U.S. Corporate Leadership Matters to Remain Globally Competitive and to Advance Economic and Social Justice

It’s 2023, and we’re still grappling with issues of being intentionally inclusive in the United States. We can’t deny the educational, economic, and societal impacts of Jim Crow Laws, discrimination, segregation, racism, and sexism on our country. The negative impacts have suppressed our competitiveness and continue to challenge our commitment (or lack of commitment) to invest in our most precious assets – ALL our people. If we aren’t committed to being intentionally inclusive, we’ll be unintentionally exclusive.  

Let’s discuss the future and assume that the US wants to remain competitive in an inextricably connected global economy. With rapid growth in other countries like China, Japan, India, Africa, and Russia (not as much), unlocking and fully engaging our untapped diverse populations is critical. In business, as in sports, when everyone on the team is a high performer, your desired outcomes are more achievable.  

In May 2023, I attended the National Minority Supplier Development’s (NMSDC) Minority Business Economic Forum. NMSDC has more than 700 national corporate members that represent some of America’s largest public and privately-owned global companies.  

At this event, the NMSDC shared the 2022 Economic Impact Report with purchases from NMSDC certified MBEs. The report measured the ripple effect of economic activity through their supply chain by the direct impact at MBEs, indirect impact in MBEs’ supply chain, and induced impact through employee purchases. Here are a few highlights:  

·       NMSDC Certified MBEs earned $316.2B in 2022. This spending resulted in a total impact of $482.1B on the US economy, with $77.9B in additional indirect Impacts, and $88.1B in induced impacts.  

·       NMSDC Certified MBEs hired 957K employees. They supported an additional 371K jobs for downstream suppliers (indirect impact), and 472K jobs in their communities (induced impact). 

·       Employees at NMSDC Certified MBEs earned $79.0B in wages. Employees at downstream suppliers earned an additional $27.8B in wages (indirect Impact), and employees in their communities earned $29.6B in wages (induced Impact). 

 In August, I attended the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) Annual Meeting. The Billion Dollar Roundtable was created in 2001 to recognize and celebrate corporations that achieved spending of at least $1 billion with diverse-owned suppliers.  

At this event Abbott, Amazon, Bristol Myers Squibb, Caterpillar, Citi, Duke Energy and ExxonMobil joined major U.S.-based corporations as member companies of the BDR, for a total of 39 members. BDR membership includes Adient, Apple, AT&T, Avis Budget Group, Bank of America, Boeing, CDW, Comcast NBCUniversal, Cummins, CVS Health, Dell, Entergy, Exelon, Ford, General Motors, Google, Honda North America, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Kaiser-Permanente, Kroger, Merck, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Pacific Gas and Electric, Procter & Gamble, Stellantis, The Home Depot, Toyota Motor North America, Verizon and Walmart. 

In 2022, these 39 BDR member companies spent over $122 billion with diverse suppliers, created over $320 billion in estimated economic impact, generated $93 billion in wages, supported nearly 2 million jobs, and created over $171 billion in business profits and taxes.  

Why do I share all these numbers?  

The data clearly shows that our diverse companies are an integral part of our economy, employing people in the local community, improving tax receipts for public goods, and developing our next generation of workforce executives and community leaders.  

Additionally, these diverse business leaders are core to diverse philanthropy. Many communities rely on the generosity of diverse corporate leaders and businesses to serve as mentors, invest dollars to advance meaningful community diversity initiatives, lead community economic development initiatives like, housing, and voting, and use their voice to shape legislative priorities.  

Addressing these social justice issues is crucial to advancing our global competitiveness. Our country still hasn’t achieved parity in education, employment, gender equality, or business ownership, not to mention the ever-rising wealth gap. And recent events like the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action will only further hinder our ability to drive progress on these challenges and stay competitive in the global market. 

That’s why we must celebrate the corporate leaders who are taking bold and courageous steps to provide opportunities in procurement and build a fairer and more competitive culture at all levels of their organizations.  

More than ever before in US history, we’re looking to our corporate business leaders to advance US global competitiveness by moving from a mindset of supplier diversity to business diversity. The business and community economic benefits are clear- more business growth, more employment, more profits, more taxes, more philanthropy, and more energy to move towards parity.  

Any attack on social justice programs which were established to address discrimination is a direct attack on economic justice. Remember, social justice is inextricably connected to economic justice, which allows the US to remain globally competitive. Let’s continue to prioritize being intentionally inclusive as a US business strategy.