Informative video of UPMC's supplier diversity outreach event

The University of Pittsburgh's Medical Center held a Supplier Diversity outreach event at the end of March, 2014. This video captures the energy there! Thank you for sharing, UPMC.

DIR's take on "Why Attend?" WBENC 2014

The Women's Business Enterprise National Council offers a variety of ways to connect to their dynamic network of WBEs (Women's Business Enterprises) and Corporate supporters. The pinnacle of this networking happens during their national conference, however. 

This year's conference is in Philadelphia, PA on June 22-25, 2014. A projected attendance of 3,000+ put it at a grand, but manageable size to navigate for networking opportunities and workshops. It certainly is the largest event of its kind in the nation for women business owners. 

This year, over 300 exhibitors will fill the Business Fair floor showcasing their products and services. Exhibitors include WBEs themselves who wish to do business with like-minded companies, and corporations who want to encourage WBEs to do business with them via their Supplier Diversity initiatives. 

Supplier Diversity is about economic growth. Corporations understand that broadening their supplier base brings flexibility, cost-efficiency and innovation. Sometimes a diverse-owned businesses is introduced to a major corporation by doing business with a prime (a majority-owned, larger business who sub-contracts) and sometimes a corporation chooses to mentor and invest in a diverse-business enterprise directly, enabling you to provide services/products in the future. (Here's a LINK to an article in "Minority Business News" about Dell's Suppler Diversity staff and their concerns.) 

Economic growth is the best reason for a WBE to attend this national conference. By attending you'll:

• learn from peers: hear stories that resonate with your own experiences
• support your peers: share stories that will educate others
• network, possibly even attend a face-to-face matchmaking session, with corporate representatives: you are the face of your company ... smile and share it!
• learn from case-study sessions, about what to learn from failing (always important!) and how others walked a road of success
• meet allies: sometimes it takes a village to approach a corporation; team up and try out
• learn jargon: every industry has it, you want to understand it

DIR encourages WBEs who are ready to explore working with a bigger client base to attend. For more information, visit WBENC's site.

Taking the step from Supplier Diversity to Supplier Development

Supplier Diversity industry magazine, MBN Texas, published an article on the impending need of corporations to step beyond a Supplier Diversity initiative into Supplier Development. We link to the article, but also highlight the following excerpts because our annual seminars, "Building Strategic Phases of a Supplier Diversity Process" and "Best Practices in Supplier Diversity Strategies and Initiatives" typically address this concern by sharing case studies and real-life examples. To learn more about DIR Seminars for Corporate Executives, see links on the left of this blog, or visit DIR's web site: DiversityInfoResources.com

• "Visionary executives see much of that supply business coming back to their home countries and are developing the suppliers that will replace offshore sources.”
• "Over the next two years, Verchot foresees a continued, steady growth in corporations, first-tier suppliers and government agencies that have goals and dedicate some resources to supplier diversity efforts. "This [growth] is really driven by the growing understanding of the changing demographics in the United States. But, what I’ll be most interested in seeing is how many of these corporations, first-tier suppliers and government agencies develop and implement a strategic approach to minority supplier development,” he said. "That’s the much harder and more complex challenge and the only way that we will significantly move the needle when it comes to growing the size of large numbers of minority-owned businesses.”