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SUPPLIER DIVERSITY
Supplier Diversity at a glance All companies know the importance of bottom-line profits and setting goals to meet this objective. Many companies are also realizing the importance of an effective supplier diversity program and its affect on the bottom line. The demographics of the country are changing and small business enterprises are growing in numbers and competing in cost and quality. The challenge now is to make the linkages between corporations and minority and women-owned business that will ensure the success of both the small business sector and corporate America. How many minority firms are there? According to the latest economic census, conducted by the federal government every five years, African Americans owned 823,499 of all U.S. non-farm businesses in 1997, employed 718,341 people and generated $71.2 billion in revenue. Hispanics owned almost 1.2 million of all non-farm businesses, employed more than 1.3 million people and generated $186.3 billion in revenue. Asian and Pacific Islanders owned some 913,000 businesses, with more than 2.2 million employees and $306.9 billion in revenue. The number
of women-owned firms grew almost three times as fast as all firms between
1992 and 1997, In1997 there were 5.4 million women-owned businesses
in the United States, employing 7.1 million people and generating $818.7
billion in revenues.
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