JPMORGAN CHASE & CO .
“ WE VIEW SUPPLIER DIVERSITY NOT ONLY AS A MORAL IMPERATIVE BUT AS SMART BUSINESS ”
JIM CONNELL CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO .
Very nascent supplier diversity programs , or those still in the planning stages , are labelled ‘ emerging ’. Relatively successful supplier diversity programs that have been established for several years are categorised as ‘ established ’, while industry-leading , bestin-class supplier diversity programs are considered ‘ mature ’.
“ That benchmarking allowed us to approach each supplier in a different way ,” Connell explains . " We asked them to draft and submit a growth plan that would show us over a three-year horizon how they ' re going to improve supplier diversity , in general , and specifically with Black , Hispanic and Latino companies . We then benchmarked those growth plans against each other , and once we felt they were sufficiently ambitious , we accepted them .”
To date , almost 40 % of Gold Supplier growth plans have been determined ambitious enough to have an impact . Collectively they will increase diverse spend by $ 6.2bn over the next three years , $ 1.2bn of which is earmarked for Black , Hispanic and Latino suppliers . Financially , it is a major step in the right direction for diverse businesses , and Connell expects that figure to balloon further as more Gold Suppliers are fully onboarded . What ’ s even more motivating to Connell and his team is ending 2021 with about a dozen Gold Suppliers initiating a supplier diversity program for the very first time .
“ Most exciting is the exponential impact of this ,” he says . “ Around half of our Gold Suppliers have also committed to replicating this initiative with their supply chains , cascading the mandate that diversity is a priority for them . We ' re excited about the idea of magnifying and multiplying that impact . If we can , in some small way by evangelising the methodology that we use ,
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