If you were me,
what would you do?
What would you have done?
You've got to see
that there's a void,
and see that there's
an opportunity.
And then you've got to figure
out how can you fill that.
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Entrepreneurship is a
synonym for liberation.
Because those who
have success with it--
it provides them the freedom
to be whoever they want to be.
But more importantly to me is it
provides them with the freedom
to uplift others.
And if we're talking
about really looking
at the full landscape
of business excellence,
it has to include black
business men and women.
I think the thing
that excites me
the most about the opportunity
to design and teach this course
is it provides the
chance to teach
young people about great
business men and women who
are African American.
People that most
of them have never
heard of before, who
deserve to be recognized
for their brilliance.
Who deserve to be a part of
the narrative about business
excellence.
It's going to be a fascinating
course comprised of 14 new case
studies about 14
African-American business men
and women who have been
phenomenally successful.
And we define success not just
in their professional life,
but success also includes
what are they giving back
for the uplifting
of the community.
And I think what
the students can
learn is they can learn
part of our struggle.
They can learn part
of the struggle
that you go through as an
African American in business,
because there's not parity.
There's not always
access to capital.
There's not always access
to the best talent.
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We have approximately 10,000
cases that Harvard Business
School has published.
And for my last count,
less than 100 of them
have a black protagonist.
So our black students
never get a chance,
for the most part, to see
other black business men
and women who are role models.
And our non-black
students do not
get a chance to see black people
who exhibit business excellence
in the fundamentals of business.
So if we're not producing
case studies that
include black people, no
one is being taught anything
about these great business
men and women who should be
included in the conversation.
My father, John Johnson,
my mother, Eunice Johnson,
they built Johnson
Publishing Company together.
My father started this
with little of nothing.
What he saw-- and I think
this is really important
as an entrepreneur-- he saw a
void in the African-American
community for a publication
that would be the voice
and the vision of
the African-American,
sort of, diaspora--
African-American community.
Because at that time,
most of the things
that were written about African
Americans were never positive.
I've been allowed the
wonderful privilege
to be able to see the brand
really start to flourish
now outside of just print.
We say that Ebony is
more than a magazine.
It's a movement.
So I'm excited to hear what
the students have to say.
And I'm really
curious to see what
they think should be the
next big thing for the brand.
John Johnson was saying,
you have the responsibility
of being a successful
businessman
and using that success to
pull up your community.
When we talk about
the intersection
of race and entrepreneurial
opportunity, what we're
going to do in
this class is we're
going to have the
students pull together
in teams to identify
underserved markets in the poor,
the middle class, and the
affluent black communities
where they could create an
entrepreneurial endeavor
to service that market.
To expand the discussion about
entrepreneurial opportunity.
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