HP Inc. Agency Supplier Diversity Sourcing Journey — a Marketing and Procurement partnership
HP was one of the original supporters of the U.S government’s Supplier Diversity efforts which started in 1968. That same determination for equal opportunity exists today and is central to HP’s 2030 vision of becoming the world’s most sustainable and just technology company. Tara J. Agen, Global Head and VP, Marketing Effectiveness, Operations, MarTech at HP, explains how this Board directed company-wide mission extends to Marketing supplier diversity, the internal and external DEI factors considered when identifying new Agency suppliers, and how this effort has exceeded its goals thanks to a strong partnership with Global Indirect Procurement, CFO/Marketing Finance, and HP Marketers.
For Tara and HP, it has been a four-year journey to drive the DEI and sustainable impact to new levels within and outside the corporation. At HP, Marketing realized that they were doing business with people who some, not all of us. For HP, ESG is the last critical mile of business performance. They aim to be the world’s most sustainable and just technology company. In order to drive towards this goal, HP has engineered three strategic pillars to lead with purpose and impact business performance:
- Climate action
- Human rights
- Digital equity
Marketing spend is the second largest indirect purchasing category within HP, and therefore, it is imperative to have significant focus on spending with diverse owned agencies. To aggressively address the lack of spend with Black/African American owned businesses, HP’s Racial Equality and Social Justice task force was created. As Industry Pillar co-lead, HP created goals to impact both the amount of spend with these diversely owned businesses and impact Black/African American personnel in the Agency doing business with HP.
In HP Marketing, its Agency Practice recruited new creative production services agencies that were Black/African American owned as well as work with procurement to create a contract addendum to current creative lead and other top agencies to increase Black/African American personnel on HP’s business . Other focus areas to increase readiness for these agencies included agency onboarding, including a play-book on how to work with HP, what was important to HP’s brand and business, and how to understand opportunities best before they pitched Marketers.
HP and HP Marketing has delivered great results to this focused effort for Black/African American owned businesses. In FY22 and now in FY23, they are exceeding their targets. HP achieved this from a clear directive, tops down, as well as through a collective commitment with Marketing procurement and finance. HP Marketing also leaned into industry connections, from the ANA, WFA, AIMM and BEROE to other key brand cohorts, like P&G, to ideate possibilities and build expertise in driving this difference. Further, HP Marketing and Global Indirect Procurement created a “fast-track process’ for diversely owned companies to come in and work with HP. This included working with HP Treasury to find best in class payment terms for new diverse businesses doing business with HP.
HP learned along the way that their procurement onboarding process was cumbersome and took this feedback, too, to understand how to have more ease of entry into HP as a supplier. AI also helped with purchase selection. HP created HP Agency Marketplace, an AI driven platform that not only guided more purchases to diverse owned agencies, but also elevated their work and capabilities to HP Marketers.
One last tactic was the automation and expansion of HP’s Agency scorecard. HP Marketing issues an annual survey to better understand how they can be better partners to their agencies while elevating DEI and sustainable impact portions of that survey to best understand how they are lining up to HP’s 2030 mission for climate change, human rights, digital equity and more inclusive teams on HP’s business.
Finally, through Marketing Lab, HP’s training, learning and career path development experience to grow HP Marketers, one key course, Partnering for Creativity, featured a module on how HP Marketers could be more inclusive. HERO Collective Founder/CEO, Joseph Anthony, one of HP’s diverse owned agencies, helped build this part of the course that elevated the importance of more inclusive approaches to campaign creativity as well as campaign activation during HP’s creative agency briefing process.
Marketing Procurement and Finance and Agency CFOs need be the catalyst for purchasing change. These functions determine and drive purchasing power for the brands and business. “If not our industry, then where; if not us, then who, if not now, then why not!” said Tara in a compelling ask for the Marketing/Advertising industry to be the change.
