On this weeks episode of The Art Of Procurement, my guests are Stan Litow and Tim Coates. Stan is the Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs at IBM, and the President of the IBM Foundation. Tim is an executive within the IBM Foundation, with the responsibility of managing their Supplier Connection program. Today’s discussion talks about corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility – or CSR – and what large private enterprises can do to help spur small business growth, and the impact that has on local economies. We talk about why this is important, the challenges that big businesses face in working with small companies, and some of the benefits including increased access to innovative products and services. Full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/csr