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Introduction

Welcome to Supplier Diversity For Dummies. As I embarked on this project, the timing for this book couldn’t have been more perfect given the predictions about entrepreneurship, demographic growth, and the workplace of the future. It has been an honor to write the first-ever book of this type in this series. I’m Kathey K. Porter, MBA, MSE, CPSD, and I’ve held a variety of leadership roles in supplier diversity and now as a supplier diversity consultant with a minority-, woman-, and veteran-owned business. My experiences (both professional and personal) have prepared me to create this work, and I’m excited to be able to share with you what I’ve learned along the way.

About This Book

Supplier Diversity For Dummies is your one-stop resource guide to get a comprehensive understanding of what supplier diversity is all about, how it contributes to an organization’s success, what your role is as a leader, and how to implement supplier diversity in every area of your organization. In this book, I explain everything from the common terminology to the continued evolution of supplier diversity to how outside factors influence your organizational policies. I also cover strategies for tasks like these:

 Assessing your organization’s current culture and cultivating and sustaining inclusion and equity programs

 Making the business case for supplier diversity and addressing the obstacles to supplier diversity

 Aligning supplier diversity with your organization’s strategic priorities and creating a supplier diversity strategic plan

 Measuring the success of your supplier diversity efforts

 Fostering partnerships with the community to drive supplier diversity efforts

Throughout this book, I share from my experience, proven strategies, and results achieved as a supplier diversity leader across a number of industries, including government and higher education, an advocate with leading agencies, and a consultant to several global organizations. I also bring a personal perspective as an entrepreneur who frequently utilizes these programs. I’m also happy to share insights from other leading professionals and historians in this space.

This book answers questions, explains misnomers, and addresses concerns that I receive from supplier diversity and procurement leaders across the country. True to the For Dummies form, it demystifies supplier diversity to make it practical, understandable, accessible, and implementable. My hope is that it speaks to everyone with an interest in supplier diversity, from seasoned professionals to new practitioners to stakeholders responsible for leading this effort to senior leaders at the top. In other words, leaders at all levels can benefit from this book.

I want to quickly point out a few things to help you better navigate and use this book:

 Important terms and key words are in italics and are followed with a quick definition or explanation.

 Keywords and action steps in lists appear in bold.

 Sidebars (look for the shaded boxes) feature content that’s interesting and informative but not essential to your understanding of a topic. If you’re wanting to get in and out quickly, you can safely skip them.

Foolish Assumptions

Generally, I know it’s not a good idea to make assumptions. But for this book, I’ve made a few to better serve your needs:

 You’re working at an organization in a manager or leader role.

 You recognize that the world of work is changing, and you want to better understand it.

 You have little or no knowledge and experience in leading supplier diversity initiatives and want to pick up the fundamentals.

 You may be uneasy about supplier diversity and curious about how it can help your organization.

 You want to develop into a more effective and impactful supplier diversity leader.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, you find icons that help you navigate the information. Here’s a rundown of what they mean:

This icon alerts you to helpful hints. Tips can help you save time and avoid frustration.

This icon reminds you of important information you should read carefully.

This icon flags actions and ideas that may cause you problems. Often, warnings accompany common mistakes or misconceptions people have about supplier diversity.

This icon highlights information that goes a bit beyond need-to-know but is still helpful and interesting. You can skip this stuff if you’re pressed for time and just want the absolute basics.

Beyond the Book

This book contains lots of ideas, strategies, checklists, tools, resources, references, best practices, and other sources that give you more than enough to work with. But there’s more! It includes an online Cheat Sheet that provides guidance and tips for spotting and dealing with common supplier diversity barriers, a list of questions to determine your organizational readiness, and ways to gain internal and external stakeholder support. To access this handy Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type Supplier Diversity For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the search box.

Additionally, if you, your team, or members of your organization need supplier diversity training, coaching, a keynote speaker, or consulting on any of the processes I share in this book, or want to obtain a certificate in supplier diversity, you can access information and a number of free resources at www.sdti.co.

Where to Go from Here

Like supplier diversity, this book isn’t linear. Feel free to use the table of contents as a guide to move around to get exactly what you need. Part 1 gets you off to a great start and sets the foundation for really understanding supplier diversity. Part 2 looks at your internal environment. Part 3 discusses your suppliers and developing a program that’s supplier-centric. Part 4 examines the external environment and your community. Part 5 talks about technology and analytics and the role they play in today’s supplier diversity programs. Part 6 looks at how to build or expand a career in supplier diversity.

This book isn’t designed to be an exhaustive or definitive work on supplier diversity. And I don’t expect you to become an expert on all things supplier diversity in order to become an effective practitioner. Supplier diversity is a process and a journey, and you won’t get to the Billion Dollar Roundtable overnight. Hopefully, though, you’ll be able to sharpen your skills and apply what you read here so that you can help your organization and the diverse businesses you work with. Focus on being that champion that everyone wants to support because they believe in the mission behind supplier diversity and the value it brings to the organization and the community.