Page 15 - BEQ Magazine Vol 4, Iss 4 (01032020 Final)_Active

hen you’re in the business of producing a magazine, you’re always between the potential competitive advantage of
working with diverse suppliers and how suppli-
Won the lookout for interesting people, innovative ideas and unique er diversity is viewed in many organizations if it
perspectives. When you find all three in one place, it’s a very good day. exists at all.
“Simply valuing diversity and inclusion is not
enough to drive organizational change — at least
One very good day happened a few weeks not at the pace we want to move,” she wrote.
ago when BEQ Pride Publisher Robin Dillard “We should celebrate achievements, of course.
By Melissa Lowery read a post on Longitudes, the official UPS blog. But rather than claim victory, we should use such
She sent me the link with the note, “We need to progress as fuel for innovation and as confidence
hear more from this woman.” to expect even more of ourselves.”
Titled “Are we doing enough? An insider’s It’s a call to action, but we wondered what
view of business inclusion”, the post was written action Oswold envisioned. What, in her opinion,
by Kris Oswold, Director of Supplier Diversity needs to happen to increase the pace toward eco-
at UPS. nomic equality? A query to the UPS corporate
Oswold worked at UPS for 28 years before communications team lead to a conversation
becoming Director of Supplier Diversity. During with Oswold that proved rich with ideas to chal-
that time, she provided support to almost every lenge the status quo and envision a dynamic fu-
part of the business, ran operations and designed ture for inclusive supply chains.
processes from billing to shipping — and every-
thing in between. After two years in the supplier RETHINKING THE CONVERSATION
diversity role, Oswold was reflecting on her jour- In her Longitudes post, Oswold wrote, “To
ney and felt like she needed to speak up about a truly drive toward economic equality, supplier
side of supplier diversity we don’t talk about very diversity can’t feel like a secret tucked away in
often — at least in public: the procurement function. It has to hit the main
If we’re looking at today’s supplier diversity stage.” This isn’t a new idea — we often hear
Supplier Diversity professionals share a laugh during efforts objectively, can we truly say that we are that we need to engage stakeholders and get
the SunTrust Tier 2 Supplier Diversity Summit, doing enough to move the needle toward eco- that C-suite buy-in. But Oswold’s point is that
September 2019 . L-R: Livia Whisenhunt, CEO, PS nomic equality? we need to look beyond the C-suite and the pro-
Energy Group; Kris Oswold - Director of Supplier Honest internal reflection is never easy but it curement team. We need to look at those groups
Diversity, UPS; Sidd Ahmed - President and CEO, is almost always valuable. After nearly two years —internal and external — who are not yet part
VDart Inc .; Terrez M . Thompson - Vice President, of the conversation and figure out how to reach
Global Supplier Diversity, The Coca-Cola Company / of conversations, meetings, strategy sessions, con-
courtesy photo ferences and reports, Oswold found a disconnect them.

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