The video recounts a personal transformative experience of becoming a parent to a child with Down syndrome. This life event shifted the speaker's perspective from a focus solely on business and earnings, particularly within a Fortune 50 company, to a newfound concern for underrepresented communities, including those with disabilities. The speaker highlights how this change in focus was driven by questioning what the future would hold for their daughter in terms of employment and societal inclusion.

The speaker embarked on a career dedicated to driving inclusivity through supplier diversity, a proactive business strategy aiming to incorporate small and diverse-owned businesses, such as minority- and disability-owned vendors, into the supply chain. The work in supplier diversity helps foster economic mobility, innovation, supply chain resiliency, and broader revenue enablement for marginalized communities. This approach brings forth transparency in business operations akin to knowing the origin of products at a farmer's market, benefiting society and business.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. ebitda [ˈiːbɪtˌdɑː] - (noun) - A financial term referring to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. - Synonyms: (earnings, income, profit)

The more earnings you had, the more money that you made. And I loved chasing ebitda because I wanted to make more money.

2. marginalized [ˈmɑːrdʒɪnəˌlaɪzd] - (adjective) - Refers to people or groups that are treated as insignificant or peripheral - Synonyms: (disenfranchised, disadvantaged, excluded)

I became growingly and habitually really concerned about marginalized communities and underrepresented communities, including the disability community.

3. procurement [prəˈkjʊrmənt] - (noun) - The act of acquiring goods or services, usually for business purposes. - Synonyms: (acquisition, obtaining, purchase)

And so I began this entire career transformation, and I began doing work on inclusive sourcing, meaningful procurement.

4. resiliency [rɪˈzɪljənsi] - (noun) - The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or change, particularly in contexts such as supply chains. - Synonyms: (robustness, toughness, adaptability)

Next would be what I would call supply chain resiliency

5. economic mobility [ˌɛkəˈnɑːmɪk məʊˈbɪlɪti] - (noun) - The ability for an individual, family, or community to improve their economic status. - Synonyms: (financial advancement, economic advancement, wealth progression)

One is the economic mobility. You see, diverse owned companies often operate in undervalued, underserved communities.

6. philantropy [fɪˈlæntroʊp] - (noun) - The desire to promote the welfare of others, typically expressed by the generous donation of money to good causes. - Synonyms: (charity, generosity, benevolence)

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook economic injustice that exists that makes philanthropy necessary.

7. supply chain [səˈplaɪ tʃeɪn] - (noun) - The sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity. - Synonyms: (logistics network, production network, distribution system)

A supply chain is the invisible thread that connects all of us.

8. undervalued [ˌʌndərˈvæljuːd] - (adjective) - Considered to be worth less than its true value. - Synonyms: (underappreciated, underestimated, devalued)

You see, diverse owned companies often operate in undervalued, underserved communities.

9. transparency [trænsˈpærənsi] - (noun) - The quality of being easily seen through, understood, or detected; openness in communication. - Synonyms: (clarity, openness, accountability)

That's a level of transparency in the supply chain, knowing where the products came from.

10. revenue enablement [ˈrɛvənjuː ɪˈneɪbəlmənt] - (noun) - The process of increasing a company's income through strategic initiatives and partnerships. - Synonyms: (income generation, financial growth, profit expansion)

revenue enablement is the act of creating capital. And money. Money matters.

How Supply Chains Taught Me the Power of Purchase - Kristin Malek - TEDxLogan Circle

I want to bring you to February 28, 2009. And that might seem like a really long time ago to me, though the elements of it are like yesterday. It was the day that I became a mom to my daughter, Caitlin, and it is today the most unexpected moment of my life. Now, of course, the journey to parenthood is going to bring uncertainty, but my moment was when a nurse, she crouched down. She whispered in my ear, she said, you have a baby girl, and she has down syndrome. And the wave of emotion that flooded me was sadness. There were slivers of happiness that were trying to emerge, but there was overall heartbreak and worry. And so I had to settle into now. I was 28 years old and now forever part of the disability community, and that just seemed like such a contrast to the life that I was living.

You see, I worked for a Fortune 50 organization. I was attached to a sales goal. I loved being in a sales organization. And what I loved is chasing ebitda. ebitda was a finance term that we used for earnings. The more earnings you had, the more money that you made. And I loved chasing ebitda because I wanted to make more money. And I loved ebitda so much, I was perhaps obsessed with it. I wanted my license plate to say ebitda. Right. That's a pretty nice level. But to my surprise, perhaps yours, too. There were 16 other people that desired the same license plate. And so I got waitlisted.

I never got the license plate, but perhaps that was probably for the best, because my obsession with ebitda minimized, and I became growingly and habitually really concerned about marginalized communities and underrepresented communities, including the disability community. I would go out and shop, dine, be at restaurants, watch TV, arts and media, and I just did not see the disability community thriving in any meaningful way. And that's when the worry really set in. I completely fast forwarded Caitlin's life and began to wonder, is she going to have a job? Will she make money? Does she get a paycheck? Is there income? What is this future going to be?

I think something to tell you is that I think there's really two ways to live life. You can be present, or you can participate. And so I choose to participate in the changes that I wanted to see. And so I began this entire career transformation, and I began doing work on inclusive sourcing, meaningful procurement. Specifically, it's called supplier diversity. And supplier diversity is a proactive business approach, including small businesses and diverse owned businesses, such as minority owned, women owned, veteran owned, disability owned, LGBTQI, individually owned, including those businesses into an organization's supply chain. That's the act of supplier diversity.

What I love about that work is that there are more opportunities for them to compete for business in a marketplace, and not just compete, but then win business. A supply chain is the invisible thread that connects all of us. From the things that you buy, that I buy, that you're wearing, that I'm wearing, the things that we eat. It's all part of a supply chain. Let me share an example of something we can probably most likely all relate to. Going to the farmer's market. I love going to my local farmer's market. I love all the tents and the tables out, and you can see where the farms are, where everything was sourced and their stories. There's a particular vendor that I always visit in my hometown. It's called Conscious Cup. And they have this really great story of how their coffee is brewed. They have these awesome blueberry muffins. I know exactly where the blueberries came from and how they got to that table, and that's a level of transparency in the supply chain, knowing where the products came from. With that transparency also comes an appreciation for maybe that food even more. And that's important.

I want to tell you this, that supplier diversity is important for a variety of reasons. One is the economic mobility. You see, diverse owned companies often operate in undervalued, underserved communities. So when those businesses are making money, they are then in turn spending in their communities, being able to create jobs, and there's economic mobility that way. Another would be the innovation. You see small business owners and diverse owned business owners. They bring their own level of perspective to ideas and solutions, and that is brought to the table. There's new ways to solve problems.

Next would be what I would call supply chain resiliency. This means that in a supply chain, when you have a variety of suppliers and vendors servicing the chain, and maybe something goes wrong over here with these one or two, there's a logistics issue. Something's out of stock, but you still have others that can keep the business moving, right? So there's resiliency. So think about if you just had one or two in a supply chain of suppliers and something went wrong, business wouldn't continue to flow.

Next would be the revenue enabling. But what does that actually mean? revenue enablement is the act of creating capital. And money. Money matters. We need money to be flowing through underserved and marginalized communities. With money, you can equate to income. Income probably relates to a paycheck. Think of all the things that all of us get to do with income and money and a paycheck. That's actually what grounds supplier diversity.

When supplier diversity first started here in the US, it was designed to solve a widening marginalized racial wealth gap. Okay, so now you're probably thinking that is a really big thing to solve for, and that's going to take a lot of time. And you're absolutely right. Supplier diversity isn't new. It's actually been around 50 years. And it started here in Washington, DC. It started by an executive order in the White House under President Nixon. And in the executive order he said that the federal government would now have to procure items from small businesses and minority owned businesses so they would then be in their supply chain and targets were set and goals were set.

So for an example, an agency might have been given a 15% small business goal, meaning everything they were going to buy that year, that 15% of that had to be bought from a small business. And they were so serious about these targets and goals being met, because they knew what the outcome could be, that the federal government during that time, even withheld maybe funds and payments of subcontractors until those goals were met.

So now we have legislation kind of mandating supplier diversity. Public companies followed suit. There's a firm Point b that tells us that 82% of Fortune 200 companies practice supplier diversity because it's good for business and it's good for the broader society, too. There's an organization called the NMSDC, and they publish this economic impact report every year. They were able to tell us that with certified minority owned businesses, how much revenue they were able to garner.

But then also, what did that revenue do? Supported new jobs. A million jobs. That's a lot of people going back to work. That's a lot more money being made. Let me tell you an example of a story of a business that I get to work with in my organization. It's a black owned technology firm. And I onboarded them to my company's supply chain. They were a subcontractor to us. We began doing business together. We were the prime, they were the sub. We were winning deals, creating opportunities, meeting customer needs.

That company. When I met them, they were a team of three. One location. As projects picked up, they were being successful. They now were a team of eleven. They opened a second location. That's the multiplier effect. That's good business.

So let me bring you to maybe the other side of it. There's a really recent article authored by Doug Melville, and it's titled Dei is the trillion Dollar blind spot. Intriguing. So, of course, I read it, and he shared a story about a global retailer brand sharing this year that they saw 25% increases in revenue, 25% more money being made year over year, and they pointed it to their Dei strategies.

One specifically that they called out was called this 15% pledge. And what that meant was that 15% of the shelves in their stores was going to have diverse owned brands in stock and available. And so then what happened? Revenues went up. In turn, those diverse owned businesses were making more money, and thus more jobs had to be created. That's the solve of supplier diversity and the purchasing of power.

You know, it's August, and every August I think of a back to school time. And what always happens that I participate in are these back to school drives. Right? Like, stuff a backpack, fill a bus, give one. Because there's been this pre identified group of students that would perhaps go to school without school supplies if we didn't do this drive. So we do the drive. But I would ask you to think about what if we put those students, moms and dads back to work so that we weren't stuffing buses or backpacks for the next 15 years. That's what we're solving for.

There's a really big contrast that supplier diversity should not be confused nor mistaken for charity or handout or acts of kindness. I love this quote by Martin Luther King junior. And it says that philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook economic injustice that exists that makes philanthropy necessary.

There is a real time demand for change in supply chain, workforce and workplace. The truth isn't always hard to find. It might be hard to hear, but inclusive sourcing, adding diverse suppliers, local businesses, and small businesses into your economy, into your purchasing power, can make a difference. It's good business. It's good for society. And you can do it, and I can do it. Generations behind us and ahead of us can absolutely do this. So I would encourage you to not let one more day go by without your fingerprints on the change that you wish to see. Thank you.

Inspiration, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Supplier Diversity, Inclusive Sourcing, Community Development, Tedx Talks