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BELLSOUTH
No. 9
No. 6 Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity
Business Type: Telecommunications
Corporate Headquarters: Atlanta, Ga.
Number of U.S. Employees: 63,000
Annual Worldwide Revenues: $20.5 billion
Three years ago, in an effort to strengthen its supplier-diversity program, BellSouth created a diversity council exclusively focused on the supply chain, bringing
together leaders of departments that spent the most with
suppliers. “It caused them, as they sat around talking to
each other, to identify some of the best minority business
Duane Ackerman
Chairman and CEO
Valencia Adams
Vice President and
Chief Diversity Officer
enterprises that could service us,”
says Valencia Adams, vice president
and chief diversity officer. “That
could not have happened, certainly
not with the speed with which it
happened, without having that
group focused on the goal.”
The Supplier Diversity Advisory
Council, established by Chairman
and CEO Duane Ackerman, works
with the Chairman’s Diversity
Council, the diversity office and the
supply-chain office to advance the
company’s supplier-diversity goals.
That work helped BellSouth
funnel 16 percent of total spending
(nearly $1 billion) to businesses
owned by people of color, women
and veterans with disabilities last
year. To achieve that level of spending, the company partners with
outside supplier-diversity organizations and works with small companies directly, helping them move
into the supply chain through
training sessions, conferences and
workshops that provide insight into
BellSouth’s procurement process.
“We make sure we provide assis-
tance so they know what we’re
looking for, what it’s going to take
to do business,” Adams says. “We
remove the road blocks so they can
be successful … Sometimes we pair
them with other businesses, and by
having those connections they
become stronger candidates for
particular assignments.”
Each year, BellSouth selects two
business entrepreneurs of color to
attend an executive-education program aimed at providing high-level
management training to executives
in large corporations. The strategies developed during these sesions
enable them to increase the profitability of their firms and their
value as suppliers to BellSouth.
Corporate contract managers
attend quarterly presentations on
the results of contracts awarded to
diverse suppliers.
BellSouth had a consistent
retention rate: 95 percent for
whites, 94 percent for blacks, 94
percent for Latinos, 96 percent for
Asian Americans and 93 percent
for women. —T.J. DeGroat
