The 40 Best Companies For Diversity


This year the company partnered with the United Negro College Fund to create the PG&E Scholars program to provide internships and scholarships.
Advertising Diversity Rating: 1 Star
STRENGTHS: Supplier Diversity, Senior Management, Employee Base

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. Location: Cincinnati. Type of Business: Consumer Packaged Goods. Diversity Contact: Trina Betts, Global Diversity Data Management. Each day, Procter & Gamble brands touch the lives of 3 billion people worldwide. The company prides itself on creating an environment in which inclusion is synonymous with achievement. Its 30-year-old Supplier Diversity Program has allocated more than $786 million to minority vendors — more than $555 million of that amount was spent with black-owned businesses. To reinforce accountability among senior management, CEO A.G. Lafley awards stock options based on diversity efforts. Various programs have been used to recruit and retain minority employees, including P&G pre-graduation camps.
Advertising Diversity Rating: 5 Stars
STRENGTHS: Senior Management

SPRINT NEXTEL CORP. Location: Overland Park, KS. Type of Business: Telecommunications. Diversity Contact: Ralph Reid, VP, Corporate Inclusion and Community Relations. The summer 2005 merger between Sprint and Nextel created the nation’s third largest wireless telecommunications network, with more than 47.6 million wireless subscribers. The acquisition has not, however, disrupted the company’s commitment to make inclusion an ingrained part of the company. Five separate corporate divisions each hosted more than 200 marketing professionals for a working symposium called “Marketing in Multicultural World” to foster and generate best practices solutions. The Sprint Supplier Diversity Department works with the company’s supply chain management division to include minority-owned businesses in the purchasing process.
Advertising Diversity Rating: 1 Star
STRENGTHS: Employee Base

STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS WORLDWIDE INC. Location: White Plains, NY. Diversity contact: Shelley Freeman, Director, Global Diversity & Inclusio. Starwood prides itself on including minority enterprises among its business partners. Roughly 1,000 of the company’s 17,000 supplier contracts in 2005 were with minorities. But Starwood wants to do more than identify minorities as vendors. Top management is actively engaged in diversifying its pool of franchisees. Last year, the company launched its Minority Hotel and Developer Owner Program aimed at increasing the representation of women- and minority-owned hotel properties. Starwood also places a strong emphasis on diversity among its rank and file: About 60% of its associates are minorities and 50% of them are women.
Advertising Diversity Rating: 5 Stars
STRENGTHS: Supplier Diversity

TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA INC. Location: New York. Type of Business: Automotive. Diversity Contact: T. Williams, Corporate Diversity Ma
nager. Toyota’s Diversity Advisory Board is a key element in the company’s 10-year, $7.8 billion diversity initiative. And its Dealer Development Program helps qualified and, in many cases, financially-challenged minority operators become successful Toyota and Lexus dealers. Since 1998, the number of African American dealers more than doubled during the same period. Toyota has a U.S. employee base made up of 9,154 minorities, more than 3,000 of whom are black. In 2005, $1.3 billion in procurement dollars went to minority-owned companies ($1 billion to black-owned businesses).
Advertising Diversity Rating: 5 Stars
STRENGTHS: Supplier Diversity

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC. Location: Atlanta. Type of Business: Package Delivery Services. Diversity Contact:


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