Rosa Parks had sparked an entire movement with her single act of defiance. Janice Bryant Howroyd is a 67-year-old Black millionairess who chose to be defiant not once, not twice, but on a permanent basis by creating a billion-dollar company that is now a legacy to her children.
Howroyd, who is most famous for being the first black woman whose workforce management company has an annual turnover of $1 billion, is also known for her philanthropy. Howroyd continually makes efforts to honor her ethnicity by being a member of various boards and institutions working towards this common goal.
During this Black History month, it is people like Howroyd who are widely celebrated as one of the most influential icons not just for women, but even men who dream of making it big against all discrimination.
Although Howroyd is a strong, self-driven successful businesswoman today, she has her sturdier parents, John and Elretha K. Bryant to thank for those and several other important values instilled in her. Howroyd was one of 11 siblings and has an interesting story to tell about one of the first lessons of workforce management she learned. It wasn’t at an Ivy League school or hotshot training camp; it was right at home, taught by her mother, and implemented by all 11 siblings. It was simple – each sibling had the one elder to him/her appointed as a mentor to the younger one. While both parents took care of other things, the children managed to complete chores, do homework, and get ready for school on their own.
Howroyd was born and raised in Tarboro, North Carolina, and was enrolled in segregated schools until she was in the 11th grade. Like death, racial discrimination does not spare even children. Howroyd, like millions of other black children of that time, found it challenging to get even a textbook filled with all her pages. While her father taught her to be strong enough to tackle this challenge, her mother encouraged her to find those missing pages and tape them to the books so the next student wouldn’t face the same problem. Her father was confident that his daughter was smart enough not to be held back a class because of a few missing pages.
There are several other such stories that were so impressive to a young mind that they truly molded her spirit and helped her become what she is today. This resilience helped her overcome the challenges black women face even today and become an empathetic leader in the world of personnel management.
The Next Move
Howroyd attended the North Carolina A&T State University and graduated with a degree in English. She then decided to move from her hometown and stay with her older sister Sandy and his husband, Tom Noonan. Noonan was working in the entertainment giant, Billboard. She initially got a job as a temp secretary for Noonan, but he was astute enough to recognize that his young, resourceful sister-in-law had the potential for both management and business in her. When he, along with Sandy, decided to head for a vacation in Italy, he put Howroyd in charge. When he was back, he saw some subtle changes that had been made, and his office was functioning better than before.
Based on his encouragement and belief in herself, Howroyd decided to stop being a temp and achieve her full potential by being her own boss. In one of the several interviews she has given, Howroyd mentioned that although she wanted a fancy address like Beverly Hills in her business profile, she didn’t have the funds for it. She had to borrow $900 from her mother, add it to her savings to bring the total up to $1,500, and get started with her business venture, Act-1. Now spread over 19 countries with more than 2800 workers, it was once a business being run out of the front office of a rug shop in Beverly Hills!
Another critical lesson she learned from her childhood and the struggle of people from her ethnicity was tenacity. When she was growing up, she used to see other black people grabbing opportunities to fulfill their needs. For them, a job was not something they would naturally expect after becoming eligible for it; they had to make it their vision in life and work towards it. Howroyd considers it her privilege that she is able to give back to her community by doing what she enjoys most – helping other people make their dreams come true. A personal lesson she believes in even today is that many people are ready to struggle because what they achieve at the end of it is worth it all.
Under Act-1, there are several other subsidiaries, such as AppleOne, All’s Well, Agile-1, ACheck Global. The groups of companies don’t just work to find the right hires for their elite customers, but also perform background checks and offers consultations on human resources. AppleOne.com was, in fact, one of the earliest websites launched for people looking to get jobs online.
Howroyd’s husband, Bernard Howroyd, who Janice playfully insists, is a “great guy,” is one of the co-founders of AppleOne. Howroy’d children, Brett and Katherine, also hold important positions in the vast Act-1 empire.
More About Howroyd
Apart from being a firm believer in valuing the job seeker more than the client companies looking to hire them, Howroyd is known for being a smart businesswoman who faced ridicule because of her ethnicity and still makes it big. She chose to ignore snide and often openly insensitive remarks and remain focused on her business. She has written two books and serves on numerous economic, social, educational, and political councils. She had also remained a key adviser to the President of the United States when Barack Obama was in office.
Howroyd is truly an inspiration because despite facing gender challenges in addition to being black, she remembered her childhood lessons, turned them into viable business values, and continues to empower several other strong, willing people like her all over the world. It’s more than being just a strong African American woman; it’s about personifying a race that is renowned for being passionate and unbreakable.