The Importance of Supplier Diversity: How CWB is Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada

When Tanya Priske walks into a corporate office to talk about supplier diversity, she’s thankful she no longer gets a blank stare. After more than a decade of working to ensure corporate and government buyers understand why it is important to include diverse suppliers in their supply chains, she is seeing positive changes. But the Centre for Women in Business’(CWB) executive director knows her work helping to grow a strong ecosystem that connects women-owned businesses to procurement opportunities is far from done.

“In Canada, more and more people are talking about supplier diversity,” Priske says. “The landscape has changed. Diversity, equity and inclusion is huge. Now we don’t want to just say to you: work with women; we want you to buy from women, we want you to engage them.”

When Priske travelled to the U.S. for conferences a decade ago, she heard stories of women who started businesses in their home basements and thanks to proactive supplier diversity programs, which targeted groups not traditionally included in the supply chain, they had grown multi-million-dollar companies. Priske returned to Nova Scotia from those trips certain the CWB needed to build on the work it was doing to help entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada get to the same place.

“We saw how supplier diversity could transform not only women-owned businesses but other diverse suppliers. We wanted to make sure that the women we work with were aware of the opportunity and what it could do for their business in terms of new markets,” Priske says.

In 2022, with support from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the CWB launched Advancing Supplier Diversity in Atlantic Canada, a tailored mentorship pilot program. The project — run in collaboration with WBE Canada — successfully connected 40 women business owners from the region with local and multi- national corporations, as well as various levels of government and introduced them to new procurement opportunities.

The CWB chose to collaborate with WBE Canada on the mentorship program because the national organization certifies women-owned Canadian business and helps them access opportunities with larger corporate and government buyers. Women-owned businesses in the country make up less than five per cent of all domestic and international suppliers to corporations and governments, WBE Canada estimates. The result: women’s businesses don’t grow, big businesses miss out on innovation, and national productivity suffers.

WBE Canada and the CWB are pushing for Canada to mirror the growth of supplier diversity in American and British multinational corporations. More than 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies have supplier diversity programs that target underrepresented businesses, aimed at expanding buyers’ choice, boosting competitiveness and innovation.

“Our partnership with the CWB has been very successful,” says Charli Law Jury, interim CEO and director of finance and operations at WBE Canada “Both organizations are focused on supporting and empowering women entrepreneurship.”

As a sign of its outstanding work in the field, WBE Canada awarded the CWB a champion award in 2023. “They continue excellent work and are dedicated to supporting supplier diversity in the Atlantic region and beyond,” Law Jury says.

The pandemic taught Canada the importance of preserving, diversifying, and increasing our local supply chains, says Judith Richardson, the CWB’s head of Advancing Supplier Diversity in Atlantic Canada. The more a corporation or a government entity buys from its diverse local suppliers, the more adaptable it is, and the more money gets pumped into the local economy to help increase employment opportunities.

“Diverse suppliers are nimbler because they’re not huge corporations and the more you engage with diverse suppliers the more different perspectives you get,” Richardson says. “From a corporate perspective having a diverse supply chain has nothing to do with charity – it is a good business strategy.”

One common challenge the women entrepreneurs Richardson worked with faced was a lack of familiarity with the complexities of corporate procurement systems. These complexities were roadblocks on the path to securing contracts with large corporations. The CWB’s mentorship program helped change that. Through the program, the participants each received six months of mentorship from both a WBE Canada corporate mentor and a certified WBE Canada mentor, plus ongoing support from Richardson.

“There is good value flowing back and forth. This is what should happen with a good mentorship relationship,” says Richardson, who continues to collaborate with participants.

The mentorship program’s targeted training sessions offered participants everything from how to pitch to companies like Bell Canada or Telus to how to talk to a potential client about managing risk. “The training sessions gave them confidence and opportunities to actually pitch to corporates,” says Jennifer Popowycz, WBE Canada’s director of certification and community. “It also promoted camaraderie between the women business owners in the region.”

Whether or not the women business owners secured a corporate contract through the mentorship program, they all learned new skills, expanded their networks, and increased their opportunities to do business with more women entrepreneurs. All the program participants also went through the rigorous process of becoming WBE Canada certified. In addition to WBE

Canada, the CWB works with other diverse organizations, including CGLCC, which offers certification for LGBTQ-owned businesses, CAMSC (minority and aboriginal-owned businesses) and IWSCC (persons with disabilities and veteran-owned businesses).

Ingrid Deon had never heard of supplier diversity when she started her Yarmouth-based social media company in 2019. But after enrolling in the CWB’s mentorship program in 2022 and becoming WBE Canada certified, she’s now spreading the word to other women entrepreneurs.

“The mentorship program was great. When you first become WBE certified it is kind of a new landscape and they really walk you through everything,” says the CEO and founder of word-craft. “Certification opens doors. I’ve been able to get new clients I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”

At the first annual WBE conference Deon attended in Toronto she had a fortuitous meeting with the woman responsible for marketing at RBC Wealth Management. Within a month, Deon had a contract to write LinkedIn posts to help the financial services company better engage its community.

Deon was at the WBE Canada conference again last year, along with 22 business owners from Atlantic Canada. She spoke on a panel about her experiences and met a Cotton Candy representative. The meeting led Deon to sign a contract to develop LinkedIn content monthly for the marketing company.

Jenny Smith, president and executive creative director of Ray, also credits the CWB’s mentorship program for landing meaningful contracts, helping her to develop strong relationships with other regional women entrepreneurs and restructuring her St. John’s-based advertising company after the devastating effects of the pandemic.

“The program makes you focus on your key offerings. It really made me focus from a strategic standpoint on my business. I wouldn’t have done that otherwise,” says Smith. “After COVID, we are coming out on the other side a much healthier, a much more stable and well-positioned agency.”

Having run her own women-led business for 11 years, Smith sees her company’s diversity as its greatest asset. “We really believe diversity drives innovation. We believe the best results come from lots of different points of views and different perspectives. We don’t just talk the talk; we walk the walk.”

The CWB will continue to educate corporate and government entities locally on the importance of supplier diversity and host supplier Diversity Day events where they can meet women entrepreneurs who they might buy from. The CWB will also ensure its voice is heard on government advisory panels pertaining to increasing supplier diversity in procurement and that valuable knowledge is shared with other regional associations collaborating with women in business.

“We can’t do it alone,” Priske says. “These partnerships and relationships we’ve built are beneficial to the women we work with. We’re all working together to build a culture of supplier diversity here in Atlantic Canada.”

To read more check out the news release: Halifax-based entrepreneurship centres propel inclusive business growth