Do you do a mid-year review or check in?

As a business owner, I find it helpful to do a mid-year review. And I encouraged my WPO members last month to check in with themselves during our monthly meetings. Are we meeting the goals we set? Six months later do those goals even make sense?

It’s also a good time to zoom out and see where there are other places to add value.  I’m interested to see how supplier diversity will intersect with sustainability moving forward and am linking some articles below that have sparked conversation in my network about where we are, what we need, and where we’re going.

As part of my mid-year review I’m looking back at these topics that got people talking and see how they fit together and where my company can make a difference.

Supplier Diversity Needs a Boost.

This is not news to those of in the supplier diversity space but I appreciate the intersection of the success stories and the challenges in this space. I posted about it on LinkedIn a little while ago but am still thinking about why increased investment hasn’t resulted in big success for these companies. Here are my thoughts but feel free to weigh in with yours.

  1. The funding itself doesn’t mitigate the risk, or perception of risk, of establishing a supplier partnership with a diverse company
  2. Diverse businesses are ready to scale but need networks and know how – along with capital – to prioritize strategic opportunities
  3. The grant funding programs were not strategic transformation initiatives, even as they sought to strategically transform supply chains.

 

Women-owned businesses are likely to be small, but also the main source of income in a household.

 

Losing someone who has been a champion for the network of women and diverse businesses also forces one to pause and reflect. I wrote about attending the memorial for Candace Waterman last month and her legacy.

I was also reminded about my youthful thought, or hope, that we wouldn’t need to be doing anything special for women business owners by now, and how wrong I was.

One of the key results of the study by ADP and NAWBO shows that women are increasingly responsible for their household’s financial wellbeing. At the same time, they struggle to grow their businesses beyond micro-businesses.

I find this so frustrating! The business case for doing business with women business owners is solid. It was solid 20 years ago.

At the same time,  the numbers keep not lying to us. Women business owners need more support, not less. They need more access to capital, networks, and markets.

What opportunities can diverse businesses owners leverage?

One shift that I think women and diverse business owners are poised to take advantage of is the green market revolution or conscious capitalism.  I asked a question on LinkedIn last week and got many thoughtful responses about how ESG and sustainability fit into a profit driven enterprise.

A couple people directed me to different articles, linked here. The big question is actually not whether companies are making a shift from only counting profits to also measuring social and environmental sustainability. Those things are happening.

The commenters debated the motivations of companies for doing so (saving money vs. appealing to younger values driven consumers). I guess I’m less interested in why companies are doing it and more interested in how underestimated founders will take advantage of it.

I hope you enjoy these quick reads from a relaxing summer vacation or during a well-deserved break.  And I’d love to hear what you’re reflecting on and getting re-energized for during the summer months.