Expanding Access to Opportunities in LA’s Business Community

Earlier this month, SCG client the Los Angeles Business Council, scored a major victory three years in the making: the LA City Council voted unanimously to fund the creation of a new procurement system designed to expand opportunities for L.A.’s small, diverse, and disadvantaged businesses, an idea championed by the LABC. The LABC began the journey in 2017 when the organization first learned about the successful online procurement system, built for the London Summer Olympics, that created unprecedented opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses in the UK. The LABC immediately saw the potential to adapt this program for use as a procurement platform that would expand opportunities for locally-based small, disadvantaged businesses in Los Angeles. Thanks to the City Council’s approval, and the leadership of Councilmember Paul Krekorian, a new platform will be built for Los Angeles that promises to provide important new contracting opportunities for small, disadvantaged businesses with public and private sector employers. With the City Council’s vote, the program is on its way to making real, valuable changes to L.A.’s business landscape—expanding access to opportunity for local small, minority and disadvantaged businesses at a time when a conversation about equity and access have rightfully intensified. Congratulations to the LABC for this huge victory and for their enduring commitment to leveling the economic playing field.