Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007 - (Page 10)

BRIEFCASE HOSPITALITY: HISPANIC HOTELIERS WELCOME HERE The membership of the Hispanic Hotel Owners Association (HHOA) has been surging since the non-proﬁt organization was launched in September 2006. The group also has landed such high-powered corporate sponsors as Hilton Hotels Corporation, Marriott International, Choice Hotels International and InterContinental Hotels Group. Recently the synergy again bore fruit as Marriott broke ground for its ﬁrst Hispanic-owned hotel in Washington, D.C.—a 218-room Courtyard set to open in 2009 and whose major shareholder will be Miami’s Robert Finvarb. “Marriott’s Diversity Ownership Initiative has opened Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of Herbalife’s more than 1.5 million independent distributors, and they obviously have a lot of Latino customers. So to make their nutritional supplements even more attractive to this burgeoning market, the company decided to give its next meal-replacement shake some authentic Latin ﬂavor. After considering such tropical delights as mango, coconut, papaya and pineapple—and doing a lot of focus groups to make sure they weren’t just guessing—Herbalife found the door to hotel ownership within the Hispanic community,” says HHOA President and Founder Angela Gonzales-Rowe at the groundbreaking ceremony. “With 25 Hispanic-American owned hotels, opened or in development since its inception, the program is clearly leading the industry.” The Washington, D.C.-based HHOA says its mission is to “increase the number of Hispanic-owned, developed and operated hotels, further the participation of Hispanic-owned suppliers serving the hotel industry, and increase executive level employment opportunities for Hispanics within the lodging industry.” the hands-down favorite was piña colada.The ﬂavor was duly launched in January 2007. Delving deeper into this promising market, Herbalife launched a website in Spanish, has developed sales tools speciﬁcally targeting Latinos, and this year is set to come out with its ﬁrst complete product catalogue designed for the Hispanic community. Like many another mainstream company, Herbalife decided to go with the Latino ﬂow. FOOD & DRINK: TROPICAL TASTE The good news: Hispanic marketing has become so much a part of the corporate fabric at Procter & Gamble Co. that it is coming home to roost at the company’s Cincinnati corporate headquarters. That’s also the bad news, at least for some of the Hispanic marketing executives whose unit is moving from San Juan, Puerto Rico. —Advertising Age Madlin Campbell Mangrum was 14 when she landed with her family in Houston from a Guatemala plunged in a bloody civil war, but her career is airborne today. Chartering cargo ﬂights is what her company, 9-1-1 Air Cargo, Inc., is all about. Although her parents, like so many immigrants, encouraged their daughter to study and eventually pushed her through law school, she was a born businesswoman and never fell in love with life as a lawyer. With husband Mark she was soon working in their retail business with so-so prospects of success—until her brother-in-law Tim, employed at an air cargo ﬁrm, opened her eyes to a line of work that looked a lot more exciting. She found her background was a perfect ﬁt for the air cargo business. Her Spanish language skills and Latin American background were obvious advantages when arranging shipments involving countries to the south, while her legal savvy was a huge help with contract issues. 10 GOING MAINSTREAM TRENDWATCH It’s ofﬁcial: The economic future of California will depend in large measure on the success or failure of Latinos, who according to forecasts from the state’s Department of Finance, will be in the majority by mid-century. -Editorial, La Opinion TRANSPORTATION: PROFITS IN THE WILD BLUE YONDER “I fell in love with the work,” she says. “I worked for almost nothing at ﬁrst and the hours were crazy. Soon, though, I started earning the company good money and really excelled at it, even though it was a male-dominated business.” In 1999 she opened her own company, 9-1-1 Air Cargo, Inc., which took off like a jet. Last year it soared to more than $16 million in sales. With Nissan, BMW and Dell Computers among her customers, her ﬁrm basically charters emergency air-cargo ﬂights for mega-corporations. She also has a busy FedEx contract. “Everyone who works here is very aware that to our customers we are likely the last hope to get the part or equipment delivered by their deadline,” she says. That this is her true calling can even be seen in the place she, her husband and 3-year-old son live. It’s a private air park where most of the neighbors ﬂy home and leave their planes at the front door. HISPANIC ENTERPRISE October/November 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007

Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007 Contents BIZBUZZ: Business Briefs Trendsetters BIZTECH: Personally Digital BizLife - Travel: The Mobile Meeting Motoring: Is What You Drive, Who You Are? Q&A - Fact Tank for the Hispanic Population Hispanic Commerce Cover Story: Tiles with Style Success & Motivation: Grammy Whammy Finance: Talking Code Event: Masterminds NCLR Report - Improving your Triple Bottom Line Politics & Government: Keep on Truckin' Managing: Avoiding an Identity Crisis Franchising: Beyond the Brand Finance & Investing - Talking Money Movers & Shakers Regional Report - Louisiana, Louisiana Chamber Focus - On the Island of Enchantment

Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007

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