Implementing Supplier Diversity: Driver of Entrepreneurship

This book provides an in-depth view of supplier diversity programs and how they have contributed to the meteoric rise of minority businesses. Incorporating expert advice from supplier diversity practitioners as well as empirical data, it looks at the emergence of supplier diversity programs, how to make them effective, and their future.

Supplier diversity ensures an open and inclusive competition for contracts during the procurement process, and the use of vendors of different backgrounds fosters a better understanding of a diverse customer base. Over the last decade the number of minority-owned firms in the US has increased 38 per cent. As the number of minority entrepreneurs continues to rise, these business owners have recognized the need for B2B opportunities, and supplier diversity programs that create the fastest path to scale and grow a small business.

Porter highlights the history and impact of these programs as sources of business education as well as pipeline development for minority and women entrepreneurs. Finally, readers interested in levelling the playing field in business have a go-to source.

Kathey K. Porter is a nationally-recognized small business expert with experience spanning nearly two decades in marketing, small business development, supplier diversity and entrepreneurship. Kathey has been a supplier diversity director and consultant for the government, higher education, and corporate sectors and has successfully assisted small businesses in receiving millions of dollars in contract opportunities.

A frequent speaker, panelist, workshop facilitator and adjunct business instructor, Kathey has held leadership roles on several state and national supplier diversity and small business advisory committees and was appointed to the Florida Advisory Council on Small and Minority Business Development by the Secretary for the Florida Department of Management Services.

Kathey has been featured in numerous media outlets including Ebony, Black Enterprise, the Huffington Post, Sirius XM, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ESSENCE magazine as a small business expert. A contributor to several local and national magazines, blogs and platforms including OPENForum by American Express, her first book, 50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership (2015) was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Kathey received her Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity (CPSD) credentials through the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).