Verizon leads and learns at Billion Dollar Roundtable Summit
The Summit connects leading companies that use their spending power to promote supplier diversity and support economies across the globe.
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In August, we opened the doors of our world-class learning and event center The Ridge in Basking Ridge, NJ to host the Billion Dollar Roundtable Summit. The purpose was to share best practices for supplier diversity with other top companies, so we can continue to be a leader and make our business better.
The Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) consists of 29 companies that spend at least $1 billion annually with minority, women, veteran, disabled, and LGBT owned diverse suppliers, and helps lead supplier diversity initiatives on a global scale. BDR’s mission is: “To drive supplier diversity excellence through best practice sharing and thought leadership.” Leveraging its members’ knowledge and experience, the BDR promotes and shares best practices in supply chain diversity excellence.
As a charter member of the BDR, our commitment to investing in and partnering with diverse suppliers is rooted in our Credo principles of “bigness is not our strength, best is our strength” and “we share our success with the community.” We build capabilities with the diverse suppliers we work with, which in turn helps them build partnerships with other large businesses. This is another way our business delivers on its mission to help people to do more in this world (see these stories about VZ suppliers). But we’re always looking for ways to be better, and the BDR helps us accomplish that.
Welcome to the BDR Summit.
Verizon was honored to host this year’s Billion Dollar Roundtable Summit, coordinated by our Supplier Diversity and Inclusion and Supply Chain teams.This year’s theme of “Magnifying Expectations Through Supplier Diversity Next Best Practices” supports our collective ability through the BDR to lead supplier diversity initiatives on a global scale.
As part of the BDR Summit, we also hosted the first BDR CPO (Chief Procurement Officer) Summit, sponsored by our Global Supply Chain leader John Vazquez. This event included 20 CPOs from the Fortune 50, and provided a forum for discussions about improving supply chain ecosystems for diverse suppliers. Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, economist and political commentator, was the keynote speaker and shared his thoughts on how diverse suppliers impact the economy, the digital divide, and the importance of ensuring access to technology.
Supplier diversity fuels a better business.
The two-day event was filled with thoughtful discussion and collaboration on how to better engage with diverse suppliers as they impact the customers and communities we serve. Magda Yrizarry, our Talent & Diversity leader, welcomed the crowd by talking about Verizon’s purpose and the value of diversity to develop solutions for tomorrow’s technology needs.
John Vazquez, who participated as part of the CPO panel discussion, added, “Our key focus is engaging with more diverse suppliers in the technology space. That’s why we’ve established 5G labs in eight cities around the country. To attract the most innovative minds in the world. Our job is to create the platform and invite diverse talent to come in, and show us how to leverage 5G technology.”
Through the BDR, Verizon has developed lasting partnerships and gained valuable insights for supplier diversity excellence. In order to deliver solutions that meet the needs of a multicultural world, we need diverse suppliers to help us connect with customers in new and innovative ways. It’s smart business, good for our customers, and part of our responsibility as corporate citizens.
To read more about Verizon's supplier diversity program, please visit www.verizon.com/supplierdiversity
