Much of the never-ceasing US political talk this week has centered around President Trump\u2019s signing of an executive order to benefit historically black colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t miss updates on Procurement & Supply Chain, Subscribe here!<\/p>\n
According to the Portland Press Herald\u2018s sources, this executive order is \u201cexpected to strengthen the office that pushes the federal government to do business with the colleges by moving it to the White House and providing it specific goals.\u201d \u00a0The Press Herald goes on to say that the \u201cpotential is huge\u2026Federal agencies have thousands of contracts with colleges, universities and think tanks worth billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Business Insider reports that \u201cTrump, a Republican, has pledged to improve the lives of black Americans\u201d and that the executive order will make historically black colleges and universities \u201c\u2018a priority again.\u201d \u00a0According to BI\u2019s\u00a0White House source, the executive order will allow historically black colleges and universities \u00a0\u201cto serve as a strategic partner to the president\u2019s urban agenda of creating jobs and making inner cities safe again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note that there was no talk of cost savings as related to the procurement aspect of this executive order. \u00a0That\u2019s because there are sometimes more strategic things than cost savings at stake with procurement decisions. \u00a0To argue\u00a0otherwise would expose amateurish procurement thinking.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s to enhance\u00a0a brand, gain \u201cpolitical points,\u201d or simply follow one\u2019s instinct about simply doing the right thing, supplier diversity best practices offer ways for procurement to add value beyond cost savings and strategically contribute to the strength of an organization.<\/p>\n
President Trump isn\u2019t always a great role model. But, in this case, he has set a good example for how procurement strategies can have non-financial value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Much of the never-ceasing US political talk this week has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n