CORPORATE DIVERSITY 25
“ Supplier Diversity is an extremely important business opportunity for us in terms of reflecting the communities in which we operate as a company and the groups that we work with,” said Mr Kelk.“ It is important that we are inclusive but it is not about favouritism,” he added.
In order to promote Supplier Diversity effectively within the company and to ensure that Merrill Lynch( UK) gives diverse-owned 1 companies an equal opportunity to bid for contracts alongside their larger counterparts, Merrill Lynch has put several initiatives in place. This includes forming partnerships with organisations such as Minority Supplier Diversity UK( MSDUK) and WEConnect.
Minority Supplier Diversity UK is an organisation which provides a direct link between its affiliated corporate members and the minority-owned businesses on its database to enable mutually beneficial business relationships to be created, while WEConnect is the UK’ s leading advocate of women-owned businesses as suppliers to global and national corporations and government bodies.
Mr Kelk said since the beginning of this year, whenever Merrill Lynch has a contract it contacts MSDUK and WEConnect to find out whether any of their members are‘ fit to supply’ for that particular contract.
“ It is about trying to find the best suppliers for the job at hand. We believe that if we reach out far and wide we will find the best supplier,” Mr Kelk told Engage.
But Mr Kelk said that although he is aware that some of the company’ s suppliers are from diverse backgrounds he is not sure how many are.
He explained that at a recent MSD UK event, he met the owner of a printing
company who was introduced as a potential diverse supplier. That printing company, which is minority-owned, is now an existing long-term supplier to Merrill Lynch.
“ We have a reasonably significant spend with the company, which we use for all our printed stationery, business cards, letterheads, etc, and have had a successful long-term supplier relationship with it,” said Mr Kelk.
“ The fact that we had engaged a minority owned company based on sound commercial criteria before we had a formal diversity supplier programme, is a good example of our inclusiveness.”
In order to find out exactly how many of the company’ s suppliers are truly diverse, Merrill Lynch is in the process of conducting a survey of its UK suppliers which will be complete in the summer.
“ Supplier Diversity is about trying to be inclusive, offering opportunities to diverse suppliers to be considered and ultimately finding the best suppliers for the requirement”
Mr Kelk stressed that although supplier diversity was“ good for business” it needed to be used correctly and fairly; that suppliers should be chosen for the right reasons, not because there is a need to merely increase the number of diverse suppliers the company uses.
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Diverse-owned companies in the UK context mean businesses that are owned by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic( BAME) persons; women-owned businesses and disabled-owned businesses.
Merrill Lynch- Top Tips on Getting‘ fit to supply’
Q. How can companies interested in bidding for contracts be in a position of being‘ fit to supply’?
ML( 1) Diverse suppliers need to make sure they have their information, such as their financial history and commercial track record, as up-to-date as possible.
( 2) They should consider placing their company details on MSDUK and WEConnect databases so that when corporates such as Merrill
Lynch reach out to these organisations and say have you got any taxi or chauffer car suppliers, for example, they can then go and search their databases and find them there. Otherwise it really is a lottery.”
Q. What type of help do you think smaller diverse companies need to get‘ fit to supply’?
ML Good advice in terms of learning how to work with corporates, and being professional. For example, meeting deadlines is sometimes a weak area. Frequently, we will give a deadline of three weeks to supply data for a contract but there have been examples where the potential supplier has come back in four, saying they have not got around to it. We will tell them the deadline is gone, and that is it. We really haven’ t got the time to wait around.
Q. What help is around for companies who are in the process of working on getting‘ fit to supply’?
ML“ There are several organisations around with that purpose in mind- to help companies to organise themselves, Supply London, being one example.
Merrill Lynch Definition of Supplier Diversity: A business initiative which encourages the use of diverse-owned vendors / suppliers in all bidding opportunities and selection processes.
ISSUE SEVEN 2008 engage | uk