Two new supplier-diversity programs are launching in Indianapolis as local companies and other organizations try to make good on their equity promises from last year.
Groups around the city changed up recruitment and hiring practices, bulked up retention efforts and more after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police and subsequent protests brought racism and other inequities into greater focus.
A new procurement roundtable from the Indy Chamber and the Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council aims to help local companies that are seeking to bolster supplier-diversity efforts.
Another Mid-States program, launching late this month, seeks to scale up 150 businesses owned by women, ethnic and racial minorities, disabled veterans and LGBT entrepreneurs.
Advocates behind the initiatives want to help traditionally majority-white companies do more to support diverse-owned counterparts and, in turn, boost small businesses’ capacity to take on larger contracts for big players.
“One of the major goals of procurement is to do smart contracts for your company, making sure you’re getting good services from the vendors,” said Gordon Brooks, Eli Lilly and Co.’s chief procurement officer. Lilly is corporate lead for the roundtable.
But, Brooks told IBJ, “Another way to look at procurement is really, how do you get more for your money? How do you make sure that every dollar you’re spending isn’t only bringing the services you need, but how is it creating value elsewhere in society?”
The roundtable, which has garnered about 80 organizational participants since its launch in late August, is one of five priorities set by the Indy Chamber’s Business Equity for Indy Committee, which will turn 1 in October. The overarching goal: Take aim at the gaps in resources and quality of life that plague Indianapolis.
“We can address directly the wealth gap because, [when] businesses grow rapidly, they create wealth, they create jobs, they create higher-paying jobs and train workers,” said John Thompson, chairman and CEO of Indy-based Thompson Distribution Co. at the roundtable kickoff. Thompson is also co-chair for the task force that produced the initiative.
“If you’re growing Black businesses, that’s certainly a way of reaching more Black [people] in neighborhoods where jobs can be scarce,” Thompson said.
Roundtable participants will meet quarterly to share best practices, give progress updates and network. They’ll be encouraged to set short- and long-term goals, track and report their spending and use, offer supplier-diversity training for middle management and above, and develop other ways to meet their targets, according to the Indy Chamber’s Stacia Murphy, who led coordination of the initiative.
Female, non-white, LGBT or service-disabled veteran business owners can take advantage of…
Read More: Programs aim to bring diversity to work-procurement table