Supplier Diversity News
Developing and Growing your Supplier Diversity Program & What Does it Take?
October 01, 2021
Author: Valerie Rhodes-Sorrelle
We have received many questions from our membership on how to develop and grow a successful supplier diversity program at our institutions. There are many ways to accomplish this. However, I caught up with one of our members who has been a leader and a success in supplier diversity program development.
Let’s start off with a little background on the supplier diversity expert:
RHODES TO TRANSFORMATION VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: Jesse, please tell our readers a little about yourself and why supplier diversity is important to you and the institutions and organizations you have worked for?
JESSE MOORE: Valerie, I have had a wide variety of positions in my career, but they mostly centered around business advocacy during the latter stages of my life. As you know I was the first Director of Supplier Diversity for Purdue University, but prior to being recruited for that job I spent many years in chamber of commerce work. I headed the Indianapolis Black Chamber for about seven years. I was the Executive Director of Economic Development and Small Business for the Indiana Chamber, which allowed me to lobby our state legislature on behalf of business interests, and immediately prior to going to Purdue I was a Business Advocate for the City of Indianapolis Chamber which again permitted me to lobby city officials on behalf of the business community.
The Building Process:
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: What is needed and how did you build the foundation for your supplier diversity program?
JESSE MOORE: There are some basic needs that every successful supplier diversity program must have.
- Topping the list is strong vocal and visible leadership from the Senior Administrator. This provides the direction for the entire organization and without it nothing will be accomplished. Half-hearted support by senior administrators will stymie the efforts of the individual selected to move the program.
- A clear plan of action. This will vary with each institution but as a bare minimum, what needs to be done internally to shift the culture to be more inclusive? Diverse companies can and will compete if given a fair chance.
- Aggressive outreach to communicate that real opportunities exist at your institution. Most times diverse companies will not be as proactive as their competition because of the perception that they do not have a chance to present themselves to decisionmakers who are even handed and fair.
- Good documentation and reporting.
- Identify opportunities to celebrate successes.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: Give our readers the steps you used to start your supplier diversity program.
JESSE MOORE: My situation was unlike most of my supplier diversity colleagues. I immediately had the support of not only my university president, but the Board of Trustees passed a resolution directing everyone connected with purchasing and construction to employ "all legal means" to address the disparity in opportunities being secured by diverse firms. When I was brought on, I reported directly to the Executive Vice President and Treasurer who reported to the President. That allowed me to attend regular staff meetings where both the heads of procurement and of construction attended and we all reported to the same individual. That makes life so much simpler. That allowed me to implement the steps I shared in the previous question.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: What tools and ingredients were used to build your successful supplier diversity program?
JESSE MOORE: The program we created at Purdue was built on (1) making sure the procurement staff had the resources to locate potential diverse businesses. We had every buyer linked to the State of Indiana’s Division of Supplier Diversity. This agency provided certification for the state and all certified firms were in a searchable data base. (2) We employed a heavy dose of outreach. We would invite diverse firms to visit monthly and invite local businesses who were also interested in improving their diverse business utilization. We also held an annual event that matched diverse businesses with the buyers from the university and the local companies. Even if there was not an immediate opportunity at the university, there were many business relationships created with attending corporations.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: Communication is key to success in building and sustaining a program. How have you connected with senior management?
JESSE MOORE: (See above response)
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How did you connect with the procurement department regarding supplier diversity initiatives at your institution?
JESSE MOORE: My office was located within the procurement activity and thus personal relationships were developed which proved invaluable. I was able to attend procurement staff meetings and make formal presentations on a regular basis to keep them informed and to address any issues that they wanted to air. Most issues were handled as they arose thus minimizing the "heat". I included different procurement staff at our monthly presentations and attempted to match the appropriate buyer with the diverse business presenter. Most times our staff had no knowledge of the company that was presenting and thus began to expand the pool of vendors who were invited to submit bids when the opportunity arose.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How did you connect with the campus community regarding supplier diversity initiatives at your institution?
JESSE MOORE: Upon arriving at Purdue, I made a point to visit the deans of each college (13) to brief them on what the university was doing in diversifying the supplier base. We also had two campuses that were located in other regions of the state. That allowed me to also address any questions they may have had. Because Purdue had a centralized procurement function, 80% of our spend was through the procurement and construction departments and therefore that is where most of my time was spent on campus.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How have you engaged and connected with minority, veteran, and women business owners?
JESSE MOORE: Since I had a track record with chambers of commerce, I leveraged my contacts with my former organizations and those who had as their mission to assist minority, women, and veteran businesses. The Mid West Supplier Development Council, National Association of Women Business Owners, the Indiana Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Veteran Owned Business Association were all associations that I regularly sent opportunities for them to distribute to their respective memberships. Additionally, we partnered with Urban Leagues and a few larger churches throughout the state.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How have you assisted in networking opportunities at your institution for minority, veteran, and women business owners?
JESSE MOORE: Again, our monthly diverse business presentations where local businesses and larger corporations would be meeting, and I would invite diverse businesses in to make presentations. Annually I would have a Construction Connection where we would join with other schools to discuss upcoming construction projects. On certain construction projects I would schedule a "pre" Pre-Bid meeting where we would invite diverse construction companies to be briefed by our project managers and thus prepare them for the regular Pre-Bid meetings where the larger general contractors would attend and thus the prepared diversity firms would have advance info to possibly secure subcontracting opportunities.
Reports:
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: We all know that reports tell a story to and for our institutions. Would you give some suggestions on reports that should be obtained and why they are important?
JESSE MOORE: Purdue was one of seven State Educational Institutions (SEI) and thus was required by statute to report to the Governor’s Commission on Minority and Women Business Enterprise annually. Those reports would detail our respective supplier diversity efforts. The state had numerical goals that the schools were measured against. They would include the dollar amount of contract broken out by categories: commodities, construction, and professional services by Minority Business (MBE), Women Business (WBE), and Veteran Owned Business (VBE).
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How has vendor data been captured at your institution and how has it been utilized?
JESSE MOORE: Purdue used a third-party vendor to break out our data into report format. That company would take all our transactions quarterly and return to us a report that identified which companies were certified, which were minority, which were women and veterans. They would identify those firms with the respective transaction, commodity, professional services, construction.
Success:
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How have you measured program success?
JESSE MOORE: When I started at Purdue in 2005 the total business done with diverse business totaled around $18 million. My last report before I retired had us doing about $84 million! That was one measure, but the larger measure was the culture change that caused that increase.
Keeping the Momentum Moving Forward:
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: How did you grow and create continued interest in your institution’s supplier diversity program?
JESSE MOORE: The continued interest in the supplier diversity program at Purdue was a direct function of the expansive outreach efforts of the supplier diversity team. The annual Relationship to Partnership events brought together diverse companies and local corporations who shared our commitment to expanding opportunities for diverse firms, along with staff from Purdue’s purchasing and physical facilities units. This event showcased topical speakers on subjects germane to diverse business development, and opportunities for diverse firms to visit face-to-face with decision makers from between 6-15 local companies. Of course, there was a luncheon with recognition awards for both diverse firms and large corporations.
We also published a quarterly newsletter that was distributed electronically statewide called The Catalyst. Internally we published a monthly newsletter called Starfish that highlighted diverse firms that had secured and were serving current contracts on campus. All of this was done with the goal of increasing communications, showcasing the successful firms, and decreasing the fear factor of being the "first" person to use a company.
We also participated in many networking events held by other organizations, such as State of Indiana, City of Indianapolis, Midwest Supplier Development Council, local construction organizations, national Association of Women Business Owners, Chambers of Commerce, to name a few.
Success Story:
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: Jesse, we are at the end our interview please give our readers one of your most memorable vendor success stories.
JESSE MOORE: The one story that readily comes to mind is when a buyer whom I had thought was not getting what we were attempting to create one day came to me and asked if I thought a minority firm would be a good candidate to purchase a business that had a long-standing relationship with the university. I did know of one who I thought would be a good match if the owner was amenable to consider expanding his company into this region of the state. I approached him, he was interested, bought out the company and immediately we significantly increased our spend. Subsequently that company expanded and added five employees where there was only the single vendor. That company secured contracts with many of the school districts in this part of the state.
VALERIE RHODES-SORRELLE: Building and maintaining a successful supplier diversity program is not an easy task. However, it can be an extremely rewarding one when you realize, understand, and see the impact that your institution, organization, or company may and can have on the minority owned business seeking and receiving business opportunities. Remember minority owned businesses grow when given opportunities to quote and bid on needed products and services, by receiving honest feedback, and by receiving sustainable and scalable contracts. Building creates and promotes growth and we become stronger by building and growing together. Let’s commit to growing our communities by spreading business opportunities.