en
Global
WEConnect International Corporate Member Dell recently hosted its 7th Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network Annual Summit (DWEN) on June 27-28, 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa. At the event, Karen Quintos, Dell chief marketing officer, and soon-to-be chief customer officer, said the company has been putting money specifically into venture capital funding, as well as improving its supplier diversity. Said Quintos:
“We spend billions of dollars a year on goods and services from small minority and women-owned businesses, and just last year alone $350 million went to certifying women-only suppliers.”
In fact, according to its recent Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Dell’s supplier diversity program was ranked #2 in the U.S. by Diversity Inc in FY16. The company was named a top corporation for women-owned businesses by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council for the seventh year in a row. Moreover, globally in FY16, Dell spent $4.9 billion with small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses. Plus, over the last decade, its mentoring, training and networking programs have helped thousands of diverse suppliers scale their businesses.
Having recently attended the WBENC National Conference and Business Fair, a Dell representative recently blogged:
“These days it’s all about expanding the great program we’ve built and using what we’ve learned to create an even bigger impact for Dell and our diverse suppliers. One of the things I’m most excited about is specific to women-owned businesses. Today, many women-owned companies must choose between being certified as a diverse supplier gaining entry into large corporations, like Dell, or accessing the equity capital they may need to grow their business. We’re working with specific certifying bodies to potentially change the certification criteria so that women-owned businesses can attain diverse certification and access capital, thus eliminating the need to choose.”
