Episode Transcript
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Jennifer Szaro, AESP (00:07):
Welcome
back to the Energy Beat podcast.
I'm Jen Zaro, your host, andthis episode is part two of our
series on working with diversesuppliers in the clean energy
space Jones, the head ofprocurement and supplier
inclusion at ResourceInnovations, and together we're
going to talk through theprocurement journey step by step
(00:29):
and talk about things thatsmall and diverse suppliers can
do along the way to increasetheir chances of winning new
business.
Welcome to the podcast,Marvaline.
Tell me a little bit aboutyourself and your own career
journey and how you ended up inthis role.
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (00:44):
So
I have been in procurement for
over oh goodness, it's scary tosay almost 30 years.
Started out at General Motorsback in the 90s and worked with
the locomotive group there andwas in the procurement
(01:04):
organization.
Then I transitioned over toExelon and I worked with Exelon
for almost 20 years in theprocurement organization, for
all of that time managingvarious categories of spend
spend and then more recentlyjoined resource innovations as
(01:28):
the head of procurement andsupplier inclusion.
And I've been here for almostthree years now enjoying my time
love it.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (01:37):
Well, I
think you're the perfect person
to have this conversation with,given your background.
I mean, you've worked at in theutility sector and you've
worked for an OEM and now you'reworking in the energy services
side of it.
So excited to ask you all kindsof questions today.
Well, let's start withpre-discovery.
So before you even get startedin RFP or, you know, looking at
(02:00):
a solicitation, I imagine youhave to figure out how to
whittle down what to go after,because there are a lot of
opportunities out there, and myfirst question is how do you
find those opportunities?
Where do you look?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (02:13):
So
there are a number of different
places that you can look.
Oftentimes some of the industryorganizations will be
advertising the various RFPsthat are being offered by the
utilities or some of the ICs,and then also being aware of
(02:36):
what's going on in the industry,the timing that the various
programs and the cadences thatthey're on.
You know if they're bid outevery three years or every four
years.
Being aware of that, and partof that is looking at the
utilities websites and kind ofunderstanding what they have
going on.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (02:56):
And then
how do you go through that next
step of really deciding whatyou're going to go after?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (03:02):
So
I would say the first step is
determining whether or not thescope of work is within your
core competency, you know.
Is it something that you can do, and not only just do, but
something that you can do well?
Also, I would say can youmanage the scope of work alone?
If you can manage the scope ofwork alone, great.
If you can't, how do youcoordinate with other
(03:25):
organizations to partner topotentially put together a
proposal for the scope of work?
And then the last thing I wouldprobably say is is the juice
worth the squeeze?
And what I mean by that is,sometimes there may be
opportunities that we think arereally great, but once we dive
in and start to investigate alittle more, it might not truly
(03:50):
align with what we're lookingfor.
So it may.
You may have to put in a littlemore effort to make things
align and work, and on thebackside, does that benefit you?
And if it does great, on thebackside does that benefit you?
And if it does, great.
But if it doesn't, you need tobe able to determine that.
(04:10):
Well, maybe that's anopportunity you want to pass on,
because you don't want to putyour organization in a situation
where you do all this work, andeither the budget isn't there
or the acknowledgement isn'tthere.
So you have to be mindful ofthose types of things.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (04:26):
I hadn't
thought about that.
So that makes sense.
So you're really looking at notonly do you have the right
skill sets and resources totackle the topic in the RFP, but
also how is this going toenhance the organization itself
and your play to your skills andto your reputation?
So that makes sense, absolutelyyes.
(04:49):
So when you're going out forbusiness, looking for work
through the RFP process, whatkind of information do you
generally research on theseorganizations that you're
potentially going to do workwith?
Marvelene Jones, Resource (05:00):
First
of all, you need to learn about
the organization issuing theRFP, that is, first and foremost
, understand where they are,their landscape.
You know what their reach is.
Secondly, probably why are theyissuing not probably, but
definitely why are they issuingthe RFP?
What is their current situationand what is their end goal?
(05:21):
The reason why I say thosethings are important is because
if it's an RFP for some type ofa new program or a pilot program
, well, oftentimes there isn't abaseline, so they're just kind
of starting up and trying tofill their way through.
But if it's an RFP for a matureprogram, then you need to know,
(05:43):
okay, is it just the timingwhere they're issuing it, the
cadence of every three years,every four years, or did they
have a partner that didn't meetthe goals?
Was it successful?
Was it not successful?
So you want to understand thosetypes of things about the RFP,
or why they're issuing it, soyou can prepare your proposal to
(06:05):
address those issues wherethere may have been lack of
innovation and things of thatnature.
You want to understand that so,again, you can make your
proposal very interesting andinviting for them to want to
take you on to the next steps.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (06:25):
So tell me
, are there any unique pieces of
information or topics for theefficiency or clean energy
sector that new suppliers shouldbe aware of when they go after
one of these requests forproposals?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (06:40):
So
I guess each industry kind of
has its own uniqueness.
I would just encouragesuppliers to be aware of the
industry trends and align withthose, to kind of stay safe.
Definitely think outside of thebox, but not so far that that
box morphs into a rectangle.
You know if that makes sense.
You know if that makes sense.
(07:01):
You want to keep in mind thatthis is a very tight niche
industry and the person that youmay see in one place or in one
company could very well be in adifferent place the next time
you see them.
So you got to be mindful of therelationships that you create
and in this industry I thinkthat relationship piece is very
(07:25):
important because it's such atight niche industry.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (07:29):
I would
agree.
Yeah, we definitely are a tightcommunity and move around
between different employers, sothat makes sense.
Marvelene Jones, Resource (07:37):
Yeah
.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (07:45):
So what
about resources that you would
recommend for small suppliersthat might be helpful to them in
their discovery efforts?
Are there any tools out therethat you prefer to work through
to help you figure things out?
Marvelene Jones, Resource Inn (07:52):
I
wouldn't say, tools per se.
You know there's alwaysorganizational and industry type
things that you can find out,but for me what I've seen that
works best and what I wouldalways suggest is like looking
at company websites and kind ofagain understanding their
(08:12):
landscape, what they're going on, looking at your competitor
websites to see what they'redoing, what they're going on
Again with the industryorganizations, those types of
websites, anything that willjust provide you information on
the topic and the players thatyou may be competing against.
You want to have thatinformation available to you and
(08:34):
also some of with the industryorganizations.
You know they are very goodresources so you know, if you
become members of thoseorganizations, sometimes there
are opportunities forsponsorships or things like that
(08:55):
.
That will help some of thesmaller suppliers to you know,
transition into biggeropportunities.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (09:03):
You read
my mind.
There was a question I wasgoing to ask you about how do
you even build brand awarenessfor yourself if you're new to
the industry or you've justlaunched your company?
So tell me more about that.
How would you, if you're brandnew to the industry, how would
you get your name out there andget some awareness with those
(09:28):
who are issuing RFPs that youeven exist?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (09:32):
So
typically, you know
organizations like AESP.
You all have your annualconferences and you all invite.
You know all the differentplayers, the utilities and the
different implementationcontractors.
They're all there and those arethe places that you, as a
smaller organization, want tofind yourself in.
(09:53):
You want to be around thosepeople who are the decision
makers, the people who areactually going out and
submitting bids.
You know some of the largerimplementation contractors
submitting bids.
You know some of the largerimplementation contractors.
Oftentimes, some of theseconferences have meeting greets
where you can, you know, meetthe different companies,
(10:14):
schedule time to talk with themand learn a little bit more
about them.
So I would definitely sayputting yourself at those
different conferences and eventsthat will allow you to network
with people who haverelationships or ends already
within the industry.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (10:35):
You know
that's a great plug for us.
Yeah, I mean, we actuallystarted creating new membership
categories just for folks thatwere coming into the industry
and weren't sure how to getstarted.
So we now have a small businessentry-level membership and an
emerging business and even asole proprietor.
(10:55):
Just for that reason, we wantto provide you all with the
opportunity to get together andmeet people and share
information and share bestpractices.
So I'm glad to hear that thatis helping people Absolutely.
Marvelene Jones, Resource I (11:11):
And
just like the you know the
excuse me the DEI event that wehad this year.
You know the pre-conferenceevent that is great for smaller
suppliers, smaller, diversesuppliers who are interested in
learning a little bit more aboutthe industry.
They get to hear from differenttypes of speakers at different
(11:31):
journeys within.
You know their corporate life,so you know it's great that you
all offer that, and you knowsome of the other organizations
offer similar types of events.
But the one that AESP offeredthis year I think was really,
really great.
It wasn't huge as it has beenin the past, but the intimacy
(11:54):
that we experienced and theconversations were very
meaningful.
So you know I want to plug thatand hopefully we'll continue to
do that for future conferences.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (12:06):
Absolutely
.
Yeah, that's definitely theplan, all right.
Well, one other question aboutthe process of deciding what to
go after.
So do you look at sort of therecords of how long it takes for
an organization to get that RFPout the door and then turn
around and make a decision aspart of your factors in deciding
(12:27):
whether or not to go aftersomething?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (12:30):
It
starts off with is this part of
your core competency?
Can you manage it?
And then, can you meet thetiming of it?
Sometimes there's a lot of timethat they offer four to six
weeks for the turnaround timefor RFP proposal submission.
Other times it may be two orthree weeks.
(12:51):
Sometimes that can be anindicator of certain things, but
other times it's just they maybe behind the ball, but you have
to be able to establish thatthis works.
Within your timing you can puttogether a proposal, and not
only put together a proposal,but put together a winning
proposal and a team that couldpotentially land you a contract.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (13:14):
Absolutely
.
And then I know sometimes itcan be tempting to just say yes
if you win that contract andfigure out the rest later.
But are there areas where yousee small suppliers sometimes
underestimate the resourcecommitments they'll have to make
once they've won that work orare partnered with someone who's
won the work?
Marvelene Jones, Resource (13:39):
who's
won the work.
Yeah, so I don't want to sayall the time, but I think it
does happen a little morefrequently than it probably
should.
Sometimes you know they're justso anxious to get their foot in
the door and you know they biteoff more than they can chew and
unable to coordinate theresources or the required to
(13:59):
support the contract.
So you know, of course, if youget a contract and you're unable
to actually meet thecommitments of it, that's going
to limit your business forfuture opportunities if you
can't recover and then deliver.
So I would definitely say youneed to figure it out on the
front end to make sure you canbe successful later, because
(14:22):
that is going to be thedetermining factor of how your
business grows and howsuccessful your business
ultimately is.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (14:31):
On the
flip side of that, I have often
seen the people issuing RFPsvastly underestimate the
resource requirements for thesejobs.
Can you talk to that a littlebit and how you might take steps
to mitigate those impactsthrough the process?
Marvelene Jones, Resourc (14:49):
itself
Absolutely.
So you know sometimes theutilities, like you said, the
utilities, like you said,underestimate the resources and
you have to be able to pivot andyou know that's part of where,
(15:10):
when you're building yourproposal, where contingency
comes in, because there isalways going to be something.
Nothing ever goes 100% asplanned.
So mainly it's about being ableto pivot and identify up front,
when things do happen, howyou're going to manage those to
still be successful.
You know it's unfortunate butit happens a little more than we
(15:37):
intend with.
You know scope they call itscope creep where you know
things change and it wasn'texpected, especially if it's
more of a newer program or pilot, where they're still kind of
feel their way and understanding.
You know a lot of times theymay have to make adjustments on
the fly so that the programultimately is successful, and so
(15:59):
you have to be nimble enough tobe able to pivot and again make
the changes to accommodatewhatever the changes need to be,
the changes that need to bemade.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (16:14):
Any advice
for having those conversations
with the utility or theorganization that is funding the
work.
Any experiential advice thatyou can offer for small
suppliers.
Marvelene Jones, Resource (16:28):
Know
the supplier is going to be key
in keeping those lines ofcommunication open, asking them
about previous programs that maybe similar and how they were
(16:51):
successful and how much changein pivoting took place there and
how was it managed.
So that way you know nothing isabout reinventing the wheel.
Everything that we're doinghere has been done before.
It's just trying to pull thatinformation out and having them
share it with you.
(17:11):
Now, oftentimes they're notjust going to give it to you.
You have to ask you got to knowwhat questions to ask again to
set yourself up for success.
Oftentimes they are willing tohave those conversations because
if they are looking and they'regoing to select you, they want
you to be successful, becauseultimately they end up being
successful, and so just makingsure those lines of
(17:35):
communications remain open isgoing to be key.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (17:41):
I
completely agree that oftentimes
I find it's the lack ofcommunication and not the
intention that causes the issues.
Marvelene Jones, Resour (17:50):
Correct
.
I would definitely agree withthat.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (17:55):
So let's
say you've been shortlisted for
a project or a program.
What are some commonnegotiating strategies you would
recommend?
That you see work well forsmall, diverse suppliers,
perhaps more so than others whomight be applying for the work.
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (18:24):
So
knowing and understanding that
you know contracts are oftenleveraging opportunities and
using them as such, that is oneof the key things.
Oftentimes, smaller companieshave the ability to pivot and to
be nimble when things changeand oftentimes that's valuable
to the utilities because thingsare changing constantly.
Valuable to the utilitiesbecause things are changing
constantly and if you have to gothrough a lot of red tape or
bureaucracy to have thingschanged or to adjust things,
(18:46):
that can sometimes be a turnoff.
So utilizing and being aware ofyour flexibility and making it
known to the companies is, Ithink, a big plus.
Also, establishingrelationships with the
influencers and decision makersto be shortlisted for future
(19:11):
opportunities, building thosenetworks and allies that are
working for you.
In situations and inconversations that you are not a
part of but your company comesup because you've built that
network and you built thoserelationships where they have
confidence to say, hey, thiscompany may be able to do this,
(19:32):
let's reach out to them.
So, but definitely, beingnimble and being able to you
know course, change fairlyquickly, I think is something
that is very valuable to manyorganizations.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (19:50):
I love
that.
I think that's great advice forsure because, agreed, when you
get, the bigger the organizationis, the more difficult it might
be to make those pivots.
So, absolutely.
And then trust is another bigthing I hear a lot about from
diverse suppliers and the valuethat they bring is, especially
if they're looking for someonewho is from the community or
(20:12):
within the community or hasstrong ties or relationships
with the community that the RFPis meant to serve.
Do you want to speak to that alittle bit, about the value of
having someone kind of on theground that has trust already
built with the community?
Marvelene Jones, Resource (20:27):
Yeah
, I think that's key.
You know anything that's goingto be successful.
You know there has to beconnections and it is very
difficult to go into a communityif you have no connections
there, no relationships.
So companies that haveestablished those relationships
within the community becausethey may have worked on
(20:49):
something before or they youknow deal with or work with some
other CBOs that is huge becauseyou know people in the
community can identify with them.
Maybe it's because they cameand talked about other programs
and other opportunities.
So you want someone that thecommunity trusts and oftentimes
(21:13):
you know how to reach thecommunity.
Is that you know people respondsometimes to people who are
very similar to them.
So you got to keep that in mindas well.
Is that you know if you havesomeone that has boots on the
ground, you want them to go intothe community and fit in.
(21:35):
You know you don't want tostick out like a sore thumb,
like what are they doing here?
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (21:39):
You know
you want them to.
Marvelene Jones, Resource (21:41):
Yeah
, you want them to fit in and be
comfortable, and people willtend to, or the community will
tend to, open up a little more,and that's extremely valuable,
because that is getting thecommunity to buy into.
Whatever it is is what is goingto ultimately make the program
successful.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (21:57):
Yeah, I
mean, if you don't have that
trust, people are probably lesslikely to even talk to you when
you start trying to promote theprogram.
I would think, and I could see,you'd want someone who does fit
into the community, maybe looklike the community understands
the community's needs andconcerns.
(22:17):
So I think that's so importantto make a program successful.
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (22:21):
It
is, and oftentimes people's
experiences.
As you're talking and you're tothe different people, sometimes
utilizing your own personalexperience of growing up in a
similar neighborhood and thingsof that nature that you can, you
know, build a kinship with them, that helps as well, so you
(22:42):
know those are all things thatthese utilities look for when
you know they are trying toengage outreach partners and
things of that nature.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (22:54):
Yeah, I
agree.
I think that's the one piecethat I'm constantly trying to
hammer home with utilities thatare issuing these RFPs,
especially in communities thathave been underserved the
importance of building trust,the importance of making sure
there is a shared livedexperience with the people who
are working in the field ordoing the recruitment, just so
(23:15):
that they have an understandingof what the real needs are of
that community too.
I would think.
Marvelene Jones, Resource (23:20):
Yeah
, definitely.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (23:22):
So let's
talk about partnerships.
It's not uncommon to see agroup of small suppliers get
together to apply for funding orto submit a response to an RFP.
I've seen this go great, andI've seen it go less than great,
so let's talk about effectivestructures for negotiating with
(23:43):
your partners in order to submitan application or a submission
for an RFP.
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (23:49):
So
first I would say they all need
to agree on who is going totake the lead, and that starts
with some type of a teamingagreement or something like that
that they should already havein place before you know you
start to partner with someone,kind of align.
(24:12):
Okay, this is what our corecompetencies are for each of the
parties and this is what we aregoing to bring together as a
team.
You know, to make one solidproposal, but you have to have
one person take the lead and yougot to trust them that the
decisions that they make onbehalf of the team you know that
(24:36):
they're making the bestdecision.
You know there's nothing worsethan having too many cooks in
the kitchen and they're alltrying to make the same dish but
they got different recipes.
You know you want to kind ofstay away from that.
They got to decide on who willbe driving up front and then you
know, just kind of moveaccordingly as a team.
(24:57):
And you know, if that invisibleeye in team starts to rear his
ugly head, unfortunately they'llbe doomed and that will affect
their credibility for futureopportunity, whether or not
they're working with each otheror working alone.
So you know you gotta be bemindful of that.
(25:18):
But I would definitely say youhave to draw on what is each
organization, the best of eachorganization?
What do they bring into thetable, and kind of fall in line
with that and then just allowthat to drive them to success.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (25:36):
I love
that you've focused on teaming
agreements.
To me, that's a really criticalcomponent to these partnerships
, whether they're a group ofsmaller businesses or a larger
business that recruits a diversesupplier to go after funding
that has a diverse supplierpercentage contract requirement.
(25:56):
I have definitely seen theserelationships go wrong.
Can we talk a little bit aboutthat?
So when a larger organizationdecides to team with a small
supplier, a diverse supplier,whether it's a minority and
women-owned business or just asmall business from the region,
(26:16):
how do we make sure to protectthose smaller organizations,
smaller companies, Once the workis won?
How do we ensure that they areactually getting that work as a
partner in these relationships?
Marvelene Jones, Resource (26:29):
Again
, I think that teaming agreement
is going to be key where itsets the expectations.
It says what each party isexpected to do, the timing of it
and holding each otheraccountable.
So I too have heard of you knowinstances where a company,
(26:51):
would you know, just slaps apartner's name on to help them
get the business, they get thebusiness and then they hear
nothing from them after thecontract is executed.
But part of that isestablishing the relationships
with these companies prior.
(27:12):
So I understand that it can'thappen every time, but the goal
is to have an idea of who yourpartners are or who you want to
work with before an RFP alreadycomes out.
Again, building thoserelationships, communicating,
because you know it's a little,it's harder to kind of give
(27:35):
someone the shaft when you'vebuilt a relationship of trust
with them, versus just reachingout and finding someone oh, they
seem like they're good and youknow we can pull them in to get
the business and then they don'thear anything.
There's no relationship there.
It really was just, you know, atransaction.
So we want those relationshipsto be more than transactional
(27:57):
and I think that is what helps,when you can hold each other
accountable and people talk.
Again, we're a very small nicheindustry and companies talk and
people don't want to oftenshare those experiences because
they don't want to jadethemselves from other companies
working with them.
(28:17):
But there has to be ways thatyou build those relationships
that will allow you to holdthose partners accountable.
And sometimes you know you haveto go unconventional ways
ensuring that they are heldaccountable.
(28:38):
So you know a number ofdifferent ways to do it.
But again, building therelationships on the front end
and that trust is going to bekey.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (28:50):
I think
that's really smart advice.
I do see how that would workjust making the effort to build
those relationships out andbuild the trust early on.
That way, when you get to thatopportunity and you can work
together, they know you're areliable partner and that you'll
come through for them.
Marvelene Jones, Resour (29:10):
Exactly
, and you know, again,
oftentimes we have a lot of newpilot programs and things that
are going on now, so there maybe instances where you're
engaging partners that you mayhave never worked with before
because it's a new opportunity.
But most of this, again, we arenot reinventing the wheel here.
(29:30):
You know what partners are outthere.
We have the differentorganizations that we can reach
out to to research the partners,and it's good to just start
doing that before, like an RFPcomes up, so you have your
arsenal ready when it comes upand you can pick and choose,
okay, which partners you thinkyou wanna work with, and that
(29:51):
typically works very well whenyou have an established
relationship.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (29:58):
So build
out your bench early, make sure
you're building thoserelationships and building trust
between each other before youeven start to enter that RFP
process.
Marvelene Jones, Res (30:11):
Absolutely
absolutely.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (30:13):
Well, one
final area I want to discuss
with you is understanding thevalue of getting certified as a
minority-owned business.
I know there are diversity,certification goals, in some
cases with different RFPs.
Can you give us anunderstanding of the why it's
worth it to go get thosecertifications and then we can
(30:35):
kind of dig into how and whetherit's worth it or not?
I know there are federalcertifications you can get, as
well as state and localcertifications.
So how do you wrap your brainaround that?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (30:49):
It
isn't always an easy task.
It can be very arduous and timeconsuming and a lot of times
you know these smaller companies.
They need to be out in thefield and doing things to ensure
that their company is bringingin the revenues that they need
to continue to work.
But when it comes to thecertification, there is time
(31:11):
that they will have to devote toit.
But in the grand scheme ofthings, you know, it can be very
helpful in many instances.
Grand scheme of things, it canbe very helpful in many
instances.
For example, many of thesecompanies' utilities that we are
trying to get business from.
They have internal and externaldiversity goals that they must
meet that they've committed to,and having a certification helps
(31:34):
them meet that goal.
So that is valuable to them.
So not only are you competentand you can do the work, but you
have this certification that isgoing to help them, on the back
end, meet some other goals thatthey have committed to.
So you can leverage thatcertification into something you
(31:55):
know that they need and you'renot just another proposal.
You know that they need andyou're not just another proposal
.
So if you have stellarperformance and certification,
you can almost write your ownticket, you know, once you've
proven yourself, you've gone inand you've done great and on the
contract program was, you know,successful, they'll keep coming
(32:18):
back because they are creaturesof habit and, like I said
before, they are fairly riskaverse.
So when they find someone whodoes a good job, they just keep
feeding them, going back.
And, you know, as long as youkeep doing a great job, you can
kind of create a pipeline ofwork that will help to sustain
your organization, of work thatwill help to sustain your
(32:38):
organization.
But that certification is, youknow, helpful and in some cases
I don't know that with you knoweverything that's kind of going
on now with a lot of thedifferent order executive orders
that have been put in place.
But there have been times whereRFPs are issued solely for
(33:03):
diverse partners and so but notjust diverse partners, certified
diverse partners.
So that certification kind ofin some instances may give you a
leg up on other companies thatmay not have it and put you in a
situation where you'reconsidered I don't want to say
(33:27):
only because you're diverse.
That's a component of theevaluation criteria, you know
you got to be able to do the jobbut it actually, you know, kind
of sets you, aside from you,know some other companies that
may not have that certification.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (33:43):
You worked
at the utility, so flipping the
coin over.
Are there any best practicesthat you've experienced related
to requirements of thosecertifications?
In other words, are there somecertifications that make more
sense than others for the work,or are there best practices in
which certifications make themost sense that you've seen in
(34:04):
your world?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (34:06):
So
in my world a lot of times some
of the more local or regionalcertifications align better with
some of the smaller, more localcompanies.
You know diverse companies.
So no knock against any of the.
You know larger, diversecertifying agencies.
(34:30):
But sometimes, you know, cityof Chicago's certification
process may be a little more inline with a local Chicagoland
company.
You know what I'm saying.
So I would say you know foreach organization they would
have to make that determinationas to what makes sense for them.
(34:52):
If you are only trying to getregional business in the
Chicagoland area, in theIllinois area, where it may make
sense to target gettingcertifications from that region,
from the state of Illinois,city of Chicago, where if you're
looking to broaden yourhorizons and get business in
other areas, then one of themore nationally certified
(35:13):
organizations may be one thatyou want to target.
But again, that is specificallyan individual.
You know organization decisionas to kind of how they want to
move forward.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (35:28):
That makes
sense.
So if the reasoning behind therequirement of the certification
is more about local economicdevelopment, for instance, you
would probably want a regionalfocus on that certification.
Then Correct.
Marvelene Jones, Resource I (35:43):
And
it's not to say that you know
national ones aren't accepted,because they will be.
But when you look at it fromthe level of effort that the
organization has to kind of putin to obtain the certification,
some of those regional ones maybe a little more I don't want to
(36:03):
say easier, but it just may bemore conducive to helping them
get the certification.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (36:13):
Well,
maybe correct me if I'm wrong,
but maybe the processes might beless onerous as well.
Yes, well, one final question,just given the recent changes
we've seen from the federaladministrative positioning on
diversity, equity and inclusion,any advice out there for
diverse suppliers and how howthey might seek work in this
(36:37):
environment, maybe at the stateor local or utility level?
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (36:44):
So
what I can say, or what I've
seen, is that in many cases,even though the federal
executive orders have beenmandated, a lot of organizations
are holding fast to theircommitments.
So you see changes.
(37:05):
When some of the organizationsare dealing with federal dollars
and they have to, you know nowcomply or pivot to, you know,
make sure that they don't losethe funding in certain instances
.
But in other cases, where it'smore local dollars supporting
the programs and things of thatnature, many of the
organizations are again holdingsteadfast to their commitments
(37:31):
and I don't foresee thecommitments or the requirements
going away.
The commitments or therequirements going away, they
may change in the percentagesthat are required, but I don't
foresee it going away at all.
(37:51):
You know they may also kind ofpivot towards more locally
supporting, you know, locallysupported organizations or
partners.
But again, I believe they'regoing to maintain some level of
required diversity commitment intheir RFP requests.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (38:17):
I think
you're right.
I think it's still the valueproposition for bringing people
from your local communities andregions to me is untouched,
based on what we're seeing outthere, because it is really
about local economic developmentand trust and bringing the
right people in to do the jobthat is going to lead to success
(38:40):
.
Marvelene Jones, Resource In (38:40):
So
I'm with you there for sure,
and I mean, ultimately, whetheror not we agree with it, it is
the right thing to do.
We know that oftentimes thesesmaller, diverse organizations
don't get the opportunity, theydon't get a seat at the table
(39:01):
and, you know, mandating that weinclude them in these bigger
opportunities again, it ensures,like you said, that local
economic growth and commitment.
It just is a recipe for successfor these programs and we've
seen that it does work.
(39:21):
So it doesn't.
You know, to change the reciperight now is not a smart thing
to do.
So you know, I'm really excitedabout everyone maintaining
their commitments and doing whatthey're supposed to do and
saying that you know, regardlessof kind of what's going on in
(39:45):
the bigger picture, this is whatwe're going to do.
This is what we're going tocontinue to do, because it is
about, you know, our communitiesand making sure that they have
you know, all of theopportunities and success that
the programs that we offer andbring into the communities.
You know it's really all aboutthat.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (40:08):
Well,
marvaline, thank you so much for
your time today.
This was such an importantconversation for us to have, and
I'm so excited with the workthat you're doing at Resource
Innovations and just excited tohave you here today with me.
So thank you.
Marvelene Jones, Resource (40:24):
Thank
you for having me.
I enjoy talking aboutprocurement diverse partners
(40:45):
partners as in any case, butmore so diverse partners.
I'm always on board becausethey add so much value to the
end goal that I want to makesure that I can do whatever I
can to give them a little bit ofsupport and, hey, knowledge
that I have that may help themto grow their business and, you
(41:05):
know, be successful.
Jennifer Szaro, AESP (41:08):
Thank you.
Thank you for being part of ourcommunity too.
I know a lot of people benefitfrom the work you're doing and
from the information you'rewilling to impart on others, and
so that's what makes this sucha great community.
So thank you.
Marvelene Jones, Resource (41:21):
Thank
you.