Moderator: Linda Bell, Senior Business Writer at DiversityInc
Panelists:
- Alicia Petross, Chief Diversity Officer at The Hershey Company (No. 6, Top 50 Companies for Diversity list)
- Bala Sreenivasan, VP of Global Supply Chain Operations at Merck
- Rakhi Agarwal, AVP, Global Head of Supplier Diversity and Risk at Sanofi (No. 25, Top 50 Companies for Diversity list)
As companies strengthen their approach to achieving their diversity and inclusion goals — including supplier diversity and diversity of talent — many are realizing the benefit of collaboration. Learning from one another, as well as working together, can make an immense difference in diversifying the supply chain.
Organizations like these work with Discover to further boost their collaboration. The panelists discuss their experience working with Discover and the strategies they are using to increase diversity in talent and the supply chain.
Highlights from the Session
“I think this collaboration and the focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is here to stay. Intentionality is incredibly important; being aspirational about what you hope to achieve for being practical, about what you can do in the moment, and then having measurement in place. You can celebrate and build that sense that the future is real and you can have a lasting and sustainable impact. And I think that’s what discover is all about.” Alicia Petross, The Hershey Company
“We have to make conscious decisions and commitment, and hold ourselves accountable as leaders, to move the needle. We talk to the diverse talent, and other leaders and allies. We’re constantly asking, ‘what else should we be doing?’ And we partner on some of these challenges with Discover, and ask, ‘How are others doing this?’ And we take those best practices.” – Bala Sreenivasan, Merck
“The next big evolution that I would like to see is Discover becoming an end-to-end holistic organization that is providing insights as to what are the key best practices in terms of talent, where to go to find diverse talent, and marrying it with the industry best practices in terms of what the supply chain challenges are, how do we learn from them, and how do we connect the talent needs and requirements into those specific skill sets off the supply chain.” – Rakhi Agarwal, Sanofi
