Expanding Beyond Supplier Diversity to a Business Diversity Ecosystem

Black owned businesses and by extension the Black community continue to be negatively affected by the status quo. A lack of access to capital and opportunities to scale their businesses contributes to the persistent grow in the Black-white wealth gap.

CEO Action for Racial Equity is committed to advancing an innovative approach through a racial equity lens that expands beyond the traditional procurement cycle into professional services, centers the Black-owned business experience, and provides tools, resources, leading practices, and networking opportunities to accelerate learning and improve success.

The business community can do more. Find out how.

  • 7% of Black Americans’ assets are in business equity, compared to 15% for white Americans.1
  • Black Americans make up 13% of the U.S. population, but own less than 2% of small businesses with employees. By contrast, white Americans make up 60% of the U.S. population, but own 82% of small employer firms.2
  • White entrepreneurs start their business with $107,000 of capital on average, but the corresponding figure for Black founders is $35,000.3

Listen to our podcast series: Closing the Gap

> A Look Ahead for CEOARE’s Business Diversity Team
> Meet Supplier Diversity Professionals and CEOARE Fellows Chris Stanley and Randy Brown

Additional episodes available here.

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References

1 Dettling, L.J., Hsu, J. W., Jacobs, L., Moore, K.B., Thompson, J.P. (2017, September 27). Recent Trends in Wealth-Holding by Race and Ethnicity: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances. The Federal Reserve.

2 Maxwell et al., (2020, July 31). A Blueprint for Revamping the Minority Business Development Agency. Center for American Progress.

3 Fairlie, R, Robb, A, Robinson D. (2016, December 15). Black and White: Access to Capital among Minority-Owned Startups. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

“To grow Black entrepreneurship in America, purchasing organizations must look beyond spend as the primary indicator of success and measure other metrics that promote inclusion and the removal of barriers much earlier in the procurement process.”

– Valencia Stoudamire

Director, Non-Clinical Strategic Sourcing, Henry Ford Health System

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