Bulletin for External Business Partners

P&G External Business Partners:

 

For the last few weeks I have been providing updates on COVID-19. However, today I wanted to use this opportunity and address recent events that started in the US but have now impacted the globe.

 

We have witnessed emotional reminders how important Diversity & Inclusion work is, and how much more there is to do. We need to come together across stakeholder communities to drive action and make meaningful progress. The root causes are deep and will require all of us to do our part, in steps, to strive for equality. 

 

Yesterday we announced that, together with our brands, P&G is establishing the Take On Race Fund to accelerate and expand the work to fight for justice, advance economic opportunity, enable greater access to education and health care and make our communities more equitable.  These are all new and increased commitments that recognize this moment of urgency in our society.  You can find the full blog posting on our website here:  https://us.pg.com/blogs/take-on-race/.  This is just the beginning, but we recognize this is not enough and that we have to continue to take a stand and make additional steps to ensure greater progress.

 

As you know, P&G has invested in building a best-in-class Supplier Diversity program over the last 40+ years. We spend more than $2B per year with diverse-owned businesses globally, approximately $1B of which is with minority-owned businesses in the US. Recently, to help with COVID-19 recovery for small businesses in Cincinnati, we contributed to a local gift card matching program that brought direct economic lift to minority owned restaurants. In partnership with WeConnect, P&G has kicked off Business Development Programs to build capability of female entrepreneurs in Singapore and South Africa.

 

We must do more. We are developing a focused and ambitious plan to increase our investment in the minority business community. With the help from P&G’s senior leaders this work will be integrated into all our businesses, so the programs are well supported to make a positive economic impact. Our team will also seek out and develop more opportunities to build the capabilities of minority business leaders, to encourage entrepreneurship and accelerate their business growth. However, we cannot do this work alone.  This will require a higher level of collaboration with you, our external business partners, to pledge to grow your spend with minority-owned businesses.  We will continue to track progress through our 2nd Tier program and reporting, and we encourage you to challenge your organizations to develop more robust plans to invest and support the diverse communities, where we live and work, in order to build a more equitable world together. 

 

Engage and open the dialog. If you have not already done so, please encourage the dialog and keep open the communication lines with your people. Our P&G experience is people have deep concerns, particularly in our African American community. By more intently listening, we can begin to better bridge our understanding and reality of how different people feel and what we can mutually do together to bring about positive, inclusive change.  

 

Thanks in advance for your help to step up ongoing efforts to advance equality for all people. 

 

Stay tuned to pgsupplier.com so we can share important updates on this work going forward.

 

Best Regards,

Ana Elena Marziano

P&G Chief Purchasing Officer