2020

In 2020, Meta expanded its supplier diversity efforts in APAC, EMEA,and LATAM, and the focus was on making as big an impact for diverse-owned businesses as possible

From European to global supplier diversity partnerships

To have a truly inclusive supply chain, Sands says that Meta needs to partner with suppliers that are not just based in the United Kingdom or the United States. There is another kind of ’united’ that Meta has in mind.

“Our supply chain needs to be where our customers are, and our stakeholders need to represent the communities that we work with. For this reason, collaborating with our advocacy partners to expand supplier diversity outside of the US and UK is a core priority for us.

“Further, we’ve been partnering with a number of organisations and two of the big partners that we are really focused on for 2023 are the European Supplier Diversity Project and the Global Supplier Diversity Alliance.”

Supplier Diversity: European, Global

The European Supplier Diversity Project started as a way to help ethnic minority businesses in Europe to do business with corporates like Meta. Their objective is to expand certification to six new markets in Europe, and Meta is a founding member of that programme.

“The Global Supplier Diversity Alliance on the other hand, will act as a governing body laying out a framework for country and regional supplier diversity initiatives. They will be investing in world class research into the business case for supplier diversity at country and regional levels, and will support other advocacy bodies to grow their certification programmes.”

Through the web of these programmes, and fittingly, the interconnectivity that they represent, we can see the network of Meta’s supplier diversity initiatives steadily expanding across the globe.

Orienting Meta’s supplier-diversity initiatives Sands says that for 2023, Meta will continue to provide opportunities and increase spend with diverse-owned businesses. “We’ll be looking at our tooling and using data-driven decision making to build on them to ensure that stakeholders can make well-informed buying decisions.

“We’ll also be prioritising our external corporate relationships to share best practices and collaborate as part of a wider community.”

Just as Meta is aiming to connect and forge communities between diverse suppliers, we feel that Meta remaining connected to other companies and developing wider corporate communities is an inevitable part of the process.

Supplier Readiness and Champions

Sands says: “Two of the internal programmes that I’m really excited about in particular for this year are our Supplier Readiness Programme and our Champions Programme.

“The Supplier Readiness Programme will look at how we can support diverse businesses in becoming ready to work with companies like Meta, through the training, information and guidance we can provide so that they can be successful.

“The Champions program is a broader program looking internally at how we can increase advocacy and adoption of supplier diversity by our employees, and really create a community of champions to support the cause.”

Meta

Stronger, together

I ask Sands about her visions and hopes as head of supplier diversity for the EMEA region, and she doesn’t flinch.

“I hope to see more cross collaboration with corporates and advocacy partners.

“We can create a lot of positive change by sharing best practices and helping other companies to start their own supplier diversity journeys.”

Meta’s supplier diversity initiative seeks to further expand into Europe over the next few years.

“When we look at supplier diversity,” she says, “the UK is behind the US, but actually, Europe lags behind the UK.

“With the work that MSDUK are doing in the European Supplier Diversity Project; and that which WeConnect International are doing in broadening their scope, we’ll see more European companies start to create their own supplier diversity programmes which will be incredibly impactful.

“I hope to see more transparency around how we’re measuring supplier diversity; what we are measuring; how we’re measuring, and what the standards are by which we’re measuring supplier diversity and success.”

If credibility is to be achieved, and real change is to be brought about in the world, quantifiable KPIs must be ushered in. More hope, less faith.

Sands predicts that there will be a fundamental change in the way that the economic impact from supplier diversity is measured, and in conclusion, asserts the formula that sits in essential poise at the human heart of supplier diversity as a principle – she says: “We can go further and faster, if we go together.”