Top procurement and supply-chain professionals know that it’s no longer enough to follow the same tired checklists of strategic purchasing and sourcing best practices. In today’s fiercely competitive business environment and changing customer demographics, more companies are counting on their supply chains to deliver both strategic cost savings and added value.
If you work for a company that claims to value workplace diversity and inclusion, it just makes good business sense to implement an inclusive and engaging supplier diversity program.
What is supplier diversity?
Supplier Diversity is a business program that encourages the use of: diverse-owned, women owned, veteran owned, LGBT, service disabled veteran owned, historically underutilized business, and small business vendors as suppliers. Supplier diversity is the proactive business process of sourcing products and services from previously under-used suppliers.
Paragon results LLC experts brings decades of experience designing , standing up and continuously improving diversity spend programs across a variety of industries.
See the many ways diversity in strategic purchasing (taught in our program) can benefit your company:
Improving quality
As companies, you look to improve procurement and you can do so not only by finding cost savings opportunities with diverse vendors but also by finding ways to build stronger relationships with vendors that offer superior product quality and service levels. Furthermore, because diverse businesses are often overlooked and can tend to be smaller, they can be nimble and offer creative solutions to companies with diverse procurement practices.
Improves supplier competitiveness
Adding diverse suppliers to the potential sourcing pool can help increase competition for contracts which, in turn, can improve quality and cut costs. More sourcing options can also make the supply chain more resilient and agile, which is especially important during uncertain times.
Improves brand reputation
Suppliers are driven to help their customers succeed. They inadvertently advertise their customers by listing their most prominent customers on their website or using them as a reference. This is free marketing. Whether it’s formal, or word of mouth, diversifying the audience through secondary marketing strategies is a great way to build brand awareness.
Paragon experts come from all walks of life, every corner of the world. We are unified in our mission, our vision, our commitment to customers and each other and we are conscious that diversity has helped power our success, driving innovation, fresh thinking and creative problem-solving.
To learn more or get help with developing your supplier diversity program, contact us!