Two procurement experts, Spend Matters founder Jason Busch and COO/GM ConnXus Daryl Hammett, have pooled their knowledge and experience, of how organisations from all sectors spend their money, to create a new paper that explains how we can approach supplier diversity in procurement to create lasting change and economic uplift.
Both have expertise of the power of supplier inclusivity in business, and wrote this paper to show how economic and racial disparity can be eased by greater access for all to business opportunities.
“Too often,” they say, “we hear about corporations with great intentions and plans to develop their own supplier diversity program. But corporate supplier diversity programs often lack the intent to include diverse suppliers in their overall sourcing process. Supplier diversity can be measured by many tools and metrics, but that doesn’t guarantee that any program will contribute to drive inclusion. However, businesses and government have the potential to sow an environment that can lead to true inclusion by strengthening relationships with small and minority suppliers.”
They believe that current programs for the US in particular are not working to ease the problem of long-standing inequalities, so in this paper they propose business and policy changes to enable supplier inclusion to help redress the balance, end discrimination and drive permanent economic benefit. In “Integrating a divided world through procurement” they say:
“We can see the impact of truly fostering the growth of small and minority-owned businesses, especially in geographic areas where a small nudge can mean the difference between poverty and a middle-class life for entire communities. The proposals we will make in this essay are designed to avert systemic racism. If we succeed, business-led integration will unite communities by elevating people out of poverty and giving them access to capital and equal opportunities.”
They explore how the public and private sector procurement professional can have a huge impact on how spend is allocated and assigned. In fact they see procurement professionals as having a wonderful gift right in the palm of their hand. Knowing how to use it is what this paper is all about.
Download the paper for free here.
And remember, GovShop is a supplier directory where all suppliers can register to be found – for free.