When a corporation helps its minority- and women-owned suppliers grow, it's really preparing itself to be more competitive and in touch with expanding markets. Just as in any relationship, success between partners is contingent on knowing each other's goals. Susan Bari, president of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), urges companies to educate suppliers about opportunities so suppliers have enough time to make adjustments that will allow them to benefit in ways they may not have anticipated.

"So, for example, IBM is moving a lot of its operations to China, and if it communicates effectively with current suppliers, they may find opportunities to grow internationally," Bari says.  

Carmen Castillo, a member of WBENC, opened offices in Beijing, China, to service corporate clients in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Castillo, president of Superior Design International, provides its Fortune 500 clients with Web-based vendor and supply-chain-management services and tools, IT temporary staffing, and payroll services. IBM is one of its clients.

"If she did not have a good communication with corporate clients and the direction they were taking, she would not understand the roadmap for her own company," Bari says. "But because she has good dialogue with IBM, she was able to understand market trends and what she needed to do to strengthen and grow her business."

Sempra Energy, No. 1 on the DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity list and No. 19 on The 2006 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, mentors its diverse suppliers through entrepreneur-management-enhancement programs it sponsors to ensure they continue to grow. Some of these programs include helping businesses set up a strategic plan and teaching them how to analyze balance sheets and profit and loss statements. Successful MBE and WBE suppliers provide Sempra a link to fast-growing markets. 

"If we think they have high potential, we will in effect take them under our wing and help them to refine their skills," says Frank J. Urtasun, director of diverse business enterprises for Sempra's San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Gas Co. "Those are the kinds of things we think are critical to helping promising suppliers get to the next level."

Comerica, No. 4 on the Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity list and No. 12 on The 2006 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, also offers its MBEs and WBEs coaching and mentoring. Don P. Alessi, vice president and national minority business development coordinator at Comerica, says his department advises suppliers on what they need to know about specific departments and keeps tabs on their progress. Similar to Sempra, MBE and WBE suppliers help Comerica by linking them "within the communities in which we serve as a bank," Alessi says.

"When the relationship starts, you want to make sure you stay in the stream of correspondences ... you stay in the mix because you want to make sure they are really performing," Alessi says.

The company encourages strategic alliances between MBEs and WBEs and majority-owned suppliers, and it advertises its success with diverse suppliers to other companies, including competitors.

"We try to encourage that because it helps them build capacity for future business with us as well as broaden horizons with other customers," Alessi says.