After 20 years of evolution in the UK does Supplier Diversity face its toughest challenge yet in the years ahead: -
Convincing Diverse Suppliers that Access to Opportunity is the right thing to do when Tender awards are made based on Competency?
Some Diverse founders are steadfast in their principles that they want to win business:
♦ Because of their competency.
♦ Because they were good enough.
♦ Because they competed fairly.
♦ Because they built successful businesses from the ground up that excelled, and were capable of winning, and won.
These leaders are resilient for a multitude of reasons including individuality, personality, and culture.
They are allergic to being considered ‘victims’ that need rescuing.
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Then there are:
🔸 Those Diverse founders who have had their confidence tested.
🔸 Those who feel the sharp edge of imposter syndrome.
🔸 Those who, no matter how many doors they knock on, those rooms remain inaccessible so they need equity.
With unconscious bias being one factor for consideration, these brave leaders rely on access to opportunities so they can compete.
They support the purpose of equity as a tool to enable equality through the intentions of Supplier Diversity programmes.
Neither party wants handouts. They don’t want charity.
But then there are those in Corporate who question the morality of creating access to communities based on race, disability, sexuality, gender.
🔘 Some think it’s positive discrimination.
🔘 Others think that SMEs and diverse suppliers are incapable of providing product/services that are superior to large incumbent institutions.
So, performing a baseline exercise achieves 6 strategic measures of success:
🔵 Advocates: Makes Allies out of Detractors – “we already work with diverse suppliers” – “here’s the evidence”.
🔵 Exec leadership: Provides evidence to support profitability with diversity in the supply chain.
🔵 Brand reputation: Enables Marketing a tell a story of representation & inclusion to the customer.
🔵 Talent: Evidencing diversity attracts new talent, and retains existing staff who believe in inclusion.
🔵 Investors: Provides evidence that the business is ethical, meets CSR objectives, and provides a way to profitability and a ROI.
🔵 CCO: Allows the Commercial Officer to pursue new customer revenues whilst retaining existing business.
Get your copy of the Supplier Diversity: The Blueprint.
About Us
"Finding Diverse Suppliers is time-consuming as the process today involves researching against multiple databases."
Founded in 2019, Kaleida International is a B2B marketplace for Tenders connecting Buyers to Suppliers, and Diverse Suppliers. With a focus on helping the Chief Procurement Office achieve its ESG goals, and alerting companies to new revenue opportunities, Kaleida's fully-inclusive platform helps Buyers find, identify and assess Diverse Suppliers they can invite to Tender.
In 2024 Kaleida will publish £600b in both Public and Private sector tenders for suppliers, and Diverse suppliers to apply to. By increasing access to commercial opportunity, we believe we can drive equality through providing access to economic parity.
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