About the Supplier Diversity Initiative
Case is committed to the goal of enhancing economic opportunities for minority-owned, women-owned, and disadvantaged business enterprises in the community. In June 2002, Case placed a renewed emphasis on this commitment by forming the Supplier Diversity Initiative Council (SDIC) to assist minority- and women-owned business enterprises in gaining greater access to business opportunities at the university. The specific objectives of the council were to:
- Identify barriers to doing business at the university
- Review dollar volumes and make suggestions on how to increase them
- Identify and act upon ways to reach out to minority and women-owned businesses (MBE and WBE, respectively).
Some examples of ways in which barriers were removed include the following:
- The SDIC identified the low threshold for requiring bonding of contractors as a significant barrier for MBE and WBE contractors to participate in construction bids or to be the low-cost bidder. By raising the project cost threshold for bonding from $25,000 to $500,000, more MBE and WBE vendors could then bid on the projects in this contract range. The university continues to work on developing additional approaches to further address this barrier.
- The SDIC also identified the university’s invoice payment policy as a barrier for a significant number of MBE and WBE vendors and contractors, especially small businesses. The policy has been modified to allow payments within ten days from the date of invoice receipt and approval, thus reducing the payment cycle by 20 days.
Since the formation of the council, Case has awarded over $40 million of business to minority- and women-owned businesses. The Supplier Diversity program has been recognized locally and nationally as one of the most progressive and successful programs of its kind. Case has received several awards and recognitions locally and nationally for this effort, including the most distinguished private business award from the Hispanic Business Association in April 2003, the Medal of Freedom Award from the Cleveland Chapter of NAACP, and the Governor’s Supplier Diversity Initiative award in June 2003.
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