Medtronic engages all its businesses in supplier diversity

The medical giant partners with M/WBE Keystone on a green electronics recycling project, doing what’s socially and environmentally right

Gretchen Ebert is director of supplier diversity at Medtronic, Inc (Minneapolis, MN), the worldwide medical device company that works to alleviate pain, restore health and extend lives.

“Supplier diversity is definitely my passion,” Ebert says. Before she came to Medtronic she created a supplier diversity program from scratch for her previous employer. “It was a successful program but I wasn’t working fulltime in supplier diversity. So when Medtronic asked me to come over fulltime to build a formal program that engaged all the business units, I was excited.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity professionally,” she adds.

Growing the program
Medtronic, Ebert notes, is continually growing. “As our businesses expanded and we acquired other companies, Medtronic realized that we needed to formalize the program across the company. Corporate supplier diversity works with the business units to develop their local supplier diversity programs.” Medtronic has additional operations in Santa Rosa and Northridge, CA; Redmond, WA; Fort Worth, TX; Memphis, TN; Jacksonville, FL; Danvers, MA; Louisville, CO; Warsaw, IN; Tempe, AZ and Puerto Rico.

“We’re asking each business unit to get involved in local supplier diversity activities, like participation in its regional minority supplier development council. We do that in the Twin Cities, and we’re pleased that Pedro Vega, one of our sourcing directors, is on the board of directors of the Puerto Rico Minority Supplier Diversity Council.”

Medtronic’s corporate supplier diversity group is supported by supplier diversity reps from the business units. “When we attended the national NMSDC trade show in Las Vegas, we had ten team members from all over the country,” Ebert recalls.

“Our program balances small-business subcontracting with an overall commercial M/WBE business program. We have separate goals for each diversity category and we track them individually.”

The personal connection
Ebert has another reason for loving her Medtronic job. “Sometimes when we see suppliers at trade shows we’ll be expecting them to talk about the products and services they provide, but instead they’ll say, ‘You know, I’m wearing one of your products right now!’ Maybe it’s an insulin pump or a pacemaker, but it’s always such an interesting, personal connection, and it makes us so proud!”

Meeting at the council
Dorothy Richburg is president and CEO of Keystone Computer Solutions (St. Paul, MN). Keystone is now an important MBE supplier for Medtronic, providing IT staffing and a forward-looking electronics recycling program.

When Ebert first got to know Richburg, they were both heavily involved with the Minnesota Minority Supplier Diversity Council (MMSDC, now the Midwest Minority Supplier Diversity Council). Ebert was moving up from board member through secretary, vice chair and chair, and Richburg was on the council’s minority business input committee. It was natural for the two to be involved in projects together.

Richburg had been trying for some time to interest Medtronic in Keystone. “I knew how professional she was and what a good job her company did. We finally got her onboard in the IT staffing area, and we recently got her a contract for electronics recycling,” Ebert says.

Tech staffing
Keystone also offers staffing to several other Medtronic locations, as a player in the company’s staffing management system. “Our contract labor and staffing program has helped us make a lot of headway in all the diverse sectors: minorities, women, veterans and service-disabled veterans,” Ebert notes. “Our businesses throughout the U.S. can take advantage of the diverse staffing pool we have in place.

“We call on Keystone for contract and direct hire of IT pros, administrators, managers and other professional personnel. Now we’re starting to get into clinical research, therapists and animal care contract services.”

Mentoring and more
The Medtronic mentoring program is informal and individualized, usually one-on-one between a company manager or exec and an M/WBE principal.

“We also fund scholarships for M/WBE principals through the University of Minnesota and the MMSDC,” Ebert says. “The curriculum is geared for executive education of both minority and women business owners.”

About Keystone
Keystone Computer Solutions works with contract personnel and has been moving into direct hire. It has some thirty IT pros at present, many of them diverse, but the number fluctuates because temp-to-hire is a specialty of the company.

CEO Richburg began in the corporate world with 3M and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She went on to be an independent contractor for ten years. “After Keystone was incorporated in 1987, I was the only contractor for a couple of years until I was able to find other technical contractors to do some of the work,” she says with a smile.

“I liked independent contracting because it was flexible. I would take summers off to be with my family. Then I would look for a new contract starting in September. My husband, Joseph Richburg, was working fulltime in a corporate job, and that made it possible for me to freelance.”

Keystone became a tier 1 supplier to 3M in 1989. “This was our first large client. It was exciting,” Richburg recalls. “Then Keystone got contracts with American Express, BCBS of
MN, Fairview IS Hospital, Northwest Airlines, St. Paul Companies, Norwest Bank, Pillsbury
and others.”

Keystone was certified by NMSDC in 1996. “It gave Keystone more exposure throughout the Twin Cities,” Richburg explains. The company graduated from the SBA’s 8(a) program in 2008.

But in general, “When I look at our business I don’t focus on being a WBE or diverse. That’s just an added plus for our customers. Our focus is on the quality service that we provide,”
she says.

“When I started out I had about thirty regional competitors, and now there are hundreds of local, regional, and global competitors, so we have to be sharp.”

Electronics recycling
A few years ago Keystone began considering some solutions it wasn’t currently offering.
“We wanted to target what Medtronic and other major corporations needed, and we thought
it should be something green, doing what’s socially and environmentally right,”
Richburg explains.

Obviously this new initiative should be related to the company’s existing work with electronics and computers. “We thought about recycling, so we partnered with recycling vendors who collect end-of-life electronics at various sites. We consult with companies and manage the recycling process nationally and internationally.”

The discards are handled by recycling vendors who have all the appropriate green certifications. “It’s all done here; nothing goes to landfills. We manage the process, the certifications, security of equipment and secure destruction of any data still existing in the machines.”

A Keystone business development VP, Frederick Blocton, put together the recycling enterprise, Richburg notes. “Blocton, who is African American, combines his engineering background with his strong expertise in sales. He did a phenomenal job.”

It didn’t happen overnight, Richburg says. “But now several other companies, like Borders, States Electric and Carlson Companies, have contracted for our ‘eCycling’ services.”

Heavy into organizations
This year Richburg is serving her second term as chair of the MMSDC’s MBE input committee and sits on the MMSDC board. “I’ve always been passionate about supporting minority business enterprises,” she says. Her work has included developing a strategic plan for the input committee and helping MMSDC hire a consultant to pull it all together.

She also volunteers on the board of BDPA, chaired the awards ceremony for the last four
years and the regional conference in 1991, and is currently VP of corporate planning for the Twin Cities chapter. And, she notes, “I’m on the board of the Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce and the St. Paul Chamber Foundation, and serve on the Metropolitan Economic Development Association MBE advisory committee and the St. Paul College advisory committee.

“I enjoy being active in the community.”