Browning is honored to have been awarded the Indiana Construction Roundtable Supplier Diversity Award as part of the 2nd annual IDEAL Awards presented during the Annual Conference.

The ICR Best Practices in Supplier Diversity Award recognizes successful innovation efforts to increase supplier diversity on a project or within a company. As the top recipient we outlined a specific problem within our supplier diversity program and outlined the tasks taken as well as outcomes to demonstrate an improvement in our supplier diversity program. We are proud of the new relationships we have built and the policies we’ve put in place to identify new partnerships, but we are always excited to meet more companies…

Our philosophy is simple: Let’s Talk.

Our solution to drive improvement was built around one simple phrase, “Let’s talk.” (And the implied, “We’ll listen.”)  We started the process by getting out to speak to as many contractors and community partners as possible and building relationships and knowledge along the way.  We also realized that forming joint ventures with established partners and XBEs was another way we could be intentional about bringing diverse companies to the table.

Who benefits from supplier diversity initiatives?

We honestly believe the beneficiaries such initiatives are many.

We, Browning, are a beneficiary of our own initiatives.

We are not only building a strong base of contractors and suppliers for our construction team, but also for our property services, human resources, and marketing teams which supports our business holistically.  Also, because Browning has a breadth of construction product types, we need a deep bench of professionals with different expertise to draw upon.

New companies and smaller XBEs are a beneficiary.

By being intentional about meeting companies where they are, giving them resources we’ve learned about in our discussions with other companies, we can help them scale up or partner up to build their businesses to work on our projects or work up to them. Our 16 Tech outreach efforts have helped at least 9 companies become City of Indianapolis XBE certified, although not all are construction related, we were excited to talk about the benefits of certification and help in the process.

Other general contractors and local companies are a beneficiary.

Our industry faces contractor and workforce shortages and with more companies focusing on including XBEs in their business we need more companies started, and existing companies to level up for larger projects to handle the demand of all the construction firms in Indiana building extraordinary projects.

The next generation of our communities are a beneficiary.

Recently at an ICRF Educator’s Summit panel with three young Black men and their mentor attendees heard about how these young men learned about the construction industry and what inspired them to get involved.  The message coming loud and clear was they needed to have role models and leaders in their community to engage them in the construction industry.  Supporting XBEs benefit our economies by growing companies, workforces, and building generational wealth in our communities, but also by inspiring the next generation of diverse companies and workforce.

So what now?  “Let’s Talk.”

Although it is nice to have won the IDEAL Award, we still want to meet more suppliers/contractors to learn your capabilities and talk about how we can work together, because even if today’s project isn’t the right fit, maybe we can find one that is. If you are a contractor or supplier interested in working with Browning, let’s start the prequalification process so we can see how we can work together, because even if today’s project isn’t the right fit, maybe we can find one that is.

Get prequalified at: https://browningrep.com/subcontractors/