Marcella McCullough, senior manager of supplier diversity and purchasing strategy for Nissan North America Inc., offers sage advice for minority suppliers who want to do business with the automaker: Understand the company’s needs and offer a product or service tailored to those needs.
Toni Cooley“Do your homework; understand Nissan as a whole and where the automotive industry is moving,” she said.
That advice is an apt description of the path Systems Consultants Associates Inc. in Jackson, Mississippi, followed to cultivate opportunities in the automotive industry.
When Nissan announced its plan to expand its manufacturing footprint to Mississippi, the consulting firm worked with the state to help minority contractors gain work on the new plant’s infrastructure. During the course of that work, Nissan’s site consultant told SCA’s founder and Chairman Bill Cooley, who holds a doctorate in business administration, that Nissan wanted to help small businesses enter the automotive arena.
Knowing Nissan would need to evaluate suppliers objectively, Cooley developed an assessment tool and offered it to the company, said Toni Cooley, J.D., Bill’s daughter and the current CEO of Systems Group of Cos., which includes the original consulting firm, two automotive companies and an information technology company.
“Our work with Nissan grew out of listening to a potential customer’s need, solving the problem unsolicited and demonstrating that we had the capacity and capability to learn the industry,” Toni Cooley said.
Systems Consultants Associates, which Bill Cooley founded in 1977, was one of the companies invited to interview for a joint venture with one of Nissan’s larger suppliers. In 2001, Systems Consultants Associates and PPG Industries Inc. formed Systems Electro Coating LLC to provide electrocoated frames for Nissan.
McCullough said SEC is an integral part of Nissan’s supply chain, delivering a select type of sequenced frame within 90 minutes for standard orders and within 30 minutes for emergency orders. Today, SEC is the sole provider for electrocoated frames for all SUVs and trucks Nissan manufactures in the United States.
Exceeding Expectations
Toni Cooley said Nissan provided the company with long-term contracts spanning two decades, helping it overcome potential barriers.
“The biggest challenge for minority suppliers is financing,” she said. “Demonstrating that we had a long-term contract gave us the ability to get funding. The second hurdle is overcoming a perception that minority businesses cannot do the job.”
Over the years, SEC has grown steadily in size, customers and revenue, while increasing its work with Nissan. Initially, the challenges were overcome by working with its joint venture partner, PPG. Now, SEC largely has the capacity to operate alone.
“Toni continues to grow SEC’s capacities with Nissan,” McCullough said. “Because of that, we’re constantly looking at Toni and SEC for new opportunities and new partnership relationships with other OE [original equipment] Tier I companies.”
SEC also works with suppliers of production and service parts for Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler and General Motors, as well as antique car restorers.
“We’re looking for opportunities to serve other OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], opportunities to increase capacity in existing operations. And, we link all that to opportunities for our employees,” said Michael Thomas, president, Systems Electro Coating.
The key to the company’s success is a focus on quality, he said. “With minority companies, there’s a perception related to capability and performance ability,” Thomas said. “We allow the OEMs to see that we’re capable of exceeding expectations.”
Ascertaining Customer Needs
When Toyota announced plans to build a plant in Mississippi, SEC approached the automaker, hoping to expand its electrocoating business. Toni Cooley’s experience in that effort led to advice she offers other suppliers: “Ascertain what the customer needs,” she said. “Often, we want the customer to take whatever we’re selling when it’s not what the customer needs. When I learned Toyota was coming to town, I was so hell-bent on selling electro coating services that I did not recognize there were other opportunities.”
After learning Toyota would do electrocoating in-house, she looked at other possibilities. In 2011, Cooley formed a joint venture with Japanese-based Toyota Boshoku Corp., creating Systems Automotive Interiors LLC to make seats for Toyota Corollas.
Like SEC, SAI has grown steadily. Both companies are listed on the BE 100, a list of the country’s largest black businesses ranked by Black Enterprise magazine. SEC is ranked No. 24, and SAI is ranked No. 28 on the 2017 BE 100 list.
Sharing The Wealth
Local students touring Systems Electro Coating.With its success, SEC remains committed to its roots. “Since our inception, we’ve worked in the arena of minority business development and training, helping others as a consultancy,” Toni Cooley said. “We want to spend as much money as possible with women- and minority-owned businesses.”
Those efforts extend beyond mentoring and hiring suppliers who are certified as minority- or women-owned businesses to hiring small, minority-owned businesses in SEC’s community. The company has also established a 501(c)(3), Center for Social Entrepreneurship, which works to enhance education, housing, economic development and community engagement within Jackson, Mississippi.
“What we’ve been able to do in the automotive arena has afforded us an opportunity to do things in the larger community to enhance the quality of life of others,” Toni Cooley said. “I think that’s the untold story of what having large OEMs in your community does for the community. Before our work with Nissan and Toyota, we wouldn’t have the same opportunities or the platform by which to do work in West Jackson. Today, CSE operates a girls’ robotics and coding program, an after-school program, housing renovation and a business development project. That’s what our performance in the automotive arena has allowed us to do.”
Story reprinted courtesy of Women's Enterprise USA, www.weusa.biz
