No, Networking Is Not The Solution
Imagine you are driving down your street and hit a big pothole. After shaking your fist, you make a mental note to avoid it. The next morning, you swerve around it and think, ‘Someone should really fix this.’ You make a habit of avoiding it so it becomes a normal part of your day.
Over time, you not only accept that dodging the pothole is a part of your daily commute, you come to blame other drivers for their inability to solve a puzzle that you’ve mastered. Just swerve, idiot. It’s simple!
Eventually, the road ceases to be the problem. Instead, we expect individual drivers to successfully navigate a bumpy road the same way we have.
The result? The pothole remains unrepaired, left to wreak havoc on unsuspecting drivers.
So is it any surprise that when we apply this ‘weave around it’ approach to supporting small businesses, we are left with a broken public procurement system that benefits few to the detriment of all?
Think about it. When we advise smalls, we tell them to network. You want to learn about procurement? Network. You want to build past performance? Network. You want to land your first prime contract? Network. You want to stand out as a woman- or minority-owned business? Network.
Our proposed solution to the institutional barriers (the potholes) encountered by small businesses (the drivers) is to encourage them to simply work around the problems (the swerve) by networking.
Don’t get me wrong: networking holds considerable power in shaping outcomes for individual businesses. It can open doors, shape trajectories, and foster small-scale collaboration.
Networking is so critical in the government contracting space that it is one of the primary explanations for why businesses owned by women and minorities are generally less likely to secure contracts. Because these groups are less likely to be part of key networks, they are less likely have access to the relationships, resources, and information necessary to successfully bid on opportunities. Naturally, we assume the solution is to network.
But the question remains: How does networking make the contracting process more equitable?
It doesn’t.
Networking, even when done well, is not ‘fixing the pothole.’
While we can network our way into individual opportunities, we cannot network our way out of systemic inequities. Building connections is not the same as building equitable processes. Changing trajectories is not the same as fundamentally revolutionizing structures. Introducing people doesn’t remove the gatekeeping power of homogeneous networks. Just like driving around the pothole is not the same as repairing it.
So how do we change the system? Collective action. When we talk about collective action, we are talking about taking networking a step further so that we:
Commiserate to understand that these problems are persistent,
Remind each other that the solution does not and cannot lie within the individual alone,
Empower each other to use our voices to draw attention to problems, and
Leverage the power in numbers to demand reform.
Connecting with others is important, but it is not enough. We must advocate for ourselves and others. We must remember that we shouldn’t be responsible for swerving around hurdles. We must ask (often and loudly) why these hurdles even exist. We must demand (often and loudly) that these obstacles be removed to level the playing field.
These ‘musts’ form the foundation upon which The Amalgamation was built. As a collective of underutilized businesses with a shared mission, we are poised to fight for equity in government contracting by serving as a conduit through which networks can transform into agents of change. By banding together, we are putting pressure on the existing procurement structure, and we want you to join us.
