Jason Roberts was brought up in Brixton by his single-parent Caribbean mother, then worked for over two decades in financial services. He started in IT before moving into selling technology into the sector, with some success. As a young, tall (6ft 5in) black guy, he had some “interesting” experiences, being told once told by a boss to be aware of the impact he had on others – “remember you’re a big guy, you’re a big black guy” following an incident in a corporate office. The implication was that colleagues might be somehow worried by his presence - for some reason, that never happened to me (5ft 7in white guy) when I worked in that sector!
So, our experiences were very different both in the banking world and more widely I suspect, but we do now share a deep interest in diversity in the supply chain and how procurement can promote more buying from a whole range of diverse organisations. That applies whether we’re talking about minority, female, neuro-diverse, veteran or LGBTQ+ owned, social enterprises and charities and so on. Around 3 years ago, Roberts founded Kaleida, a fully inclusive web-based platform that looks to link buying organisations with a wide range of diverse suppliers.
It’s not a complex idea really, but it looks like Kaleida is taking off now. There is rapidly expanding interest in increasing access to opportunities to businesses owned by marginalised communities, and the platform is solving a problem for procurement professionals who find the process of identifying and inviting diverse suppliers to bid time consuming, as information is stored in multiple places.
As Roberts explains, the situation is that there are a number of excellent organisations that for some years have promoted supplier diversity, and supported their respective communities. But they have tended to work with just one “minority” group. WE Connect promotes female-owned businesses. Disability UK works with firms owned by disabled folk (and also promotes employment opportunities for that group). The excellent Mayank Shah has developed MSDUK for ethnic minority-owned suppliers. Social Enterprise UK promotes … you get the idea. In the USA, there are similar bodies that focus on veterans.
“If you are a CPO or a senior category manager looking to increase the representation of diverse owned businesses in your supplier base, you have to work with a range of different organisations. This is inconvenient and wastes your time really”. You might even run the risk of your approach being seen as discriminatory if you favour one group too strongly.
Roberts aims to bring process of finding suitable diverse suppliers under one roof. Kaleida is a web-based platform that allows all those diverse organisations to register, and identify their particular type of diversity. Prospective buyers can then search across the whole universe of suppliers and invite diverse suppliers to participate in the tendered opportunity based on their capabilities, not their diverse identity.
This is a hot topic in procurement, as we all know, so not surprisingly Kaleida is seeing real success. Buyers pay a fee to market contract opportunities on the site (rather than simply searching), and Roberts recently announced insurance giant Allianz has joined the platform. Several other marquee brands are currently trialling Kaleida on a proof of concept basis.
Suppliers can self-certify the ‘diversity’ of their business or use Kaleida’s partner, SupplierGateway, which for a small fee of $25 provides an electronic certification based on some simple checks. Self-certification involves an “attestation” statement. Of course, firms or individuals can cheat, but as Roberts says, “there are repercussions if you lie – and there is always someone who will know if you claim to be something you aren’t”.
Suppliers can register on the site without payment and are then visible to the buyers searching the platform. For £47 a month suppliers then can have direct visibility of the thousands of opportunities that are posted by both Public and Private sector buyers. The platform does not provide any sourcing capability – it is about helping to link buyers and sellers rather than actually running a competitive process. But Roberts is pursuing the capability to link Kaleida with major sourcing or S2P systems.
The technology is elegant and efficient in its simplicity compared to many major procurement platforms. And the timing is spot on, as more and more large firms have supplier diversity on their ESG / procurement with purpose priority lists. Roberts is also positioning himself as a leading figure in that supplier diversity movement, and he is well-equipped to so successfully given his background, experience and personality; he’s a very effective and credible communicator.
Whilst there are questions no doubt to be answered around scaling the business, Kaleida is an interesting and useful tool for many organisations. It is certainly worth considering for procurement leaders who want to pursue diversity in their supply chain and supplier base.