JOSEPH R. (JOE) HUDSON:  THE GRANDMASTER "JEDI KNIGHT" of AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS and COMMUNITY

According to the Star Wars "Wookieepedia," the "Jedi Knights are guardians of peace in the galaxy. They defend and protect but never attack others. The Jedi knight ferrets out deceit and injustice, bringing it to light. Jedi serve others rather than rule over them…" a "Jedi Knight" has completed his training and become a full member of the order where he serves the population.

Why the Grandmaster? 

Joseph R. (Uncle Joe) Hudson has spent more than 45 years training and participating in African American business affairs and entrepreneurship. Due to his training and experience, he serves as a Grand Master advocate for Black businesses and their full participation in our communities. He attempts to ferret out deceit and injustice within our communities on behalf of Black businesses and convert these activities into values of importance. He is an experienced business developer, community planner, strategist, and organizational designer. He leads the new voices in the articulation of novel approaches for business development. His experience through success and failure has enabled him to develop innovation in designing a business for success.

The Story of the Black Business Jedi Knight

He has left a trail for others to follow. On behalf of Black businesses, he has developed and implemented programs and processes that are still in operation today.  Beginning with the fact that Joe was the first Black Officer of a majority bank in Washington DC. He learned the intricacies of bank lending and community affairs. While in Washington, He was called upon to write the first case studies on minority small business lending for the American Institute of Banking, which exhibited his knowledge. He also designed and implemented the nation's "first recognized Minority Business Week" while on staff at the Interracial Council for Business Opportunity (ICBO) in Washington, DC, in 1970.

Over his career at ICBO in Washington and Atlanta, he oversaw or developed millions in business loans and contracts for minority businesses. Many of the companies with whom he worked became some of the most recognized of their era. At ICBO, Joe helped organize Black businesses into a political and economic force that underwrote a major portion of Maynard Jackson's second campaign for mayor, resulting in the advent of the City of Atlanta's Set-aside program and the development of the Defense Department's Small Business set-aside program.  In addition, Joe started the first Black Women in Business Development Program at ICBO and later the Women in Business Committee at Atlanta Business League as its President.

Joe was a co-founder of the Atlanta Purchasing Council and later became its president. He instituted a name change to the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council and its influence from local to statewide. Additionally, he served on the Executive Committee of the National Minority Supplier Development Corporation. Later, Joe served as a corporate consultant for Try US Resources. He conducted workshops on the development of corporate Supplier Diversity programs across the country.

In summary, he has written business plans for some of the south largest Black businesses and headed a business development organization, founded, directed statewide supplier diversity non-profit, conducted strategic plans for all types of organizations and communities, and organized Black businesses into recognized economic community contributors. He has represented small businesses with the Whitehouse Conference on Small Business, the Region 4 US Small Business Administration, and The State of Georgia Small Business Study Commission as either the President or CEO of The Interracial Council for Business Opportunity or the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council.

In community development, Joe has consulted with cities and communities across this country, from Epps, Alabama to St. Louis, Mo. He has consulted with more than thirty Fortune 1000 corporations and organizations to develop Strategic Plans supporting supplier diversity initiatives. He has developed strategic plans for Six GA Cities to approach how to spur black consumers and Black business interaction. He has been acknowledged for his work by both the City of Atlanta and Fulton County with the declaration of Joseph R. Hudson Day on January 27, 1975. Additionally, Joe has assisted with developing businesses in Nigeria and was invited to speak on Black business in London, England.

Joe gained experience as a community partner by chairing over 25 Non-profit Boards of Directors, including Chairmanship of the Atlanta Downtown Development Authority, Fulton County DFACS, The Georgia Black United Fund, the Atlanta Private Industry Council, and the Permanent Nominating Committee of the Girl Scouts. Joe has been a participant in Leadership Atlanta, the Regional Leadership Institute, and the American Institute for Managing Diversity. Joe also represented the City of Atlanta as a part of a special delegation to Hong Kong.

Joe has been formally educated at Howard University, Stanford University, and Wharton School of Business, Darden School of Business, Dartmouth College Amos Tuck School, and London School of Business. His education was broadened through participating in the Whitehouse Program on Executive Exchange, where President Jimmy Carter appointed him to be a "Presidential Exchange Executive" serving in an executive position in the Office of Personnel Management Washington DC which exposed him to the workings of the private sector and government including the international relations required for success. Additionally, he gained skills by participating in the prestigious year-long International Business Fellow Program. Senator Sam Nunn requested Joe participate in the Department of Defense "Joint Civilian Orientation Conference," where he was exposed to the US military and business relationships. These experiences and business-related travel to several African Countries, Japan, South Korea, and England, have rounded out his knowledge.

His expertise has been acknowledged through testimony before the US Small Business subcommittee of Congress and as a small business newspaper columnist for three newspapers.

Joe recently completed his book "CITIworks and the 5% Solution," a planning directive for assisting communities in developing strategies for utilizing African American businesses to redevelop their community and add value to their cities.

Joe likes to say he has experienced the difficulties of entrepreneurship by owning four businesses and currently is the Chairman and Founder of the Hudson Strategic Group (HsG), a 30-year-old organization. At HsG, Joe and his business partners have innovated system architecture for business and community development and operation utilizing such world-class tools as Malcolm Baldrige, Balanced Scorecard, Blue Ocean, Logic Model, and Six Sigma to help them create their "Mark of Distinction" for bringing value.

So, you can readily see that Joe has been prepared to serve as a Jedi knight for Black business and community concerns. His community involvement had continually created, sponsored, and caused enormous success for the African American business owners and the African American community. His pioneering efforts decades ago remained essential and relevant today when they were ahead of their times back then. He continues his activities in bringing economic deceit and injustice to light through exposure and by articulating his views through his Blog and other written articles. He is a firm believer that to make Atlanta an even better city than any other in the US our business community must be representative of all its economic resources in major community-related decisions.