40 Years of Supplier Diversity. Delivered.
AT&T's industry leading Supplier Diversity Programs are celebrating their 40th anniversary. Since 1968 AT&T has been leading the way in supplier diversity, developing best practices for the telecommunications industry and others. In its first year AT&T spent $175,000 with nine minority- and women-owned businesses. Since that time AT&T has spent more than $43 billion with diversity suppliers in all aspects of our global supply chain. Our policies and programs have increased the opportunities for minority, women and disabled veteran business enterprises, not just with AT&T, but throughout the business world.
We are committed to continuing our rich legacy of supplier diversity leadership to provide better business solutions and contribute to the success of all communities. Everyone wins with supplier diversity.
Supplier Diversity Firsts
AT&T's supplier diversity leadership has set the best practices standard for corporate programs nationwide. AT&T was among the first to:
- Establish a formal corporate-wide Supplier Diversity Program in 1968.
- Provide significant funding to loan programs providing access to capital for growing diversity companies. AT&T provided NMSDC's Business Consortium Fund with its first $1 million dollar contribution in 1989.
- Produce an Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) Forum to increase supplier diversity within global manufacturing supply chains as diversity solutions decreased with outsourcing and off-shoring.
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- Join the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) Telecommunications Industry Group (TIG) to develop and share industry-specific supplier diversity best practices.
- Be inducted into the exclusive Billion Dollar Roundtable, a supplier diversity think tank of corporations that spend more than $1 billion annually with diverse companies.
- Help lead TIG to the industry's first goal setting initiative, the Supplier Diversity Challenge of 1999, which increased diversity spend by $28 billion dollars in four years.
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