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| Supplier Diversity |
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Our Program BellSouth has long built its business on inclusion—valuing all segments of our diverse employee, supplier, and customer base. In 1986, we created a supplier diversity program to ensure that we included small, minority, and women-owned businesses in our procurement process. Supplier diversity continues to be an important initiative, helping us strengthen partnerships essential to delivering high quality service and achieving top financial growth. We are proud of our supplier diversity record. In 1999, at SUPERCOMM, one of the industry’s largest trade shows, BellSouth helped initiate the Telecommunications Industry’s Supplier Diversity Challenge, committing with 13 other telecommunications companies to develop world class supplier diversity programs and work toward purchasing 10 percent of their goods and services each year from minority, women, and disabled veteran-owned suppliers. In the new millennium, we will continue to actively pursue new opportunities to develop and grow our supplier diversity program to benefit the overall economy, our company, our communities, and the lives of the people in these communities. We look forward to doing business with you in this coming era of new opportunities, as we continue our quest to provide exceptional service to our customers. |
