What You Say Matters!

We’ve been interviewing supplier diversity (SD) specialists over the last few months and the most recent answer to “what’s one of your pet peeves” struck us as we get ready for the diverse business conference season to kickoff into high gear. His peeve, a diverse supplier coming up to speak with him and asking what…

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Help! I don’t have that document.

The certification process is co-dependent. The business itself is being certified as being capable to provide its products and/or services. The business is being certified as being at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a diverse individual(s) who possesses the knowledge and skill to run the business applying for certification. This is why certifiers require supporting documentation…

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Mandated Spend – What’s That Mean?

SDMWVLGBTBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) hear a lot about mandated diversity goals. But that word, mandate, can be used in multiple ways. A large corporation may have its own internal mandates that are not relevant to any specific job or project.  These mandates, or goals, exist…

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Notes on Supplier Diversity

So, we read a post on LinkedIn the other day and just can’t get it out of our heads. The reason is because this is a bigger issue than our colleague Tammy Davis, CEO at NexLevel, wrote. She’s not wrong in her characterization of some supplier diversity professionals (SDP). Like us, they are imperfect humans doing…

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Meet the 3rd Party Certifiers

New businesses open every day and we know entering the diverse supplier landscape can be confusing with all those acronyms flying around for the types of certifications available (DOBE, MBE, WBE, etc.) and certifiers (NGLCC, NVBDC, USPAACC, etc.) who offer them. Today we’re re-introducing the 3rd party certifiers (which means these certifiers are not a…

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Navigating NAICS

NAICS (the North American Industry Classification System) codes, pronounced “NAKES” can have a profound impact on SDMWVLGBTBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprises) for a bunch of reasons. NAICS is a shorthand description of your business’s good and services used by many of the US certifying agencies.…

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Practicing Patience

So we’re all entrepreneurs here, right? SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) owner(s), certified or on the path to certification or interested in the topic. We write and talk about supplier diversity professionals and certifying organizations, but it occurs to us that we haven’t talked much about the…

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Thoughts About Roots

We’ve talked about how Supplier Diversity has its roots in Civil Rights and Affirmative Action legislation before.  Long story short, President Johnson amended President Kennedy’s E.O. 11246, which established the Office of Federal Contract Compliance. This required companies with federal contracts to make good-faith efforts to expand employment opportunities for both women and minorities. Once…

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Profiles in Certification – OQ Point LLC

We’re back with another certification profile. As a reminder, Samantha Smith interviews potential businesses, so email us with a request to be included — and no, you don’t have to be a GetDiversityCertified.com client.  Next up, OQ Point, LLC. If you are considering diversity certification, you might be asking yourself: Which certification should I choose? And…

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Profiles in Certification – SourceOne Innovations, Inc.

This year we decided to do something different, profiling a SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) and a specific diverse certification. Samantha Smith interviews potential businesses, so email us with a request to be included — no, you don’t have to be a GetDiversityCertified.com client. Next…

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