Venting
Learning From Fangirls (and boys)
We’ve been reading rather than writing, lately, and two books made such an impact we had to share the insights we’ve gained with a wider community — we’ll talk more about The Confidence Code in our next blog as our most recent discussion happened when one of us posed the question: Can you be a…
Read MoreIntentional Involvement
Being involved in the SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women or Veteran Business Enterprise) community should mean more than taking advantage of opportunities. We’ve often written about “walking the walk”, creating our own opportunities for and supporting other SDMWVBE businesses. For us, this meant commenting at a public hearing in Allegheny County Pennsylvania regarding potential changes to…
Read MoreSpring Cleaning
It is the time of year — the requests from supplier portals just keep rolling in, asking us to update our information in their systems. For the most part, that’s the only contact we have from some of the bigger potential clients we’ve been targeting. We all know the spiel when we meet with a supply…
Read MoreIntentional Diversity
We started this blog five years ago, with a sense of continuing hope that remains strong despite recent and recurring public incidents of violent bigotry. Last year we published multiple entries about The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan. The theme of these entries centered…
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 MoreAccountability
We planned a series on The Inclusion Dividend, and we’ll get back to that next post — but we discovered a stunning article about the SBA’s new WOSB (women owned small business) certification that merits comment. Fierce Government reports that NASA audited their fiscal 2010 contracts awarded to self-certified WOSB firms and found that 35…
Read MoreThoughts on Supplier Diversity
It is almost spring, that time of year when many supplier diversity systems send out emails about updating records and providing copies of recently issued or re-issued certifications, again. I’m not sure whether our targeted clients understand how disheartened a SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women or Veteran Business Enterprise) can become when we’ve taken great care to research and prepare presentations to show…
Read MoreWishing and Hoping
I often wonder how many MWBE suppliers are listed in these random corporate and government databases. And, how does Supplier Diversity actually use these registration systems? I think all we diverse suppliers really want is an opportunity to bid competitively to provide our goods or services.
Read MoreWonder If It Will Ever Change?
As an MWBE supplier, persistence, patience and optimism are key tools when navigating the subcontracting roller coaster ride.
Read MoreDiversity Value Add
Supplier Diversity as a circle of life construct brings value to government and private clients, business communities, job markets and future entrpreneurs.
Read More