “I’m going to send you the right employees, and if they are not and if they don’t work out, I will refund your money.” That’s how confident she was about the service that she could deliver.

How did she finance this operation? How did she get the capital? She started the business with $1,500, $900 that she saved, and $600 that she borrowed from her mother. That was the seed capital that she needed to seed this business. She believed in herself, investing the money in this idea, and her mother believed in her too, providing some seed capital in addition to her savings.

That’s an important principle because once she started the company, she realized that she needed other kinds of equipment, particularly tech-related equipment. Even though she started with a phone and essentially a fax machine and some basic kinds of business tools, she had to purchase more. She had to invest even more in that business in order for it to be successful. In about 1990, she relocated the business to Torrance, California, and by 1997 it was already a $75 million company. 10 years after that, she had offices in 75 US cities. That in and of itself is amazing.

Finding Opportunities In A Harsh Background

When we think about Janice Bryant Howroyd, it’s important to note that she learned her basic values for life and business from home. That’s important because, with that wisdom, by 2011 her company was number 3 on the industrial service companies list. It was a $1.4 billion company in revenue, and there were multi-billions at this point, but she had reached that point in 2011.

When you think about her backstory, she grew up in a small town in North Carolina. She was the 4th of 11 children and was born on the 1st of September in 1952 in Tarboro, North Carolina. The conditions at that time were challenging. It was a segregated place where she grew up. She was one of a number of teens and children who first integrated at the high school where she lived. The high school had been all White, and she was part of that first wave of African-American children to desegregate that school.

Never compromise who you are to become who you wish to be professionally. Click To Tweet

Even with this harsh and difficult background, her parents did not give her any excuses whatsoever. Their wisdom to her was to turn your challenges into opportunities. Her number one mantra for herself was never to compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally. She had a strong sense of ethics and who she was and what was important.

One story from her background is that she would get textbooks that were hand-me-downs from other schools. I remembered that experience because I also experienced that in my second elementary school, where I was getting hand-me-down books from the White students. They had markings on them. They weren’t always perfect, and in her case, pages were missing out of the textbooks.

Her father said to her, “You are smart enough to figure it out. Read the pages that exist and then research and discover what’s missing.” Her mother took it to another level and said, “When you discover what is missing, write that down, tape it into the book so that you leave a better roadmap, a better textbook, a better pathway for the next person who comes behind you. They won’t have to read the textbook with the missing pages. You fill in the gaps.” Her mother also said, “In order to be outstanding, sometimes you have to stand out.” That’s what Janice’s life was all about. It was standing out.

She also strongly believed in innovation. Innovation was what kept her ahead of all the others out there, and she took advantage of everything she saw. She realized when she started working for her brother-in-law that she had specific skills. She was very good in leadership, strategy, and being a consummate problem solver. That was going to be a benefit to her being this Uber entrepreneur, starting this company that would be a multi-billion-dollar company.

As she was going along, she was one of the first in her industry to be on the World Wide Web, and that also proved to be an advantage. She was one of the first staffing companies to be in that position, and that was in 1995. By 1989, she had opened her first office outside of the United States, and that was in Ontario, Canada. She was very much on the move and quickly on the move.

Throughout her career, she received numerous honors and accolades. The BET Black Entertainment Television honored her with the Entrepreneur Award in 2008. From the National Association of Women Business Owners, she was in the Hall of Fame as an honoree in 2011, and from the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, she was listed in 2015.

In 2016, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to be a member of his board of HBCUs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She is a graduate of North Carolina A&T, and she’s very proud of that legacy and heritage, what she learned there, and how she benefited from an HBCU, which is a historically Black college and university.

In 2016, she was also the recipient of the Black Enterprise A.G. Gaston Lifetime Achievement Award, if you don’t know who A.G. Gaston is, look him up because he was an amazing entrepreneur who was also successful back in his day. Family life was also important to Janice. She had 2 children, and those 2 children, a son, and a daughter, are now involved in the business with her as well, and that’s a great thing that she brought them into the business.

Her son is the president of AppleOne, one of her companies, and her daughter does the online branding for the company. She was also married to her husband, Bernard Howroyd from 1983 until 2020, when he died. Again, the personal and family relationships, are also important, not the business aspect, and she included her children in the business as well in terms of what she does to resource the community around her.

Her business has never been all about her. It was about building a better community and providing opportunities for others that she didn’t have. When she was looking for jobs, she did not have what she now provides to the job seeker. She wanted to give them what was an A-plus, high-class experience that she did not have.

As you grow, find more opportunities to pay it forward to the people around you. Click To Tweet

When she’s giving to the community, she refers to it as giving forward rather than giving back, and she says, “You give as you grow, not once you’ve made it, give to others as you grow along,” and she’s always asking the question, “What’s next? How do I pay it forward?” That’s what’s important to her. She’s had the opportunity to serve on many boards, including the board of North Carolina A&T, the Harvard Women’s Leadership Board, and the board of the USC Marshall School of Business. She’s done a lot of campus work that keeps her Millennial spirit alive. She would say what’s important to her is community success more than even individual success.

10 Leadership Lessons From Janice’s Life

As I wrap up this brief overview of the career of Janice Bryant Howroyd, I want to reiterate some of the leadership lessons that she lives by and that we also can learn from and live by. Number one, and she has this up in her office, and it says, “Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally.” I would say this is maintaining your integrity. If your success is based on you compromising that personal integrity, Janice would probably say that’s not her definition of success. That’s number one.

Number two, which she learned from her family, was to turn your challenges into opportunities. Number three, I would say grow by providing what’s next that your clients need. Early on, when she discovered that her clients needed some temporary workers, not full-time, she started staffing for that as well. Whatever they needed and whatever she saw out there in the marketplace, she was paying attention so that she could be alive to that.

Then number four, innovate with few resources. She was a person who was used to not having a whole lot of resources. $1,500 is not a lot for starting a business, and yet she used that wisely, innovated with that $1,500, innovated with the resources that she had until she got more and more resources, more and more tech support and solutions for her business, and now there’s no looking back. Number five stands out to be outstanding, and she certainly did that. Number six, use your smarts to figure out what’s missing. When she got that textbook with missing pages, her father said, “No excuse. You are smart. Go get it done,” and she did.

Give forward and leave a better textbook and playbook for the next person. Click To Tweet

Number seven would be to give forward and leave a better textbook and playbook for the next person. She believes in mentoring, coaching, and advising, and that’s what she does through her board service, so she leaves things better for the next person. Giving forward. Eight would be what I’d call investing in yourself, and she’d go beyond that, not just yourself. Invest in your people, provide what they need, invest in your company, and have a mindset that’s work forward. Rather than focusing on what’s holding you back, work forward. That’s what she would say.

Number nine, I would say build on your unique gifts and talents. Everybody has unique gifts and talents, and she came to know that hers were strategy, leadership, and also problem-solving. Number ten would be to learn from live role models. She learned from her brother-in-law, role models in books, and role models in history. One of her primary historical role models was Madam C.J. Walker, who was the first Black woman millionaire, so she studied her and learned from her playbook as well, and that was part of her success in getting there.

Janice Bryant Howroyd is also an author. She’s written two books, and those books are The Art of Work: How to Make Work, Work for You, which she wrote in 2009, and then she also wrote Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom, and that book she wrote in 2019. She would define wisdom as knowledge plus experience. Knowledge plus your experience. We have a lot of people in our world who have a lot of knowledge. They don’t necessarily have wisdom because it’s not married with the experience and they haven’t leveraged the lessons from that.

Janice Bryant Howroyd is a remarkable and inspirational woman who is a speaker now encouraging other people. She is an author and she’s left a playbook for the rest of us to pay attention to. If you’ve never heard of her, do a little bit of study, a little bit of research, and be inspired by this woman who has created a multi-billion dollar privately held company and business, which is a group of companies.

Reflecting On The Word Of God

Congratulations to Janice Bryant Howroyd, thanks for being our inspiration as we continue to build our businesses. As I’m thinking about Janice Bryant Howroyd, I want to share with you familiar verses that come from the Proverbs 31 chapter, and this is the chapter we often think about as the Proverbs 31 woman. There’s some language here that does fit Janice and I’d like to share this, this is Proverbs 31 and I’m going to start with verse 13, which says, “She seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands. She is like a merchant ship. She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it, and from her profits, she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good and her lamp does not go out at night.”

She stretches out her hands to the distaff and her hand holds the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet. She makes tapestry for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known at the gates. When he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments sells them and supplies sashes. For the merchant’s strength and honor are her clothing. She shall rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her.”

Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all, and that certainly can be said as true of Janice Bryant Howroyd, having excelled them all, having been generous to others, caring for the community, caring for the needy, caring for her own family and her children, and being willing to sell the best in the marketplace to make a difference for others. We celebrate you, Janice Bryant Howroyd. Thanks for being the best.

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Spirit Wings kids Foundation’s Work In Uganda

I want to tell you a little bit about Spirit Wings Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and it’s an organization that provides profound services for orphans, widows, and families across the globe in many ways, especially in the country of Uganda. I’m speaking with Donna Johnson, who is the Founder of Spirit Wings Kids and also a board member. Donna, tell us about some examples of the profound work that you are doing in Uganda.

Thank you. We were there and it was incredible. It’s more than an orphanage. We have a soccer academy that keeps the boys off the street. We have a widow’s program that matches them with children and it’s a thriving network of entrepreneurs it’s been such a meaningful blessing to see the work that we are doing there.

What I love about what you said is you are talking about their whole lives. You are creating families between the widows and the children, and you are also making sure they have recreation and something to do with the soccer academy, and you are looking at the job situation and the entrepreneurial aspect, and as a businesswoman yourself who’s very successful, you are right in line with being able to make that difference.

Thank you so much for the difference that you are making and I’m inviting everyone to go to the Spirit Wings Kids Foundation website and donate now 100% of everything you donate goes to those people who are in need and who are receiving those services. Thank you so much for donating, and Donna, thank you for this ministry.