Small Business Guide To Commercial Insurance

28 SUPPLIER DIVERSITY Supplier diversity, as seen in other industries, is a win-win for both diverse businesses and insurers. For California’s diverse businesses, this Initiative represents an open door to a once seemingly impenetrable market and thus increased business opportunities. For insurers, increased partnerships with diverse suppliers can result in decreased costs and more competition for bids, in addition to enhanced quality, creativity, and innovation from those suppliers – giving insurers the edge they need in a competitive market with rapidly changing demographics. The Insurer Supplier Diversity (ISD) Survey is a biennial survey which requires all insurance companies with written premiums of $100 million or more in California to report their procurement efforts with diverse businesses in California. For the first time ever, information about insurer procurement practices is being collected and made available to the public. GOVERNING BOARD DIVERSITY Recent reports demonstrate a strong correlation between the diversity of an organization’s leadership and the level of its success in supplier diversity. The Governing Board Diversity (GBD) Survey examines the state of diversity among insurer governing boards and requires all companies with written premiums of $100 million or more in California to report on: 1) the demographic composition of the board; 2) the leadership of the board’s diverse members; and 3) the company’s outreach efforts and strategies to diversifying its board membership. The GBD Survey is also the first survey of its kind in the nation and is meant to encourage insurance companies to seek diverse leadership and governing boards that are reflective of California and the nation’s changing demographics. CONTACT US For more information about the Insurance Diversity Initiative, visit: www.insurance.ca.gov/diversity Diversity@insurance.ca.gov | (916) 492-3382