FYI
Creating Inclusion Strategies
While we may not be completely aware of the impact, SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) business owners are often the beneficiaries of the supplier diversity inclusion initiatives taken by large organizations. I found my favorite definition of D&I on the Royal Bank of Canada’s web site: “In simple terms, diversity is…
Read MoreCritical Inclusion Leadership
Since June of 2013, we’ve been talking about The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan with an emphasis on how SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) business owners might benefit from their insights. Chapter eight discusses four areas of competency leaders must master…
Read MoreWhat HR 4435 Could Mean for Small Business
Heads up owners of Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise (SDMWVBE) businesses! The government-wide Federal Procurement Contract Award Goals could be changing. In late May, House Resolution No. 4435 was passed. Included in this bill are a number of provisions that could positively affect small businesses if the Senate passes the bill out…
Read MoreDimensional Differences
Time, at last, to get back to The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan. We last talked about this book in February 2014 with a look at how SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) business owners could be members of multiple groups and discussed the dynamics…
Read MoreColorful Arms
Spending some time on Facebook last week, I saw that a photographer friend had re-posted a photograph that really caught my attention: This reminded me that supplier diversity has its roots in the equal opportunity legislation of the late 1960s and early 1970s that we’ve written about in the past. In 1971, federal agencies were directed to…
Read MoreWe’re Certified, Now What? Revisited
In speaking with newly certified SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) business owners or those seeking certification the question “What does certification do for me?” is often asked. In most cases, just being certified does not help grow your business; it is how you’re able to market your certification and utilize programs…
Read MoreCertification Alphabet Soup (or fun with acronyms)
In the world of diversity certifications there are many acronyms, some more familiar than others. This alphabet soup contains WBE, MBE, DBE, SBE, VBE, DSBE, HUB, LGBT and that’s only half of them. Some of the abbreviations are shared by government and third-party certifiers (MBE, WBE) and others are specific to the Federal government (8(a),…
Read MoreInsider Outsider Memberships
As SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) businesses we find ourselves members of multiple groups and the dynamics of these memberships is discussed at length in chapter six The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan. Insider outsider dynamics happen at the group…
Read MoreTalk or Walk?
Thought we’d take a break from our in-depth review of The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan to return to our theme of supporting each other. As SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) businesses we expect large corporations and government agencies to…
Read MoreDiversity Dividends: Reducing Bias
Bias is the very human and perhaps unfair preference for or dislike of something. Its synonyms include prejudice, partiality and favoritism. At the heart of the original equal opportunity movement, laws and regulations were enacted to mitigate conscious bias in American education, employment and procurement opportunities. As SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business…
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