Since 1968, Diversity Information Resources (DIR) has been at the forefront in providing information resources that support and enhance supplier diversity. Diverse-owned supplier? Registration on DIR's portal is free. Represent a major corporation? Learn how DIR's supplier data management solutions, educational seminars and publications can enhance your corporation's supplier diversity program. Learn more at www.diversityinforesources.com

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Executive Order on promoting diversity and inclusion in the Federal workplace

On August 18, 2011, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order establishing a coordinated Government-wide initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the Federal workplace. Here's the LINK to the actual EO, and here's a LINK to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Diversity and Inclusion which includes this message:

"When we draw on the wisdom of a workforce that reflects the population we serve, we are better able to understand and meet the needs of our customers-the American people. Government-wide, we have made important progress toward hiring a workforce that truly reflects America's diversity, and we will continue to pursue that goal. But merely hiring a diverse workforce is not enough.

We must make our workplaces more inclusive as well.

America was founded on the ideal that from many, we are one, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. That is the rationale for inclusion. To gain the maximum benefit from our increasingly diverse workforce, we must make every employee feel welcome and motivated to work their hardest and rise through the ranks. We must affirm that we work better together because of our differences, not despite them."

Steps in the right direction.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Wanting to be more a-twitter with small business ideas?

THE Twitter-ers to Follow if you're a Small Business

by John Corcoran, Esq.

...The true value of Twitter is that it can help you learn at warp speed about how to build, grow and develop a business, and you get to learn from some of the smartest minds on these subjects.
If you want to use Twitter effectively, then you should start by “listening” to, or following, the right people....

Monday, August 15, 2011

Where in the world . . .

is DIR? This week, at the National Veteran and Small Business Conference! Stay in touch with this diverse business sector via the Web site:

Welcome to a new approach to learning, networking, and marketing your small business! On August 15-18th, 2011 in New Orleans, LA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, in partnership with the Veteran Federal Interagency Council, is hosting the largest nationwide conference of its kind in support of Veteran-Owned, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. Attendees will be able to connect with program managers and procurement decision makers from the VA and other federal agencies, learn about future requirements, expand business knowledge and contracting opportunities, and use the VetGovPartner Business Network platform to network with potential corporate and government partners. Participants will choose from more than 200 sessions designed to educate both new and established businesses, and to connect them directly to government procurement decision makers.

Friday, August 12, 2011

From $2K to $17M ... Cano's Success Story

Congratulations to Juventino Cano, CEO of Cano Container Corporation and Commander Packaging West for the cover feature on MBE Magazine. We're pleased to have your service listed in DIR's Supplier Database! We particularly like his philosophy of paying attention to his clients: "I try to see my clients at least quarterly, for if you don't visit, someone else will." Truth!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Are U.S. Corporations Flirting With Economic Suicide by Not Supporting and Helping to Develop Minority-Owned Businesses?

Are U.S. Corporations Flirting With Economic Suicide by Not Supporting and Helping to Develop Minority-Owned Businesses?

This article highlights points recently published in "Minority Business Success: Refocusing on the American Dream" coauthored by James H. Lowry and Leonard Greenhalgh. What DIR appreciates about the recap is its focus on corporate + small business relationship building. It behooves corporations to cultivate strong, trusting relationships early-on with small, diverse businesses in order to be positioned to be good counsel and eventually competitive receivers of needed goods and services. Business building is a two-way street, and as we know, respecting the "rules of the road" is necessary but trusting your fellow drivers is vital–or no one survives without some accidental bumps and scrapes.

"U.S. companies need to do a better job of supporting and developing minority businesses. Minorities will become the majority of the U.S. population by 2045. Therefore, minority businesses need to deliver the value that American corporations expect -- at every level of the supply chain. Right now they do not -- as they are relegated to low-value or peripheral work that does not directly support the corporate value chain," said BCG Senior Advisor James H. Lowry, coauthor of Minority Business Success: Refocusing on the American Dream (Stanford Business Books, 2011).