MBN USA

July 13, 2023

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Essandoh discusses supporting diverse-owned firms

By Reuben Essandoh, director, supplier diversity, Capital One Financial Corp.

The first encounter between a supplier diversity professional and a diverse business owner is always one of endless optimism and excitement for both parties.

With a goal towards building an inclusive supplier chain base, supplier diversity professionals work to connect diverse-owned businesses to corporations. During the first meeting, the diverse business owner describes their capabilities in a conversation that illuminates the possibility of doing business with the corporation. The meeting normally ends with the diverse business owner being asked to register on the corporation’s supplier diversity portal (hereafter, portal). They usually leave this encounter feeling energized, inspired and renewed by the potential for a contract.

Unfortunately, that excitement and optimism is often short-lived. Feedback from diverse- owned businesses shows that once the initial conversations between them and business and the supplier diversity professional ends – everyone returns to their normal day to day routine – and then, silence.

The diverse-owned business does not hear from the supplier diversity professional, and an “unspoken black hole” develops. Supplier diversity professionals get swallowed up by their normal BAU [business as usual], often losing sight of their interactions with the diverse owned-businesses and the exciting possibilities discussed.

Diverse-owned businesses start monitoring their inboxes and sending follow-up emails along with phone calls. Most do not hear back from the supplier diversity team members they met. Days run into weeks, weeks into months and months into years – with nothing happening.

The disappointment of registering on several portals and not hearing back from corporations results in frustration, discouragement, dejection and deflation, such that they give up and lose faith in the process.

It is inevitable that not every diverse business will win a contract with a corporation they meet. As a matter of fact, most will not. By way of their small size and inability to scale, they may not have the capability to meet a corporation’s needs. However, corporations can do more to support diverse businesses and avoid this black hole.

Corporations need to be intentional with their approach to support diverse-owned businesses in winning business opportunities. These practices may help:

• Supplier diversity teams need to prioritize and schedule meetings to regularly review their portals for new applications made and respond accordingly.

• Immediately after attending conferences and similar events where diverse-owned businesses are encountered, corporations need to devote time to reviewing and researching the capabilities of the businesses that they met and make the necessary introductions to internal customers at their companies where a match is likely.

• Supplier diversity teams must be strategic and find ways to introduce and connect diverse-owned businesses that are registered on their portals to internal customers, sourcing professionals and other team members to enable them to network and show their capabilities.

• Where opportunities do not exist, supplier diversity professionals can impact diverse businesses in two ways:

A thoughtful email from the supplier diversity team, acknowledging the meeting and reinforcing the potential of the diverse supplier can go a long way in boosting their confidence and inspiring them to keep going.

Finally, where there is no internal opportunity for a diverse supplier, supplier diversity teams can look to the company’s non-diverse prime suppliers to explore opportunities within their subcontracting needs for the diverse-owned business.