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MetLife leaps to a higher level;
TNS is a valued WBE supplier
“It’s a very big ripple effect,” says the global procurement VP. “Our M/WBE partners can grow
and develop; that’s really where the value proposition is!”
 In 2001 MetLife determined to rise to a new level in procurement. A new procurement pro was brought in to head up the effort, “And that was me,” says Roy Anderson, who’s now VP of global procurement at MetLife.
Why make the move just then? Because the need had become clear when the company went public the year before. As the execs went through the required reviews, “They saw opportunities to create better quality and service with a better overall supplier diversity program,” Anderson explains.
“When you’re a public company, people are looking at how well you’re controlling and growing and developing your supplier management!”
Anderson moved in ready to look at all the vendor areas in the company. “My background was originally military manufacturing,” he says. “I was working for Raytheon, the big defense company, and as a government contractor there was a strong commitment to supplier diversity.
“When I moved out of government work and into financial services I kept a very strong feeling for the value of diverse suppliers. And when I was asked to join MetLife, I gave a lot of thought to how such a large company flows dollars into the community.”
A very marked impact
“As we move literally billions of dollars to various suppliers around the country and around the world, there’s a very marked impact. MetLife did a detailed review that showed that clearly. The dollars go beyond the pockets of MBE and WBE owners to the folks they’re hiring from their communities and to their own supplier bases. Then the employees invest their salaries
at supermarkets and gas stations and restaurants in the communities.
“So it’s a very big ripple effect, and if we can create not only the dollars but the mentorship, our M/WBE partners can grow and develop, and maybe find MetLife a desirable partner to supply them, their customers and their employees. That’s really where the value
proposition is!”
Starting the move
When Anderson moved into the job in 2001, “The company was doing business with thousands of suppliers and there was no real correlation or consolidation.”
Standard procurement practice is to consolidate the supplier base to achieve a smaller number of quality suppliers. “So we began to work in terms of what our internal customers needed and what the various suppliers could bring to the table in terms of quality, service, delivery, total cost structure, technology and capabilities. And as we were doing that, we kept in mind the key proposition to bring MBEs and WBEs into the mix.
Direction is the answer
“Direction is the answer,” Anderson says happily. “We may suggest to a large supplier that we would like them to have a diversity program. In fact, in many cases we include that in our request for proposals.
“Our goal is a better understanding of what their diversity program is, what their supplier quality program is, what their green initiative program is. All of those add value to us and
are considerations when we give work to larger suppliers.”
Comfort zone
When you’re inaugurating supplier diversity, says Anderson, you want to introduce the quality M/WBEs to the buyers at your large company so they can feel comfortable. “A new supplier, whether large or small, mature or inexperienced, is new to the company’s internal customers, the people who are trying to get a job done. And they’re not so comfortable with new. After
all, it’s their necks on the line!
“So as we go through our optimization program we create opportunities for diverse suppliers, and we mentor those relationships to build up the program. We make it clear to our internal customers that these suppliers are not only good, some are exceptional! And we have to give the suppliers the opportunity to grow their businesses in an organized fashion, and provide feedback so the partnership grows and the opportunity develops.”
Fostering the creative supplier
The goal, Anderson says, “is to bring the creativity and capabilities, quality, service, delivery, technology, cost structures and infrastructure capabilities to MetLife consistently and reliably, so the internal customer is not only happy with the results but proud to have been a part of
the solution!”
It’s definitely an effort, combining development, mentorship and challenge. “I believe one of the most important things I can do as head of this procurement department is make sure we bring that type of creative supplier to the mix,” Anderson declares.
“No one can do everything for everyone. You find the capabilities and match them with the internal requirements.”
It all takes time
“It takes us months and months to do each category,” Anderson says. “We sell the concept of supplier management and inside that is the concept of supplier diversity.
“MetLife is a large company with a global footprint. It takes time to get all the customers’ requirements and needs together so we can bring the right suppliers to each one and let them bid it out.”
It was nearly two years before the new efforts began to achieve measurable success. And, since both the parameters of spend and the diverse suppliers themselves are in constant flux, the whole review has to be repeated every three years or so, Anderson points out. “We have
a very open, honest approach with our suppliers both diverse and non-diverse.”
On the IT side
Sue Darago is the senior supplier diversity specialist at MetLife. Thinking in terms of IT, she notes that “We do sometimes focus on one of the resellers we consider especially promising, and mentor them to take a deeper look at the range of services they can provide.”
The idea, she explains, is to “look a little harder to see what other services they can bring forward.”
TNS offers networking solutions
 Some suppliers are very focused on a particular category
of service. That’s how it was with Telecom Network Solutions (TNS, Stone Mountain, GA).
“Our relationship with MetLife began basically through networking,” says Mary Anne Burke, TNS CEO. Her company, she explains, gets involved in cabling: “anything voice/data. We heard of a need MetLife had, and we contacted them and proceeded from there.”
This was four years ago. Today, “We have the national contract for all their smaller offices,” Burke says. “We have technicians onsite at their data centers, we install new data centers when they expand, we support them on large moves, upgrades and renovations and we tie buildings together with outside cable.
“We have thirty employees, which is still a very small company, but we’re now on a scale where we can compete with larger companies.”
The opportunity came along
TNS itself was founded in 2003. Burke, whose background is in teaching and admin, and her technically oriented husband had the opportunity to install a communications system for a large retirement community. “We decided to start the business then,” she says. “He does most of the technical aspects of the business and I do most of the direction and financial and oversee the sales teams.”
Between them, the Burkes have more than thirty years experience in the communications field, and each of their employees has at least fifteen years experience.
The national contract makes MetLife the largest TNS client, but the company also works with retirement centers and hospitals in the Atlanta area, as well as Turner Broadcasting. Another interesting project is at Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, where TNS is developing infrastructure for the island group.
WBENC has helped greatly
“We were not actually certified through WBENC until we began our relationship with MetLife,” Burke discloses. “Sue Darago encouraged us to become certified and helped us through
the process.”
Certification, she adds, “has greatly influenced our business and our success. It opened new opportunities for us that we didn’t even realize were out there. There’s a whole world of opportunities out there for us as a woman-owned business!”
Workshops and programs
MetLife’s procurement people are very active in WBENC as well as NMSDC, Darago explains. “We’re also active participants in the regional groups.” Her office is in Somerset, NJ, so she’s most active in WPEO and NY & NJ MSDC, the New York/New Jersey regional groups of WBENC and NMSDC.
As a result, MetLife co-sponsored a popular WPEO workshop. It’s called “I’m certified, now what?” and, Darago explains, “offers direction on how to use your certification, how it may open the door, and how it gives you access to a wide range of national and regional
corporate sponsors.”
Darago hosted the meeting in MetLife’s Somerset, NJ office this past spring. Seventy-five
WBEs came to learn, and to meet key people from MetLife’s global procurement operation.
The Georgia Women’s Business Council puts on similar workshops, Burke adds.
MetLife also sponsors M/WBEs to attend executive education programs at the Kellogg School
of Management and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business as part of its supplier diversity enrichment program. “The input we get back from the suppliers who attended has convinced
us that it’s definitely worth the investment,” Darago concludes.
D/C
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