FIRM MENTORS A NEW PROGRAM GIVES SMALL, MINORITY-OWNED FIRMS A CHANCE TO GAIN EXPERIENCE FROM LARGE CORPORATIONS

Dexter Foster is hungry to find out what burgers can teach him about his construction business. And thanks to a new program that pairs black-owned ventures like his with larger Miami-Dade County corporations, Foster will be getting tips from none other than Burger King.

The partnership is just one of the alliances forged under the Urban Partnership for Prosperity program launched by the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce and the Beacon Council on Tuesday.

Still in its pilot phase, the program has 15 members (eight minority-owned companies from the chamber and seven Beacon Council corporate members) and is designed to promote economic partnership, executive mentoring and employee training.

Foster -- who is the president of Miami-based Foster Construction -- confesses that he initially hoped to be paired with a large builder, but he said that seeing the inner workings of a global fast-food company would be invaluable.

"I'm looking forward to having access to a client like Burger King and to see what they want from their vendors and their construction department," he said. "Maybe we can find out how to become one of their builders."

While the partnerships might certainly blossom into client-vendor relationships, the program aspires to more than just "selling pencils," said Beacon Council President and CEO Frank Nero.

"It's a mentoring program to see if we can get the larger corporations to get [their partners] into the sales meetings and training sessions," he said.

While a small company might not have the resources to bring in world-class speakers, large corporations do it all the time, Nero said.

It's about giving the smaller players the "same advantages a large corporation would have," he said.

One of the project's most important benefits is hard to quantify, said Thomas Cornish, CEO and president of Fort Lauderdale insurance company Seitlin and one of the driving forces behind the program.

Many business deals in South Florida take place in a tight-knit business community where "access to opportunities" hinge on personal relationships.

"Most of us in the business community take that access for granted," Cornish said. "But for minority businesses that are trying to grow, that level of access -- and the ability to be around other great thinkers in business and other entrepreneurs -- is sometimes limited."

His firm will be partnering with two minority companies: Michelle Lynn Solutions, an advertising and printing firm; and Holsen, a special events and merchandising company.

But there are also more obvious partnerships among the group.

Among those is In Touch Logistics Services, a Miami waste removal and trucking company, and Ryder, the global transportation and logistics firm.

With more than 100 drivers working for him, In Touch CEO and President Wayne Davis said he's often too focused on keeping the business running to spend as much time on capacity-building and training as he would like.

Ryder will be inviting In Touch to some of its training courses and giving the company access to in-house experts.

• Business Insurance