Empowering Change: A Conversation with Elizabeth Campbell on Emerging Business Inclusion

We are thrilled to share that Elizabeth Campbell, our National Director of Emerging Business Inclusion (EBI), has been honored as AGC Minnesota's 2024 DEI Ally of the Year. 

Elizabeth's achievements include transforming procurement strategies, fostering mentorship programs, championing small and disadvantaged businesses, building strong relationships, and championing equity. 

Since Ryan’s EBI program's nationwide expansion in 2011, we have seen a remarkable 250% increase in spending on emerging businesses.  

We sat down with Elizabeth to hear her perspective on emerging business inclusion here at Ryan: the past, the present and her hopes for the future.  

How would you describe “EBI” to others who may not know what that means? 

EBI stands for Emerging Business Inclusion. EBI is Ryan’s effort to grow our business by strengthening our relationships with small and diverse firms. EBI is one element of our larger supplier engagement program.

How would you explain your role as our national director of emerging business inclusion? 

If I were explaining it to a first grader, I would say that I help project managers bring in more people to participate in building projects. 

Overall, I work collaboratively with teams. I ask what their pain points are; we identify available scopes of work and align bid opportunities with a firm’s experience.  

In the early days, we'd look at the project together. Eventually, that meant I was meeting with the Directors of Construction and identifying upcoming opportunities. Now, I meet with regional teams to do this.

Can you describe how Emerging Business Inclusion (EBI) initiatives came to be at Ryan Companies? 

It began with our first big compliance project in Minneapolis—Midtown Exchange—which started in 2004. The project had the most significant inclusion goals of any project to date in Minneapolis, including vendor inclusion, workforce inclusion, residents and apprentices. It was a public project. We met or exceeded all but one goal.  

From there, it was a North Region effort; I came on as an ad hoc, and we said, “Let's see what we can get done.” I’d visit the project managers and just knock on their open doors. I’d ask, “Are you open to what we could do?” 

In the late 2000s, the client, who sells products and services to consumers, began to request inclusion in construction procurement. In 2011, we took EBI company-wide with our CEO Brian Murray's support. 

Our approach was backward, in a way, since you usually start with executive support. But we were ground-up and grassroots. 

We’d ask ourselves, ‘How are we going to be in this space?’

So how did we show up in the space? How do we show up in this space now? 

Our program includes Minority Business Enterprise, Women Business Enterprise, Disadvantage Business Enterprise and Veteran Business Enterprise, along with several other enterprise types.  

The initial drive was to do the right thing. The second driver was client demand. The third driver is employee retention because EBI brings added meaning and purpose to many Ryan team members.

Twenty years ago, you were met with opposition towards your EBI efforts. What did opposition look like back then, and why do you think you were met with opposition? 

There was and continues to be bias based on race and gender. This takes form in many ways. Doubt and avoidance are two. It is common for individuals doing this work to experience both. I did.  

Project managers wouldn’t look at me or acknowledge me. Certain people had longer-term experience and longer tenure; they were highly valued construction leaders and didn’t feel there was a risk in not interacting with me.

Nowadays, how has the attitude changed towards EBI, if at all? Do you feel you are still met with opposition? 

It has changed, our EBI practice at Ryan is widely embraced. Doors are open, especially when it comes to millennials—they care about inclusion. I started to see a shift in engagement around 2011 when we took the EBI program corporate-wide.  

Since 2011, we’ve had project spend goals and bid opportunity goals, which we track. We did a lot of work to create bid lists to create inclusion, which required me to engage with teams.  

We also added preconstruction to our approach.  Now, each region has EBI teams, including a project manager, preconstruction, project coordinator and a VP or Director of Construction. They identify firms capable of bidding at the first tier in their market.

In your opinion, what has been the most impactful change that EBI efforts have brought to Ryan Companies and the communities we serve? 

Through the simple act of providing access to the opportunity to qualified EBI firms, we have had the opportunity to be part of their growth and success. For instance, one firm years ago started on small tenant improvement projects and progressed over the years to complete many increasingly complex projects with us. Today this firm employs over 400 licensed trade workers and has grown revenue to over $120M.   

In another case, we successfully engaged an EBI firm on their first project with a key client. Today, this firm has completed several projects for this client and is enrolled in the client’s business development program. And in other cases, we have provided short term mentorships in areas of need identified by the EBI firm. And finally, the level of internal engagement is high. Ryan Team members from across the company in Marketing, Development, A & E, REM/RBS, Accounting, Technology, Learning & Development, Operational Excellence, along with Preconstruction and Construction play an active role the success of EBI at Ryan. 

What specific strategies have you implemented to shift procurement practices at Ryan Companies, and what results have you seen from these changes? 

Increasing our efforts to identify qualified EBI firms for first tier bidding opportunities, tracking our bid opportunity performance, and reviewing EBI firms progress through the bid event. These changes have led to an increase in access. Through this work we have increased the number of bidders, the opportunity to improve competitive pricing efforts and ultimately win the work.

Looking ahead, what are your future goals for EBI at Ryan, and how do you see it evolving in the next five years? 

The biggest barrier to growing EBI is the massive contract values in mission critical data centers. This means; while continuing to track overall spend performance, we are bringing added focus to project spend performance.  

In May 2024, we launched an EBI spend dashboard, which allows us to track project-level performance. This is a milestone in the program as it allows everyone to see how they are doing in real time. Our user data shows that project teams and leaders are highly engaged in the use of this tool.

Why should businesses care about EBI? 

We continue to have economic disparities based on race and gender and we haven’t succeeded without added focus and attention. 

EBI, or supplier inclusion is tied to business growth and Ryan’s business, our reputation and economic growth for the nation. We have established mutually beneficial business relationships with EBI firms. When they grow, we grow and so too do local economies which in turn drives national economic growth.

How do we connect with subcontractors? 

We do outreach. We work to identify EBI firms for first tier bid opportunities through outreach and membership or participation in trade events aimed at EBI firms. We host internal open houses and project-specific meet & greets and have one one-on-one conversations with EBI firms.

What advice would you give to other organizations looking to start or improve their own supplier engagement and inclusion initiatives? 

Give yourself a long runway. At Ryan, we started grassroots. I recommend beginning with a strategic framework that begins with C-Suite sponsorship. This support will drive adoption and motivation. 

What message do you want to send to emerging businesses looking to partner with us? 

Here at Ryan, we are staying the course. We will continue to build mutually beneficial partnerships with EBI firms aimed at successfully growing our businesses together.