Supplier diversity the Halliburton way

Many firms talk about focusing on putting forth a best-inclass, top shelf, et al. diversity program. However, there are a select few who actually devote the needed resources to make the goal a reality. Halliburton is one of those firms striving to stay the course. Since its inception roughly 10 years ago, Halliburton’s supplier diversity department has continually worked towards realizing its vision to be recognized as a global leader in supplier diversity and national supplier development in countries with open markets around the world.

“Supplier diversity is no longer a peripheral component of our supply chain strategy,” said Ingrid Robinson, Halliburton’s senior manager of global supplier diversity. “Instead, it’s viewed as an integral part of our corporate-wide business strategy — visible at all levels of the organization. Today, supplier diversity is seamlessly integrated into our sourcing process.”

This is a strategy that Halliburton has carried through both domestically and abroad, explained Robinson.“Internationally, our approach is to develop a global supply base driven by a robust market and the increased need to expand and leverage local suppliers in international locations using an organizational structure comprised of regional supply chain managers,” she said.“This regional structure maximizes the development of local resources and expands our strategic sourcing efforts.We are leveraging our regional supply chain structure to rapidly expand our supplier diversity efforts. Our regional procurement organizations are actively seeking the inclusion of diverse and national content suppliers and/or are currently being trained on our recently updated global supplier diversity processes.”

BUILDING THE BEST
Using nationally recognized standards, Halliburton’s diversity team has begun moving its supplier diversity initiative to a world class model with global scope. Unlike traditional programs in the energy industry — which focus primarily on increase spend — Halliburton’s initiative involves looking beyond the financial growth to focus intently on building the capacity of diverse suppliers across the globe.“It’s important to constantly develop new, creative ways to support and encourage supplier diversity,” Robinson explained.

To propel its development efforts forward, Robinson’s team introduced its Business Education and Supplier Transformation (BEST) program in 2007.“It is proving to be a solid initiative to foster closer relationships with the diverse suppliers that will play a key role in our business in the future,” she said.

Based on business performance and potential for growth, diverse suppliers are selected as members of the three-year program, which includes a series of training sessions and networking events designed to link them to Halliburton’s business leaders. According to Robinson, the supplier development courses are provided by internal subject matter experts and external partner organizations.

“This is an exclusive group designed to accelerate a company’s growth and build capacity.As a result, BEST suppliers are brought behind the curtain to understand our supply chain strategies,” Robinson said.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
Robinson told Women’s Enterprise that visible and demonstrated leadership has been the key to the firm’s ongoing supplier diversity success.“The most effective means of engaging employees and emphasizing the importance of supplier diversity is to lead by example,”she said. “We recognize that becoming an industry leader in supplier diversity must be a business strategy and a daily focus.We are confident that our willingness to go above and beyond industry standards to support supplier diversity will enable Halliburton to continue delivering added value and outstanding service to our customers while improving the business performance of our company and our suppliers.”

As a result, the firm’s three-tiered supplier diversity support structure ensures the appropriate buy-in across the organization to effectively drive its supplier diversity initiatives.

First, the Supplier Diversity Executive Advisory Board (EAB) is comprised of senior executives across the organization in key positions, which influence the strategic direction of the company. The EAB ensures that the supplier diversity program receives attention, guidance and encouragement from senior executives. Holding leadership accountable for achieving measurable results sets a high standard of importance and performance for all employees.

Secondly, the Supplier Diversity Council (SDC) is comprised of employees at the director and manager levels who are responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the company. The role of the SDC is to serve as advocates and liaisons, identifying barriers to supplier diversity implementation, and ensuring the success of all supplier diversity initiatives.

Third, supplier diversity champions assist minorities,women and small businesses in understanding how to navigate the organization. These champions connect diverse suppliers to immediate business opportunities and serve as liaisons to identify community resources and foster relationships with local business development organizations.

MOVING FORWARD
According to Robinson, the future of Halliburton’s supplier diversity program is to build on Halliburton’s strong tradition of innovation by continually developing new approaches to supplier diversity and supplier development. “We believe in order to empower and challenge diverse suppliers to meet our business criteria, they must know and understand where they fit in that process,”she said. “To that end, we are developing a supplier capability assessment profile for managed categories of spend.”

For the diverse suppliers,the opportunity will exist for them to take an assessment based on minimal criteria established by the strategic sourcing category manager, Robinson explained. “Once the assessment has been completed, the potential supplier will know in which areas they scored well, and which ones they need to work on in order to meet minimal supplier criteria,” she continued.

“Likewise, strategic sourcing category managers will be able to perform advanced level searches from our potential supplier database, pulling specific criteria to assess the best fit based on the specific sourcing opportunity for which they are contracting. This will help them streamline the evaluation process and quickly find the best-fit supplier for any given specific sourcing opportunity,” Robinson said.

And, for the supplier diversity organization as a whole, the new process will provide visibility of diverse supplier strengths and weaknesses by sourcing category.“By understanding where training and development needs are most critical, the supplier diversity organization can work with NMSDC and WBENC affiliates to develop specific training and educational programs to close the gap between supplier skills required and diverse supplier capabilities,” she explained.