Iron Mountain's Regional Vice President, Alan Wheelock had a dilemma. His company's business in New England was growing rapidly in its core business and prospects for continued growth looked good. That was the good news. Iron Mountain was also experiencing rapid growth in its special projects area and Alan was sure that this was not all good news. Included in special projects were records management assignments that were important as a way of getting in the door to promote its record storage and retrieval business, but represented a different business with a different set of management issues. A labor intensive business relative to the storage business, Alan worried about fluctuating personnel requirements and related problems. Was there a better way?

Alan met with The Business Collaborative, heard its message regarding "thinking outside the box", and floated an idea. What if TBC worked with him to create a company owned by an entrepreneur of color that specialized in records management? He could help launch it by placing $3 million of revenues with the new business in its first year and by having Iron Mountain perform the ongoing marketing function. Would this qualify as a way of building capacity and partnerships?

Qualify it did. TBC was enthusiastic about Alan's idea and agreed to work with Iron Mountain on this creative initiative. To date TBC has focused its attention on laying the ground work for converting this opportunity into a new business relationship. Its work has included visiting records management business sites to thoroughly understand the operations, management issues and challenges that this new venture would represent. Next TBC will work with Iron Mountain to further define the business relationship it will create and to select an entrepreneurial team to launch a new venture or an existing firm that can accommodate this new business. Transforming this opportunity into a business transaction will clearly be no small task for TBC, but Alan's enthusiasm for this venture makes the prospects quite good. Says Alan, "I believe this initiative could be a win-win for everyone. It is an opportunity for an entrepreneur of color to enter a market niche that has substantial growth potential. It allows Iron Mountain to focus on what it does best. I am delighted to work with TBC to help us make this happen."