| The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce has launched the Pacesetters Initiative, a partnership of large and mid-sized GBCC member organizations committed to leveraging their collective purchasing power to create opportunities at scale for local enterprises owned by women and people of color.
Pacesetters is a pillar of the GBCC’s overall economic growth initiatives, aimed at increasing economic opportunity for all Greater Boston businesses, particularly minority business enterprises.
The Pacesetters Initiative launch is the result of a year-long collaboration between the GBCC, its Committee on Economic Opportunity – a sub-group of the Executive Committee charged with developing the united response of the business community to economic inequality – and select GBCC members, including the 10 inaugural Pacesetter organizations:
- Boston Red Sox
- Comcast
- Eastern Bank
- Gilbane Building Co.
- Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
- John Hancock
- Northeastern University
- P&G Gillette
- Partners HealthCare
- Tufts Health Plan
Pacesetter companies are GBCC members who understand the business case of economic inclusion and who are committed to increasing their contracts with minority-owned businesses as suppliers of their companies’ products, supplies and services. Together, they will work to set aspirational goals to enhance their individual existing supplier diversity programs and inspire the entire business community to do the same. Through the year, these Pacesetters will measure, report and increase spending with local minority-owned businesses; exchange best practices; and participate in the GBCC’s educational, networking and matchmaking events and programs.
“The Pacesetters Initiative is about seizing an opportunity to address the persistent issues of inequality in Greater Boston and building generational wealth for our region’s minority-owned businesses and communities of color,” James E. Rooney, GBCC president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful to our initial Pacesetter organizations for coming together with our Committee on Economic Opportunity to design an initiative that is built to not only succeed, but inspire the rest of the business community to join us in this important work. We look forward to sharing our results and announcing more and more Pacesetters as we grow this exciting initiative.”
“We applaud the chamber for its leadership in launching this important program and are pleased to be the presenting sponsor for all of their economic opportunity initiatives this year,” James D. Gallagher, executive vice president and general counsel at John Hancock, said in a statement. “Our company is committed to healthy more equitable communities, and we recognize a strong supplier diversity program helps meet the needs of our business while creating value in society.”
The GBCC spent 2017 recruiting a core group of Pacesetters to serve as early adopters and working with these companies to establish criteria for measuring program success, collective goals to achieve, defining key terms and creating ground rules for data sharing and eligibility criteria of potential suppliers. Now, the Pacesetters will set their targets, participate in forums for problem solving and sharing of best practices, and attend match-making events designed to connect qualified suppliers with Pacesetter organizations. The program is modeled after the Minority Business Accelerator out of the Cincinnati Regional Chamber.
In addition to being one of the initial 10 Pacesetters, the Greater Boston Chamber will also serve the role of convener, bringing the Pacesetters together and facilitating matchmaking events. The GBCC has already established a strong partnership with Eastern Bank’s Business Equity Initiative, which is focused on growing enterprises of color by leveraging Eastern’s networks and philanthropic dollars as well as providing targeted, customizable growth tools including embedded trusted strategic advisors, operational support, growth capital and market access to enterprises of color positioned for growth. As the list of suppliers grows, the GBCC also plans to grow the number of participating Pacesetter organizations. Interested organizations and suppliers can find more information about getting involved on the chamber’s website.
