KeyBank’s history covers close to two centuries, and the bank and its branches have been involved in supplier diversity for more than two decades now. Poppie Parish, the bank’s VP of supplier diversity, notes that in the late 1980s, “We were very decentralized as far as procurement was concerned. We had so many branches and there were many opportunities for small business owners and M/WBEs to participate in key purchasing initiatives on a local level.”
But then the procurement strategy changed. “We went to a centralized scope,” Parish says. “Many of our smaller suppliers, including M/WBEs, lost out because we incorporated a more integrated business strategy.”
The quest for world class
In 2001 Parish came on board as part of the bank’s community development banking business. “We were starting to rethink,” she says. “Although we had a centralized procurement process, we wanted to engage small business owners and M/WBEs on a broader front. So when I came in we started to strategize how we could put things in motion to be more inclusive.”
One of the first things she did was sit down with Henry Meyer III, KeyBank’s chair and CEO, to determine the bank’s commitment level. “We agreed that we wanted the organization to be world class in supplier diversity. So we developed a corporate-wide policy that spelled out our level of commitment and what we expected from our stakeholders.”
In 2001 the centralized KeyBank was placing less then 1 percent of its spend with M/WBEs, but in 2006 its M/WBE spend was 11.6 percent of its total. That, Parish believes, is pretty impressive considering that the national average is about 2.6 percent.
Community development banking
To source diverse suppliers, Parish and her group work closely with local affiliates of NMSDC and WBENC as well as state and local government agencies. “We are members of NMSDC and WBENC and they’re great resources for us,” she says.
KeyBank also holds business summits. “We bring in suppliers and explain how they can become involved in KeyBank’s procurement process, and we offer a wide range of financial solutions to support their growth.” Parish likes to call this “community development banking.”
Among the bank’s internal strategies is its “Key4Women” program: the bank has a goal of investing more then $2 million over five years with interested WBE clients. There’s also a similar Native American initiative.
“As a major banking organization we’re in a really good position to work with growing businesses,” Parish says. “I always ask diverse businesspeople to go to www.key.com and fill out our supplier questionnaire.”
Implementing her community development strategy, Parish works hand-in-hand with corporate sourcing EVP Deborah Manos. “Deborah likes to say that I create the strategy and she creates the tactics,” Parish says.
In the bank’s quest for world-class status, “I know there’s always room for improvement, but I really, humbly believe we’re very close,” Parish declares.
Texcel: strategy and tactics
Bud Atkins is president of Texcel (www.texcelinc.net, Cleveland, OH), one of KeyBank’s diverse suppliers. “We’ve been in business for about twelve years as an IT company specializing in infrastructure products and services,” he explains. Today the company has about twenty-five employees, a combination of staff and contractors.
Atkins’ professional career has been in IT, but mainly on the sales and marketing side. He’s not really a techie himself.
“Back at the dawn of time,” he says, “my first job out of college was with IBM. I worked with them until I was recruited by Wang Laboratories. I worked for Wang in sales and marketing for nineteen years, until the company filed for Chapter 11.”
Atkins had always wanted to be an entrepreneur. “I thought it was a good opportunity to take advantage of relationships I’d built with Wang and the expertise I got working there,” he says. Texcel was the result.
Long history with KeyBank
“I’ve been a KeyBank customer since I was in elementary school,” Atkins remarks. A local affiliate, he explains, had a program directed at educating elementary schools kids to become savers.
So Atkins grew up saving with KeyBank, and “It was really pretty natural in starting the business to do our banking with Key. From there we had discussions about how we might be of service to the bank. I originally spoke about it with Stephanie Turner, a community reinvestment liaison, and she directed me to the supplier diversity group.”
The relationship began to blossom when Parish joined the bank. “It was evident that there were opportunities to build a relationship. We wanted to help Bud navigate through KeyBank’s procurement system,” she says.
“We gave Bud the opportunity to meet with key IT individuals within the company. When they heard that he had alliances with major IT firms we were already doing business with, that was extremely important. Once we understood Texcel’s capabilities we were able to grow with the company internally and also recommend it to other businesses that needed his services.”
Starting with servers
“KeyBank has been very helpful to us in solving access issues,” Atkins agrees.
“We provided IBM servers and still do. And we had meetings with the IBM client team and key people at KeyBank and found other ways we could bring value to the relationship.”
The servers Texcel sells to KeyBank are shipped to locations all over the country, but primarily to the bank’s major data centers in Cleveland and Albany, NY.
Certifications
When they first began to talk, Parish notes, she introduced Atkins to the Northern Ohio Minority Business Council (NOMBC), the local affiliate of NMSDC. “Now he has become actively involved, sits on numerous committees and is a very, very strong member.”
Atkins explains that “Back then I didn’t really understand the value of NMSDC. Now I honestly wish we had gotten certified earlier.”
In the beginning Texcel had only government certifications as a service-disabled veteran-owned company. Atkins was injured while in the Army in Vietnam, “and it turned out to be an additional qualification at the federal level. It represents some real opportunities for us,” he says.
In fact, he confides, Texcel is about to open an operation in Huntsville, AL to focus on federal prime contractors there. “Of course we’ll also be joining the Southern Regional Minority Purchasing Council.”
Mentoring
Both KeyBank and Texcel are involved in the NOMBC’s mentoring module. Parish explains that a couple of years ago KeyBank became the lead of a “partners first” module. The idea is for corporate partners to work with minority business owners, helping them identify their weaknesses and strengths. “Ultimately that helps them grow their businesses.”
Texcel is a mentee in the program, and, Atkins says, “We had the opportunity to get a professional opinion and very valuable consulting. As a small business, it would have been difficult for us to finance that for ourselves.
“It makes a tremendous difference to have access to folks who are professionals and know their marketplace so well,” he says. “In most cases small companies just don’t have access to that kind of intellectual value.”
But, as Parish notes, the benefits have flowed both ways. “KeyBank has gotten a lot by sharing in Texcel’s growth. The relationship we have with the company as a client and now as a supplier strengthens and enhances much of what we try to do as a company. It helps build our own economy here in Cleveland.”
|
Historic roots
KeyBank (Cleveland, OH) has roots dating back to 1825, when the Commercial Bank of Albany, NY was founded, and to 1849, when the Society for Savings of Cleveland, OH was incorporated. Today the bank has nearly 20,000 employees, in 950 full-service branches in thirteen states and national business offices in twenty-eight states. It works in community banking, investment banking and commercial real estate. |
D/C
| 
