Dell Recognized As Top Opportunity Provider For Minorities, Women
ROUND ROCK, Texas, -- DiversityBusiness.com recognizes Dell as the No. 1 corporation for providing business opportunities for minority and woman-owned businesses. Dell recently accepted the award at the annual National Multicultural Business Conference in Washington, D.C.
The results are published in DiversityBusiness.com's annual ranking of companies in the U.S. More than 600,000 minority and woman-owned businesses nationwide were polled in an online survey run by DiversityBusiness.com to determine the top 50 major corporations for multicultural business opportunities, putting Dell at the top of the list. It is Dell's first time to rank No. 1 on the list, though the company Dell has placed among the top five in previous years.
"Dell is a positive force for providing mutually beneficial opportunities for diversity and women-owned businesses," said Kenton Clarke, CEO of DiversityBusiness.com. "By nurturing relationships with these firms, Dell is enabling them to expand their businesses and prosper."
Given Dell's heritage as a small and medium business, the company is committed to helping minority and woman-owned businesses grow and develop. Dell partners with the Southwest Minority Supplier Development Council (SMSDC), based in Texas, to help minority businesses retool for the new economy. In addition, Dell maintains its membership in the Billion Dollar Roundtable, a group of Fortune 500 companies that consistently spends $1 billion plus with minority and woman-owned suppliers.
"We are honored to receive this award," said Kevin M. Brown, Dell's Chief Procurement Officer. "Women-owned businesses contribute approximately $3 billion to the national economy. When you add in the billions of dollars generated by minority businesses, you realize the depth of the opportunity. Focusing on minority- and woman-owned businesses is not simply altruistic, it makes sound business sense and is critical to Dell's continued growth and success."
Entrepreneurs want access to tools that help them help themselves. Dell's Take Your Own Path website offers a Solutions Center, where small and medium businesses can learn which products and services are right for their business and talk to a Dell technologist, an SMB Learning Center which provides updates on best technology practices, and an easy-to-use Business Trailblazers site, where entrepreneurs can read about how fellow entrepreneurs achieved their own particular brand of success.
Now Dell is elevating and amplifying the focus on minority and woman entrepreneurs both locally and globally. At the global level, Dell and Bloomberg are jointly sponsoring a Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo on June 20-22, 2010. The primary event goal is to create and nurture a peer group of some of the world's most interesting and innovative woman entrepreneurs, who will create their own "old girl" network to exchange ideas on how IT helps drive their successful businesses.
About DiversityBusiness.com
Launched in 1999, DiversityBusiness, with over 48,000 members, is the largest organization of diversity owned businesses throughout the United States that provide goods and services to Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, and colleges and universities. DiversityBusiness provides research and data collection services for diversity including the "Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities," "Top 500 Diversity Owned Companies in America," and others.
The Div50
The Div50 is a listing of the top 50 corporate and organizational buyers of diversity products and services throughout the U.S. It represents the voice of over 600,000 diversity-owned (women, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native American, and other multicultural groups) businesses in the U.S., in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, food service and professional services.
About Dell
Dell Inc. (DELL 14.90, -0.10, -0.67%) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they need and value. For more information, visit www.dell.com.
SOURCE: Dell Inc.
