Thursday, November 11, 1999
Minority- owned firms make contacts
Toyota links its suppliers
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Chiaz Kilegenie looked over the exhibition hall at the Albert B. Sabin Convention Center on Wednesday and was impressed with what he saw.
“It's good to see some color finally,” said Mr. Kilegenie, a member of the Dine tribe and president of Kenyah International, a Springfield, Ohio, American Indian trading company.
Mr. Kilegenie was talking about the 600 minority-owned businesses represented at the 10th Opportunity Exchange hosted by Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America (TMMNA) in Erlanger.
The annual event, which drew 1,400 to the Sabin Center, is part of Toyota's effort to encourage greater minority business participation among its largest suppliers.
The daylong event included a trade fair where minority businesses and Toyota suppliers could meet and exchange business cards, and a keynote speech by Tavis Smiley, a political analyst and talk show host on Black Entertainment Television.
“Toyota's doing this not because they're trying to be nice, but because Toyota understands this makes good business sense,” Mr. Smiley told the Opportunity Exchange luncheon.
Changing demographics are forcing companies to become more diverse in their purchasing and operations. Census data indicate that a majority of the U.S. work force will be women and minorities after the turn of the century.
“You can't grow in the new millennium unless you appreciate diversity,” Mr. Smiley said.
Dennis C. Cuneo, TMMNA's vice president for
external affairs, said the annual Opportunity Exchange is important because it demonstrates to Toyota's largest suppliers that the company is serious about increasing minority purchasing.
Last year's event at the Sabin Center drew 1,200 and generated almost $7 million in contracts between direct Toyota suppliers and minority businesses, Toyota said. The first event in 1990 had 100 participants and produced $350,000 in supplier contracts.
Toyota wants minority suppliers to represent at least 5 percent of its total North American purchasing by 2002, up from 3 percent in 1997.
In addition, the automaker wants its first- and second-tier suppliers to also do 5 percent of their purchasing with minorities in the same time period.
Toyota didn't disclose its current level of minority purchases, but Teruyuki Minoura, president of TMMNA, said the company is ahead of schedule toward the 5 percent target, increasing minority purchasing 100 percent last year.
And Mr. Minoura emphasized that the 5 percent target “is only a floor and not a ceiling” for minority purchasing.
That was music to the ears of minority businesspeople like Mr. Kilegenie, whose company is attempting to line up contracts with Toyota suppliers to do a variety of manufactur ing sub-assembly operations.
“(Native American) businesses are ready to get beyond casinos and bingo halls. We've got some more sophisticated ideas,” he said.
Chuck Travis of Computer Consultants Inc., a small minority-owned Columbus computer firm, was attending his first Opportunity Exchange. He was impressed with the response he was receiving from the 200 or so Toyota suppliers with booths at the trade fair.
“It's been very informative and a good way to network. I think we may get something out of this,” he said.
Some of Toyota's suppliers, such as Florida Production Engineering, which has plants in Ohio, Kentucky and Florida, know the benefits of the Opportunity Exchange firsthand.
The minority-owned company, which produces plastic wheel covers and other parts for Toyota and other automakers, has grown dramatically since Toyota began mentoring the company in 1987, President Ernie Green said.
“They showed us how to improve. (They) taught us the Toyota Production System, and this was two years before they placed their first order with us,” he said.
Florida Production, which employs several hundred at five plants today, was at Wednesday's event looking to increase its own network of minority suppliers and cement relationships with other Toyota suppliers.
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