Hacking Supplier Diversity

For over fifty years, proponents of supplier diversity have discussed the positive effect on revenue that comes from using underrepresented suppliers. The problem lies in proving such assertions. For far too long, contracting with businesses owned by women, minorities, and those identifying as LGBTQ has been viewed as a "feel-good" act of corporate citizenship-one that rarely survives the next economic downturn. Hacking Supplier Diversity represents the first time the myriad benefits of a diverse supply chain have been thoroughly detailed and documented. Diversity and Inclusion expert Scott A. Vowels, PhD, redefines supplier diversity, focusing on three core issues: The economic impact of diverse suppliers The ways in which a robust supplier diversity program is a revenue enabler The formula for calculating the return on investment of a supplier diversity program A comprehensive and informative read, Hacking Supplier Diversity does for supplier diversity what Jim Collins' Good to Great and Built to Last did for how companies do business. Utilizing a keen sense of humor and expert storytelling, Vowels makes a definitive argument for supplier diversity as a business imperative.

"We regularly read and hear exhortations for women to take up positions in STEM. The call comes from both government and private corporate circles, and it also emanates from enthusiasts for free and open source software (FOSS), i.e. software that anyone is free to use, copy, study, and change in any way. Ironically, rate of participation in FOSS-related work is far lower than in other areas of computing. A 2002 European Union study showed that fewer than 2 percent of software developers in the FOSS world were women. How is it that an intellectual community of activists so open in principle to one and all -a community that prides itself for its enlightened politics and its commitment to social change - should have such a low rate of participation by women? This book is an ethnographic investigation of efforts to improve the diversity in software and hackerspace communities, with particular attention paid to gender diversity advocacy"--

This book provides an in-depth view of supplier diversity programs and how they have contributed to the meteoric rise of minority businesses. Incorporating expert advice from supplier diversity practitioners as well as empirical data, it looks at the emergence of supplier diversity programs, how to make them effective, and their future. Supplier diversity ensures an open and inclusive competition for contracts during the procurement process, and the use of vendors of different backgrounds fosters a better understanding of a diverse customer base. Over the last decade the number of minority-owned firms in the US has increased 38 per cent. As the number of minority entrepreneurs continues to rise, these business owners have recognized the need for B2B opportunities, and supplier diversity programs that create the fastest path to scale and grow a small business. Porter highlights the history and impact of these programs as sources of business education as well as pipeline development for minority and women entrepreneurs. Finally, readers interested in levelling the playing field in business have a go-to source.

Is anonymity a crucial safeguard—or a threat to society? “One of the most well-informed examinations of the Internet available today” (Kirkus Reviews). “The author explores the rich history of anonymity in politics, literature and culture, while also debunking the notion that only troublemakers fear revealing their identities to the world. In relatively few pages, the author is able to get at the heart of identity itself . . . Stryker also introduces the uninitiated into the ‘Deep Web,’ alternative currencies and even the nascent stages of a kind of parallel Web that exists beyond the power of governments to switch it off. Beyond even that is the fundamental question of whether or not absolute anonymity is even possible.” —Kirkus Reviews “Stryker explains how significant web anonymity is to those key companies who mine user data personal information of, for example, the millions of members on social networks. . . . An impassioned, rational defense of web anonymity and digital free expression.” —Publishers Weekly

A new industrial revolution. The age of making. From bits to atoms. Many people are excited by the possibilities offered by new fabrication technologies like 3D printers, and the way in which they are being used in hacker and makerspaces. But why is the power of hacking and making an idea whose time has come? Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement takes the rise of the maker movement as its starting point. Hacker and makerspaces, fab labs, and DIY bio spaces are emerging all over the world. Based on a study of hacker and makerspaces across the US, the book explores cultures of hacking and making in the context of wider social changes, arguing that excitement about the maker movement is not just about the availability of new technologies, but the kinds of citizens we are expected to be.

In this volume, author Urs Gattiker offers a broad overview of Internet and technology-related theory. He examines Internet and multimedia issues from an international perspective, outlining issues of international sovereignty and the potential impact of national interests on global technology policy. He also surveys the issues of regulation and institutionalization of the Internet, examines ways for reducing the inequality of benefits from such technology, and explores the opportunities and challenges the Internet offers for consumers, firms, governments, and interest groups. In assembling this treatise, Gattiker synthesizes a vast body of literature from communication, economics, philosophy, political science, management, psychology, science policy, telecommunication engineering, and other areas. The Internet as a Diverse Community provides readers with a framework for analyzing and selecting between many different Internet choices. It explores issues from a social-impact perspective, using examples from a variety of contexts and firms around the world. The work also offers a wealth of new social theory on such topics as moral and ethical issues and the opportunities, choices, and challenges the Internet offers for consumers, investors, managers, and public policy decision makers. It examines the current and future challenges that computer-mediated technologies present, and sets forth new theoretical perspectives on such areas as multimedia and the profit-maximizing firm; the Internet and the private user; managing multimedia productively; and the social and moral costs of various Internet options and choices. Taken as a whole, this resource provides valuable insights on the Internet and is essential reading for business, telecommunication, public policy, and technology decision makers around the globe.

This book is an introductory roadmap to the advertising process. Advertising is explored as a creative communication message from a brand, created by advertising agencies and distributed across different media to target the right consumers. The book provides an understanding of the benefits of advertising, its role in the economy and, even more so, acknowledges that advertisements are not only about selling but also about effectively communicating a message. The creative and conceptual approach towards the communication process is discussed, and insight is presented into the dynamics within the industry and the different stakeholders involved, while recognising how different creative elements in advertisements are consciously selected to make them appealing. Finally, it considers how to analyse and measure an advert’s effectiveness and looks ahead to future ideas and technologies arising in advertising. Effectively combining theory with practical insight, each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with key learnings. International case studies feature throughout, including insights from British Gas, WPP, Audi and KFC, as well as other examples from smaller organisations and the non-profit sector. Taking students step by step through the advertising process, it is important reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Advertising, Brand Management, Marketing Communications and Media Planning.

Both macro- and microeconomic aspects of biotechnology are discussed in this book for biologists studying microbiology, biochemistry and genetics. It explains economics and accounting procedures from first principles and assumes no prior knowledge of these areas. The author works on developing new biotechnological projects. He draws extensively on his own experience and brings together the factors which determine commercial reasoning towards biotechnology in areas such as markets, project selection, costing and capital investment. His subjects include market analysis, fermentation, enzyme technology, genetic engineering and many others; they are all tied together by a common framework of industrial and technological development.