What is your biggest challenge in meeting your company's supplier diversity goals?
Difficulty finding qualified diverse suppliers30%
Few diverse suppliers with ability to scale20%
Decision makers within company not aligned with supplier diversity goals30%
20%
10 PARTICIPANTS
Based on my experience, at least in big corporations, the supplier diversity is just lip service (few exceptions apply, as usual).
When it comes to action, the people executing on these plans are not enabled to do the right thing. Incentives are rarely adjusted to actually get supplier diversity as well - so that would be the first area to start with.
On the other hand, scaling is something that cannot be a pre-requisite towards suppliers either (exception is if the mismatch of scales are too great between the buyer and seller, but that will come out in the supplier scouting process anyway early enough). Responsible businesses can help smaller suppliers successfully scale, if they want to....they just rarely want to.
Last, but not least - the diverse, qualified suppliers part is true, but it is a result of the previously applicable norms we had. Those have effectively killed all suppliers that were in any way out of those strict requirement lines....so to have diverse, qualified supplier base, it takes time and an adherence to requirements that allow that diversity.