Prudential provides meaningful opportunities for diverse suppliers to compete for its business.
“Prudential has made a lot of inroads in nontraditional purchasing with law firms. In 2009, Prudential and DuPont approached the National Association of Minority- and Women-Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) to launch an Inclusion Initiative to increase the utilization of MWBE law firms by corporate legal departments. And thanks to our law department, since 2006, our percentage of spend with MWBE firms has increased more than tenfold.”
Beth Canning
Supplier Diversity Manager
Prudential embraces diversity and inclusion and sees it as inextricably linked to achieving our aspirations: To be a people leader, business leader, and most admired company. Vendor diversity is a key initiative for the company. The underlying principle is that tapping into vendors who reflect the demographics of our marketplace makes great business sense for everyone—our customers, our vendors, and Prudential.
Our objective is to leverage the unique perspectives and innovative thinking of a diverse group of vendor-partners in a way that enables us to provide increased value to our clients and shareholders. Through this commitment, Prudential has successfully established many key diverse-supplier relationships and made inroads into nontraditional suppliers, such as legal firms, where the company has led an initiative to engage certified minority- and women-owned law firms.
We award contracts for goods and services through a disciplined sourcing process that uses the expertise of skilled procurement and sourcing personnel, as well as cross-functional sourcing teams. We are currently rolling out a management structure based on categories of spend that will allow us to centralize procurement efforts and consistently employ the sourcing process in a responsible, ethical manner in line with Prudential’s values and code of conduct. We expect that this process will broaden opportunities for diverse suppliers and deepen the resulting vendor relationships. Our experience to date has shown an increase in the opportunities being extended to diverse-owned firms and the success of diverse firms in winning business.
Prudential hosts an annual Diverse Supplier Summit, which brings our buyers and key diverse vendors together to focus on topics that deepen the vendors’ understanding of Prudential and enhance the value they provide. The Summit is an opportunity for Prudential to share subject matter expertise in areas that will strengthen each vendor’s ability to meet the requirements of firms like Prudential.
Prudential requires certification for minority- and women-owned firms. More information on Prudential’s vendor diversity initiative is available at www.prudential.com/supplierdiversity. Information on how to do business with Prudential is available at www.prudential.com/procurement.
