I interviewed Kavita Cooper back in January, but before we get into our discussion that day (it was in a pub! With a nice lunch! And a pint of beer!), I wanted to catch up with her pandemic experience. Unsurprisingly, for one of the most energetic and dynamic people I’ve every met, she hasn’t been idle.
She’s been a driving force to link up experienced, furloughed procurement practitioners with charities, particularly to help source the all-important PPE (personal protective equipment) items. “We’ve helped 37 charities, many of which run nursing homes or have other similar needs for these items – organisations such as Barnardo’s and the Red Cross”, she explains. That isn’t just finding suppliers but looking at certifications, verification of quality, providing information packs for users and more.
She and her consulting firm have also been helping schools and other organisations with their “back to work” programmes. Many of us are probably under-estimating how much there is to be done and how different the working environment post-pandemic is going to be. “Schools are buying huge quantities of screens, cleaning materials, waste bins… often these are quite new procurement areas for them”. But pleasingly, she sees an increased interest, no less, in procurement with purpose issues. “Recycling keeps coming up as an issue” she says.
So back to the January interview now, and you may already have picked up Cooper’s energy, passion for her work and for supporting the Procurement with Purpose movement. With two young children, she is invested in the future of the planet, and clearly thinks about wider issues constantly as she looks to grow her own business.
She was a graduate trainee at BT after university, moving into a senior procurement role in 2013 after 10 years in other management positions. At BT, all staff were given 2.5 days a year to volunteer, so people tended to work at local charities and hospices o to make their contribution. But Cooper – being logical, naturally entrepreneurial and business focused - wondered if there was a way to leverage that time better. Could BT’s support bring more value to the recipient organisations rather than just providing a few hours of “free labour”?
So she started advising charities on their procurement issues. Obviously, if she could help them do better in that space, a day or two of her time might benefit the organisation hugely. But she was concerned that too often, the advice wasn’t then being embedded by the charities. So she decided to turn this into her business, setting up Novo-K in 2015 to work with charities (and sometimes private sector firms too) and advise them on their procurement issues.
Novo-K has grown but is still a small, professional services firm, working with bodies such as the Quakers, Oxfam and the Children’s Society. While it is pretty obvious how a Mars, a BP or an Apple can take Procurement with Purpose actions around plastics use, modern slavery or climate, for example, it may be less clear how a small, non-manufacturing business like this can contribute to the movement. So, it is useful to hear how Novo-K and Cooper have approached this.
Every time the firm wins a contract, it donates to the Micro-loan Foundation, which supports women-owned business in Africa with small loans. Micro-finance schemes seem to show very positive returns, both financially and in terms of social value. Cooper also uses the Work for Good fundraising platform, which makes it easier for small firms to donate to charity.
There are also actions that do fit firmly within the Procurement with Purpose arena. Cooper explains it like this. “Given our size, our actions may not mean much in the global scheme of things, but we’ve always tried to think about purpose in everything we do. We implemented a policy for no single-use plastics in the office some time back, and we look at sustainability in everything we buy”.
She believes it is important for any firm to align what they are doing with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. “That gives us a common language to explain what we’re doing”. Goal 5 (around gender equality and empowerment of women), Goal 9 (inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and innovation) and goal 13 (climate change) are mentioned on the firm’s website.
Novo-K’s core business is working with charities to help them improve their own procurement performance. Cooper therefore sees how those organisations are implementing PwP initiatives themselves. Many of them look to support suppliers who share similar values or focus on issues that are aligned with their own core charitable purpose. But there are problems sometimes for organisations to find the sort of suppliers they seek – smaller firms in particular are often not particularly good at promoting their own values. “It’s important they do that, for their own sake, as more organisations including their customers get behind the PwP movement”.
Cooper is vegetarian, and she’s even got her 7-year-old son writing a business plan for a sustainable alternative to a plastic product used in schools. Perhaps young Cooper will be the Thunberg of his generation and help to save the world, if his mother doesn’t get there first …