Amy is a key an intrinsic part of the Global Procurement team at EY (Ernst & Young), a team of 450 procurement professionals engaging with suppliers and organisations to support EY and their clients.
TS: Can you tell us a bit more about the phrase global procurement, and what that actually means?
AC: We have a team of around 450 procurement professionals around the world and people in different roles within that team, looking at opportunities for us internally, whether it's real estate or technology. I come from a background of procurement that’s focused on talent - that's anything that we need for EY’s learning, development, as well as our internal functions, workplace services.
TS: How did you really see organisations - particularly last year, because it was obviously a challenging year - creating more value in the world to then thrive in 2021?
AC: Last year was a big year. If you think about the impact of Covid on our economy, the impact it has had on small business, what it's done for our different communities, all entrepreneurs have really struggled and women in general have been really disadvantaged by Covid.
I think the biggest stretch I've seen from some of the suppliers that are coming through is starting to understand and asking amazing questions of how do you think you'll work differently? Of course, we're going to, now that we can see how to work remotely. So what are our different business needs?
I think our suppliers are pre-empting that. They’re understanding to keep going and what they're doing, and be resilient in that. We're starting to see a lot more value from our suppliers in what they're presenting to us.
We're going to have suppliers that have dropped off and probably have taken a bit of the time to hibernate. But if I think about some of the indigenous entrepreneurs that I really admire, such as Dwayne Good from Inspired Travel, or Mundanara Bayles from The BlackCard. They've really changed their mindset and decided, well what are other areas that we can focus on? Or how do I want to do business differently in 2021? How do I want to continue to work?
TS: What does diversity and inclusion really play in the economic recovery of Australia?
AC: I think we're seeing a larger focus on Diversity & Inclusion and how that links in for our recovery, for both government and corporates. So there's a strong focus there. And if I think about the work that we're doing for government ourselves here at EY we're starting to see a huge amount of tenders that come through that really specify how we're going to contribute to the local economy, and how we're going to support disadvantaged communities, such as our indigenous people, women-owned businesses, disabled enterprises, etc.
So there's a huge focus on that in government policy. And with diversity inclusion, we really know that by opening up, that the impact of targeted procurement, for example, can have a really big impact on social economic prosperity.
TS: Why is a strong focus on Australian and indigenous suppliers such an important factor for the future of this country?
AC: I think it all comes down to the role we play in just recognising the past injustices as well as our ongoing inequalities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We think about Closing The Gap, and how far we haven't come towards meeting any of those objectives. I think we need to focus on our reconciliation and know what we are actually reconciling with, and the role that we all need to play here in Australia on understanding how those disparities look, understanding our statistics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders that are incarcerated, our children in care, and then also the economic disparity as well.
So we have a role to play. That's what these government policies are in place, to stimulate our indigenous entrepreneurship and create economic development and provide opportunities for our indigenous communities to just participate in the economy. And that, of course, then flows on to indigenous employment and then intergenerational wealth and success as well.
Interested in learning more? Listen to our entire conversation with Amy Crookes at the TradeSquare podcast, TSQ here.
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