Already demonstrating remarkable success in growing supplier diversity, Deloitte continues its journey to become an industry leader. Under Gary Sutton’s leadership, supplier diversity is poised to make an economic impact. - By Lisa Trumbull, Copyright @Deloitte Services LLP

Deloitte has a strong culture of excellence, so it’s no surprise they’re bringing that same culture to supplier diversity. Deloitte’s foray into supplier diversity began in the early 2000’s and was meaningfully elevated in 2009 when Deloitte acquired a government practice. That government practice had already developed an effective supplier diversity program, so the acquisition established a strong platform for growth. As Deloitte’s government practice grew from 2009-2020, so did their spend with diverse suppliers, soaring to nearly $700M annually.

In 2020, Deloitte established its first Purpose office, focused on architecting a more equitable future for all, which includes strengthening its commitment to supplier diversity with an aspirational goal for its US firm to spend $1 billion with Diverse Suppliers by 2025. In 2021, the Office of Business Diversity was established, and Gary Sutton, Managing Director and Office of Business Diversity Leader at Deloitte, established a clear purpose and strategic vision for the future.

Within that framework, Gary noted, “Our goals were not quotas but rather aspirational targets to focus on areas where additional efforts are conisdered important. In furtherance of these efforts, the Office of Business Diversity sought – and continues to seek -- to expand the pool of available supplier resources and further diversify the organization’s supply chain.”

Building A Bridge to The Future

To take Deloitte’s supplier diversity aspirations to the next level, an infrastructure was needed to lead the organization into the future. The know-how needed to build the infrastructure was based on Gary’s 20-year consulting career, where he led numerous clients through procurement organization transformations.

That experience was the inspiration for the decision to establish three critical functional areas within Deloitte’s Office of Business Diversity.

The priority was a reporting and analytics function. This was a priority because of the age-old adage, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Deloitte has built this function into a leading reporting engine that effectively leverages automation.

In parallel, Deloitte launched a function focused on stakeholder outreach and communications. Deloitte knew that any aspirational pursuit involving change required internal and external stakeholders being involved throughout the transformation journey.

What came next was a supplier management function focused on managing Deloitte’s portfolio of diverse suppliers, cataloging their capabilities and assessing their performance.

Taken together, the reporting, stakeholder outreach and communications, and supplier management functions formed Deloitte’s supplier diversity operation and paved the way for the future.

Forming a Team to Lead the Way

Deloitte leaders knew the Office of Business Diversity’s infrastructure would only be as good as the team leading it. Deloitte needed a team with skills grounded in supplier diversity and its network of stakeholders. They needed a team with skills sharpened by years of assessing raw data and developing insights. And, they knew the glue needed to hold it all together was passion for the work.

Leading a “Simpler Life”

Over the years, Gary developed a personal formula for leadership that he calls CMPLR (pronounced simpler). The five elements he’s identified that are important for leadership are making people feel like they are being CHALLENGED, feel like they are MAKING a difference, feel like they are being PRODUCTIVE, feel like they are LEARNING, and feel RECOGNIZED. Gary believes it’s a great day when his team can feel all these things all the time, but his commitment is to work with his team so they feel at least one of these elements on a consistent basis, with the belief that the team’s performance can be elevated in a culture centered around these elements.

Delivering The Results

Deloitte publicly releases the results of its diversity, equity, and inclusion aspirations in their annual DEI Transparency Report. In the last published report following their fiscal year close in May of 2023, total spend with diverse suppliers was reported to be $1.5B, (based on a $1.0B aspiration) a clear indication of the effectiveness of their infrastructure, their team and the incredible support they receive from Deloitte leaders.

And while Deloitte celebrates these numbers, they also recognize the need to think more broadly about ways to translate their supplier diversity efforts into economic impact and go beyond the metric of “spend” as the sole measurement of success.

Deloitte is working on one such effort in Chicago, where they are building a program in collaboration with workforce development organizations tapping into a large pool of skilled workers. This talented labor pool is skilled in areas important to employers, but the individuals in this pool may only have a two-year degree, or no degree, so may not align perfectly with the backgrounds many corporations are accustomed to recruiting.

If this pool of skilled talent receives targeted training, they may have opportunities in corporate apprenticeships, direct corporate hiring, and hiring by suppliers that provide services to corporate and public sector clients. Gary believes that this can be a rich talent pool for suppliers - especially small and diverse suppliers. By tapping into this skills-based talent pool, small and diverse suppliers can grow their businesses and create benefits for their clients and the community, including higher levels of employment and economic development, both of which can become new, broader metrics of supplier diversity success.

Eying The Future

Deloitte’s other aspiration is to be recognized as an industry thought leader on the topic of supplier diversity. To that end, the Office of Business Diversity is focused on making strides in promoting innovative ideas in support of economic development and impact through supplier diversity.

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the “Deloitte” name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

Please visit www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about its global network of member firms. In addition, please visit Deloitte’s Purpose and DEI Office Impact site at https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/purpose-at-deloitte-us.html to learn more about Deloitte’s US firm 1 billion plus spend with Diverse Suppliers by 2025.