Boosting Competitive Edge with Supplier Diversity: Goals, Actions, and Future Plans
Supplier Diversity
Partnering with a wide range of diverse suppliers, vendors, and business partners enhances our competitive advantage globally and supports our strategic goals.
Our Approach
We aim to include businesses owned, controlled, and operated by diverse individuals—such as women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ community members, and those with different abilities—in all our bidding processes. Our supplier diversity program outlines the criteria and eligibility for diverse suppliers in the U.S. seeking to work with us.
To foster greater economic impact and growth opportunities for diverse suppliers, we have set a goal to spend $100M with them in the U.S. by 2025. We track our progress with annual targets. For 2023, our target was to spend $53.2 million with diverse suppliers, but we achieved $42.1 million instead.
The shortfall in our 2023 spending was due to unexpected budget constraints and economic challenges that affected our planned expenditures.
Moving forward, we will refine our spending projections and set realistic supplier diversity goals while seeking new opportunities to diversify our supplier base.
Our Actions and Performance in 2023
In 2023, we concentrated on enhancing supplier diversity by engaging with partners, joining membership organizations that support diverse suppliers, and promoting diversity as a key business strategy. We also directly supported diverse suppliers to help them succeed.
We continued our involvement with the Financial Services Roundtable for Supplier Diversity to bolster strong diversity practices within the financial sector.
Additionally, we initiated a supplier development program, pairing seven diverse suppliers with a national business coach and growth curriculum. Participants gained valuable insights into marketing, strategy, and business sustainability.
We also launched internal education campaigns by hosting diverse suppliers on campus and presenting at conferences on the importance of supplier diversity in business success.
What’s Next
For 2024, our aim is to source at least 5% of eligible spend in the U.S.—about $42 million—from diverse suppliers through tier one and tier two spending.
To achieve this, we plan to:
Partnering with a wide range of diverse suppliers, vendors, and business partners enhances our competitive advantage globally and supports our strategic goals.
Our Approach
We aim to include businesses owned, controlled, and operated by diverse individuals—such as women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ community members, and those with different abilities—in all our bidding processes. Our supplier diversity program outlines the criteria and eligibility for diverse suppliers in the U.S. seeking to work with us.
To foster greater economic impact and growth opportunities for diverse suppliers, we have set a goal to spend $100M with them in the U.S. by 2025. We track our progress with annual targets. For 2023, our target was to spend $53.2 million with diverse suppliers, but we achieved $42.1 million instead.
The shortfall in our 2023 spending was due to unexpected budget constraints and economic challenges that affected our planned expenditures.
Moving forward, we will refine our spending projections and set realistic supplier diversity goals while seeking new opportunities to diversify our supplier base.
Our Actions and Performance in 2023
In 2023, we concentrated on enhancing supplier diversity by engaging with partners, joining membership organizations that support diverse suppliers, and promoting diversity as a key business strategy. We also directly supported diverse suppliers to help them succeed.
We continued our involvement with the Financial Services Roundtable for Supplier Diversity to bolster strong diversity practices within the financial sector.
Additionally, we initiated a supplier development program, pairing seven diverse suppliers with a national business coach and growth curriculum. Participants gained valuable insights into marketing, strategy, and business sustainability.
We also launched internal education campaigns by hosting diverse suppliers on campus and presenting at conferences on the importance of supplier diversity in business success.
What’s Next
For 2024, our aim is to source at least 5% of eligible spend in the U.S.—about $42 million—from diverse suppliers through tier one and tier two spending.
To achieve this, we plan to:
- Establish ownership and accountability by collaborating with category managers and business units to find new sourcing opportunities with diverse suppliers.
- Partner with our Employee Resource Groups to build support for supplier diversity across departments.
- Monitor and report on supplier diversity metrics, celebrating and communicating our progress.
- Maintain a comprehensive list of qualified diverse suppliers available for all buyers in our organization.
- Provide a channel for Principal employees to suggest diverse suppliers for evaluation by the supplier diversity team.
- Enhance collaboration with non-diverse tier one suppliers to encourage their use of diverse suppliers, improving the overall health of the diverse supplier network and reinforcing our values.
Click here to know more about our supplier diversity program and requirements.
Progress in spend with diverse suppliers by 2025
- Goal: $100 Million
- Progress: $42.1 Million
Click here to read our 2023 Sustainability Report.
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