Working in procurement gives you a great opportunity — and influence — to make a difference using the external spend you control. This kind of leverage is the bedrock of procurement, and the whole reason we exist. Historically, we’ve used it to minimize risk, ensure compliance and get the best prices. But today, there’s a new goal: Helping to foster gender equality throughout our global supplier bases.

At Logitech, equality and the environment are our two core values. Many global companies are doing well on their environmental commitments, making significant progress on targets such as achieving net-zero emissions and becoming carbon-neutral. But in terms of equality — particularly gender equality — there’s been a backslide in progress since the pandemic, and there’s a danger that it will fall further down the list of corporate priorities in the future.

Leading companies all know what their aspirational environmental goals are, but if you ask them when they’re going to be gender equal, few would be able to give a definitive answer. Currently, for most companies, only about 6% of their spend is with diverse suppliers. That leaves a huge untapped opportunity with the other 94% of the supply base. The reality is that a company like Logitech, which is in the technology industry, isn’t going to be able to replace all of our suppliers with diverse vendors, because we need to partner with large organizations that have millions of employees and accrue trillions of dollars of revenue each year.

Despite that, we’re working harder to ensure that our supplier diversity program delivers results, and to influence other companies to commit to equality with a similar focus and energy that they put on environmental objectives. 

Demanding Gender Equality

The key question for my team is: How can we influence our huge peer companies to commit to equality and diversity? Our first step is through the power of collective action. We recently launched the Coalition for Gender Fair Procurement, in conjunction with Gender Fair and other like-minded companies. Gender Fair was formed in 2016 to assess companies in the business-to-consumer sector on equality, with the aim of influencing consumers to spend their money with businesses that have women in senior leadership positions, enforce family-friendly employment policies, and break stereotypes with their advertising.

The coalition is our idea of doing something similar in B2B procurement. With the huge spend in this area, we can have influence and drive progress toward gender equality, especially if enough companies group together and put pressure on their suppliers to commit to these goals. The coalition’s founding companies manage around $15 billion in spend, so there’s quite a bit of leverage we can use to encourage greater gender equality.

 Coalition members have gone to our high-impact suppliers – those with high headcount and high revenue — and asked them to take the Gender Fair assessment, then create an action plan and put it into place to become an ally on our journey. We want our suppliers to work with us to help create a more equal society, and this is a great lever to make that happen. 

 If just Logitech had done that, it might have had some effect, but the impact would have been limited. By joining with other like-minded companies, we can have a much greater sway and drive quicker, more effective change. As more organizations join us, we hope the coalition will grow to more than $100 billion spend under management next year, which will increase the pressure on suppliers to commit to these gender-equality goals. 

Our current economy (and the threat of impending recession) creates a temptation for CEOs to abandon diversity and inclusion goals as they focus on navigating the tough times that lie ahead. But this is the wrong approach. In fact, it’s time to double down on gender equality.

For example, a company that directs $1 million in procurement spending to diverse suppliers can create up to 10 new jobs, which also contributes at least $124,000 in economic impact in the communities through tax revenue. Additionally, an MIT Sloan Management Review article noted that customers are three times more likely to buy from brands they “perceive to be committed to diversity and inclusion,” which is good for business at companies embracing diversity. 

Implementing Autonomous Sourcing

While we’re building coalitions to encourage more gender diversity outside of our company, there’s another piece of the puzzle: We must get internal buy-in and make our business stakeholders willing to engage with suppliers that are equally committed to equality goals. Logitech is quite an autonomous company, so if employees feel that our purchasing model hinders them, they will bypass procurement and use the suppliers they prefer — regardless of whether those companies are committed to equality.

That’s why it is our job in procurement to provide a seamless, user-friendly experience that makes it easy for our business stakeholders to find diverse suppliers, and want to work with us to find the best one for each project. We’ve employed Globality’s autonomous sourcing platform that enables them to easily find diverse suppliers through a consumer-like interface.

Using this sourcing platform, our teams can quickly and easily scope their buying needs. They can then instantly find the best-fit suppliers from preferred provider lists — with diverse suppliers labeled for easy identification — and they are offered a selection of fully-vetted diverse providers as alternatives. Buyers can quickly compare the shortlist side by side, see which options support diversity, and make informed, merit-based decisions on which supplier is the right one for that particular sourcing requirement.

By having immediate access to this broad base of diverse suppliers, Logitech can benefit from the new ideas and perspectives they offer, which can be a crucial competitive advantage in today’s challenging economic environment. The platform’s intuitive user experience, supported by relevant intelligent data insights, encourages our internal stakeholders to partner with us toward our common goal. 

There are definite benefits to having more diversity in procurement, from positive perceptions of a company's brand being more inclusive to ensuring informed decision-making and realizing competitive advantages in a complex marketplace. When we partner with companies that are working toward the same goals, encourage suppliers to become more gender-aware in their own business practices, and adopt technology that offers intelligent data insights into suppliers, we drive positive societal change. We help to ensure that companies put gender equality at the top of their agenda, benefitting both themselves and the global economy as a whole.

David Latten is head of indirect with Logitech.