Diversity Roundtable: Maximizing Diverse Supplier Utilization

Deck: 

Burns & McDonnell

Fortnightly Magazine - May 2021
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It takes lots of planning for energy and utilities companies to maximize supplier diversity. This panel at the Burns & McDonnell Utilities Diversity Roundtable discussed the importance of a strong network of diverse suppliers for all utility operations and how it impacted business resilience in 2020.
 

Assistant Department Manager-Industrial Electrical Solutions Group, Burns & McDonnell, Brittany Bennett: We're going to discuss maximizing diverse supplier utilization, what this truly means, how to advance, and set goals. Also, talk about what's been going on during COVID, as well as within our strong network of diverse suppliers for all of our utility operations.

Director of Supplier Diversity, Ameren, Byron Witherspoon: From Ameren's perspective, we talk about the impact of COVID from a diverse business perspective. We've grown our diverse spend last year by twenty-five percent, but intentional business practice does lend itself to moving the needle.

Time will tell how this goes, because we all had to pivot so quickly with respect to technology. This was not limited to diverse companies and the smaller companies in terms of the digital divide and some amplification in the digital divide, in terms of having the scalability to have the technological resources needed to stay present.

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