3 things needed to get started with supplier diversity

Authored by Kahurangi Malcolm and Frae Cairns

If your organisation wants to begin its supplier diversity journey, the good news is that you need very little to get started.

Here are the 3 must-haves to get started:

1. A suitable project
2. A supplier diversity champion
3. An accepting environment

Whilst you could spend a lot of time and do a lot of work trying to build the perfect policy, framework, process and systems - we are big advocates for ‘learning by doing’ and ‘advocacy through action’.

There are also lots of benefits to getting started quickly and giving it go:

• Everyone loves a great news story, even if it's a small success
• Successful supplier diversity can be used as evidence that supplier diversity is doable?
• You gain valuable knowledge of your organisation’s capabilities and areas of need?
• Any future policy you develop will be informed by actual experience and hard data.
• If its a complete flop, it flops quietly and quickly (you can still learn and reflect on this and try again)

Let's take a look at what you need to get started.

A suitable project

The first step is to identify a great procurement opportunity that is suitable. Ideally you want to pick one that you know is an easy low hanging fruit and one that could lead to future work with the organisation. Low hanging fruit shouldn't necessarily mean low cost and one-off but should mean low risk in that you know the opportunity and the supplier are a great match.

You could ask the following questions to determine if it is:

• Are there any Māori and Pasifika businesses that do this work? (check with Amotai if you don't know)
• Is this a high risk project?
• Could this put the supplier, our organization or our future supplier diversity efforts at risk?

If you find that there are no obvious opportunities, you might want to look at how you could un-bundle bigger projects that have multiple subcontracting opportunities in it. If that's not possible, you could consider putting in subcontracting targets for the successful prime contractor and working with them to include diverse suppliers.?

A supplier diversity champion

Usually, organisations won't yet have dedicated roles specifically focused on supplier diversity. However, they may have people who are passionate about creating organisational change and/or people who want to find ways to end social and economic inequity.

Supplier Diversity Champions are often the people who actively search for opportunities to engage Māori or Pasifika businesses. They will progressively push the boundaries of what can be achieved as part of a contract. They are the people knocking on the CEO's door trying to drive supplier diversity as an organisational priority and who will ultimately trial, test, and inform the organisation’s supplier diversity strategy.?

These people don't have to be procurement professionals, but someone that can rally troops, influence change and convince others to give it a go.?

An accepting environment

At the absolute least you need an organisation culture that is not against supplier diversity. If you have a leader or culture that is not on board, you have some work to do before you can even get started.?

On a positive note, all government agencies have a mandate to hit supplier diversity targets and lots of private enterprises are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits (See our article on The Reasons organisations are implementing supplier diversity).

Factors that help create an accepting environment:

• Having diverse staff: It's probably no surprise that organisations with diverse staff have higher levels of diverse suppliers as well.?
• Being Te Tiriti o Waitangi anchored
• Strong supplier diversity advocacy from leadership
• Being part of a global organisation that has supplier diversity practices in other countries
• Being a member of a supplier diversity intermediary
• Having Māori or social outcomes teams

For most that start out, they don’t need everyone on board. They just need key people associated with the project. Even some of the strongest supplier diversity advocates now, were unsure to begin with but were convinced after seeing the results of the first few wins. Often just getting that first run on the board will be the catalyst for many others to come on board. You just need that brave supplier diversity champion to identify a suitable project and get started.

Supplier diversity is a nuanced practice but it can be simple to get started quickly and easily. Whilst you could spend time creating the perfect process and systems, this can be painfully slow and be put in the ‘too hard basket’. Often advocacy by action is the best way to start and demonstrate what is possible which can help to spur on policy, system and process changes.?

Our key message to you is “Stop waiting!” - the time to start is now!

Article Series

This article is part of a series of thought pieces on the topics of social procurement and supplier diversity.??

This series focuses on how individuals and organisations can use their procurement power to deliver impact, the growing profession of social/sustainable procurement professionals wanting to make a difference and how we can redefine value in Aotearoa collectively.

The aim is to share our learnings and insights to help grow this movement.

Authors

Kahurangi Malcolm (Ngāti Te Ata, Te Waiariki)

Kahurangi was schooled in total immersion Māori at Te Raki o Pukekohe and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Waiuku. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Master’s in Business Administration and completed her research on Māori Economic Development. She previously worked for Waikato’s Economic Development Agency supporting business growth and has held numerous roles in health and social services. Kahurangi founded the Charitable Trust, Te Ara Rangatahi, a youth organisation supporting youth in Franklin, South Auckland into education and employment. Kahurangi is passionate about systemic change and loves seeing Māori businesses succeed.

Frae Cairns (Ngāti Kahu, Te Aupōuri)?

Frae grew up in Kaikohe and Tāmaki Makaurau supported by a whānau of wahine toa and imbued with an ethic to create positive change for her community. She has had a number of roles in the retail sector in management, sales, international shipping and operations. After living in Canada and Japan she went on to work in procurement for Auckland Council where she supported the development of the Auckland Council Sustainable Procurement Objectives. This led her to support the establishment of He Waka Eke Noa, now Amotai, where she currently works. Frae is passionate about social equity and delivering impact through procurement activity to enable greater opportunities for Māori and Pasifika.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License