IBM’s commitment to diversity is a key business imperative in all aspects of its business, including its workforce, customer base and supply chain. As a global organisation IBM’s existence and business depends on the willingness of people from many different cultures and backgrounds to work and to buy from them.
Building and maintaining a community of diverse suppliers increases IBM's opportunity to hear new ideas, apply different approaches, and gain access to additional solutions that respond to its customer needs.
Supplier diversity is one of the key procurement measurement areas. IBM maintains a focus on achievement within the programme by tracking progress monthly, and providing feedback to the Executive management team as part of the monthly management system.
As supplier diversity is still a relatively new concept in Europe, the initial challenge was to identify businesses that are able to supply. Typically, small suppliers lack the necessary skills and experience to compete against larger firms.
To overcome this, IBM worked with outreach organisations, sponsoring events and workshops as well as providing advice and assistance through mentoring programmes to small businesses on topics such as:
In addition, it was important that the internal buying teams understood the importance of supplier diversity in meeting the needs of its internal and external clients as well as opening up access to a wider market place. A number of workshops were set up to help buyers understand the issues faced by smaller suppliers when competing for work with larger organisations.