To develop a more diverse set of suppliers.

In June of 2020, we created a robust Supplier Inclusion program that in five years’ time will result in 15% of our purchases coming from suppliers certified as “diverse”. This would represent a 400% increase from where we were at the time of the program’s creation. We developed this program because of our belief that it would:

• Provide access to new and unique industry perspectives that might not otherwise be considered with a traditionally non-diverse supplier base; allowing us to be more in-tune with, and responsive to, our customers’ needs.
• Increase the size of the pool of qualified suppliers, resulting in greater competition and innovation, which inherently leads to lower costs, increased quality across affected products and services, and risk mitigation.
• Help us attract and retain talent.
• Foster brand awareness, engagement and loyalty in targeted markets.

In the first year of the program, we aimed to have an open dialogue with the I&D team to align Supplier Inclusion initiatives with the broader MH diversity strategy; discuss how to best engage targeted suppliers; validate current “diverse” spend and identify gaps in spend capture. Our target was to have 5% of our spending come from diverse suppliers by the end of the first year. We were successful in accomplishing our goals.

5% of our spending came from diverse suppliers in the first year of the program.