Dell’s Martin Garvin keys in on diversity

As the world’s top direct-sale computer company, Dell Inc. requires high standards, creativity and flexibility ofits entire supply chain. Martin Garvin, the company’s senior vice president and chief procurement officer, recently discussed how collaboration with diverse vendors helps Dell serve its customers.

MBN: Since 2001, Dell has increased its spending with diverse suppliers by more than 66 percent. How do you account for that increase?

Garvin: As our customers and workforce become more diverse, it makes smart business sense for Dell to also grow its relationship with diverse supply chain partners. I am proud of the job our team has done in recent years of reaching out to high-quality diverse suppliers and including more and more of them in our procurement
process.

Let me outline a few highlights of the approaches our teams have taken: First, we had to get people thinking that supplier diversity is about more than compliance. It’s a critical business need. We highlighted,for example, that many of our diverse suppliers are also loyal customers, leaders in their communities and Dell advocates.They help us tell our story. As the demographics indicate, diverse suppliers will continue to grow as the diverse population becomes a larger percentage of the overall market. We want to build and demonstrate relationships with those suppliers as they grow.We then incorporated diverse supplier development and monitoring in our self assessments. For example, we track and reward our teams based on their ability to meet procurement goals around supplier diversity development.We also expanded our work with diversity councils such as NMSDC [National Minority Supplier Development Council] and WBENC [Women’s Business Enterprise National Council]. Our goalhere is to work with partners in the industry to identify diverse suppliers and business opportunities. We attend more than 30 events per year that help us connect with diverse suppliers.Finally, we developed our own supplier diversity events, like our Supplier Diversity Summit and Direct Talk sessions. These initiatives foster relationships with our teams and provide ways to drive spend. Our executives are committed to external engagement on these fronts.

MBN: What is Direct Talk? Has it been a successful venuefor reaching out to diverse suppliers?

Garvin: Held periodically at Dell, Direct Talk forums enable our procurement teams and diverse suppliers to connect directly and have more face time together. Direct Talk has been a great resource for sharing business opportunities and ideas that improve our products and services while supporting growth. To date, 40 percent of the companies that participated are involved in bidding on Dell business.

MBN: Why was it important to sponsor the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council’s inaugural Mission toChina? Why China?

Garvin: We always look for different ways to support business growth in countries where we have operations and customers; and China is one of our fastest growing markets. Through our partnership with NMSDC, we hope to help drive economic gains in the Chinese minority community and ignite a growth engine for U.S. minority owned firms that want to grow overseas. David Brown, a vice president of worldwide procurement at Dell and an NMSDC board member,helped to spearhead the trip, which enabled the Chinese government,U.S. corporations and diverse firms from both countries to collaborate and discuss how to integrate supplier diversity models.

MBN: What does Dell do to help develop its diverse suppliers?
Garvin: Diverse supplier development is an important focus for us,one which we support with strong programs for current Dell and potential diverse suppliers. A great example is our Executive Mentor Program, wherein CEOs of minority suppliers are mentored by Dell executives in order to expand their capabilities and, eventually, their partnerships with Dell and other companies.Quarterly business reviews with suppliers’ executive teams also help generate feedback on current strengths and identify additional opportunities to improve their business models.Additional key initiatives include a mentoring program we’ve developed with the Central & South Texas Minority Business Council and NMSDC. We think of the program as a type of coach-player training camp wherein Dell and other companies provide mentors to minority suppliers, helping them grow their ability to compete for corporate contracts. We are continuing to grow the mentoring committee and have expanded the program with a new roster of suppliers and other interested councils.

MBN: In light of Dell’s size and the number of its facilities,what can diverse suppliers do to access Dell’s domestic andglobal opportunities?

Garvin: Diverse suppliers need to demonstrate their capabilities to support our evolving customer requirements and help us to create competitive advantages in the marketplace. They need to illustrate to us what value they can bring to our customers in terms of cost advantage,supply chain excellence, quality, innovation, time to market,customer experience and technology.

MBN: What have been some of the biggest challenges Dell has faced in diversifying its supply chain?

Garvin: Dell has more than 40 different commodities where diverse suppliers can participate in our supply chain so the range of opportunity is quite broad. The challenge for Dell has been to find companies that can provide emerging technology, scale at the pace of the industry and continue to change with the needs of our customers.By the way, this is not specific to diverse suppliers, but any supplier wanting to support our industry long term.

MBN: What rewards has Dell reaped as a result of diversifying its supply chain?

Garvin: There’s not a doubt that diverse companies have helped raisethe competitive bar through our supply chain. Time and again,they’ve provided innovative solutions to some of our most complexbusiness problems. This has translated to better total cost of ownershipto Dell and our customers.Our business also has benefited as many business and public-sectorcustomers build supplier diversity into their procurement practices.Finally, I would say that our overall brand equity has benefitedfrom the growth of and our work with diverse suppliers. As I saidbefore, our diverse suppliers are not only partners and customers,they’re grassroots advocates.