Nalini Bates, the Senior Director, Supplier Citizenship at Procter & Gamble, has a passionate and driven team working with P&G buyers to deliver the supplier diversity strategy. Bates believes team tenacity is as important as having passion, because it takes consistent effort to both bring business units and buyers onboard and keep them engaged. That is why Bates’ team stays laser focused on integrating supplier diversity in the corporate E&I strategy so it is hardwired into the business priorities. One of her challenges is walking the fine line between simplifying the work for buyers and increasing expectations to grow spend.
Bates believes that at the core of supplier diversity is economic empowerment, creating many opportunities for P&G to help the effort. She aims for the ripple effects made possible when people have the same purpose and vision, i.e. purchasing uses corporate money as spend with suppliers who believe in economic empowerment through supplier diversity. Bates appreciates the support coming from the C-suite, which holds her team and the business units accountable for meeting goals.