Month: September 2024

Originally published in Principal Financial Group 2023 Sustainability Report

Supplier diversity

Working with diverse suppliers, vendors, and business partners helps improve our competitive edge in the global marketplace and contributes to our strategic objectives.

Our approach 

In all bidding opportunities we strive to consider businesses owned, controlled, and operated by diverse individuals, including women, people of color, veterans, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and individuals with different abilities. Our supplier diversity program provides criteria and eligibility requirements for diverse suppliers in the U.S. interested in doing business with us.

To create greater economic impact and growth opportunities for diverse suppliers, we aim to spend $100M with diverse suppliers in the U.S. by 2025. We measure progress toward this goal by setting annual targets. In 2023, our goal was to spend $53.2 million of eligible U.S. spend with diverse suppliers. Ultimately, we spent $42.1 million with diverse suppliers.

We were unable to fully meet our 2023 target spend goal due to unforeseen budget constraints and broader economic headwinds that changed our projected spend in areas of the business.

We will continue to refine how we utilize projections in areas of diverse spend to forecast appropriate eligible spend base to establish reasonable supplier diversity goals and look for opportunities to diversify our supplier portfolio.

Our actions and performance in 2023 

In 2023, we focused on engaging with our partners in all aspects of supplier diversity, including participating in membership organizations to promote and credential diverse suppliers, providing internal and external education and promotion of supplier diversity as an element of our business strategy, and working directly with our diverse suppliers to enhance their future success.

We remain an active member of the Financial Services Roundtable for Supplier Diversity, a group dedicated to building strong supplier diversity practices in the financial services industry.

We also piloted a supplier development program, pairing a cohort of seven of our diverse suppliers with a national business coach and business growth curriculum. The participants reported a deeper understanding of marketing and strategy, as well as how to grow and sustain their businesses as a result of the program.

Finally, we launched internal educational campaigns by hosting diverse suppliers on campus and presented at several conferences about the contribution of supplier diversity to a successful business strategy.

What’s next 

In 2024, our goal is to source at least 5% of eligible spend in the U.S. from diverse suppliers, amounting to $42 million through tier one and tier two spending.

We hope to reach this goal through the following actions:

Create ownership and accountability by working with category managers and individual business units in the U.S. to identify potential sourcing opportunities for new and diverse suppliers.Partner with our Employee Resource Groups to embolden and build champions for supplier diversity throughout our organization within the departments and teams they lead and participate in.Monitor the status of supplier diversity metrics and celebrate and report achievements and progress internally and externally.Build and maintain a robust and qualified diverse supplier list that is shared with any buyer throughout the organization to reference when seeking a supplier.Provide a channel for Principal employees to directly identify diverse suppliers for the supplier diversity team for further assessment and evaluation.Strengthen collaboration with our tier one non-diverse suppliers to promote their use of diverse suppliers. This collaboration improves the overall health of the diverse supplier ecosystem and makes our values clear to our non-diverse suppliers.

Read more about supplier diversity program and requirements

Progress in spend with diverse suppliers by 2025 ($)

Goal: $100 MillionProgress: $42.1 Million

To learn more, read the Principal Financial Group 2023 Sustainability Report.

Insurance products issued by Principal National Life Insurance Co (except in NY) and Principal Life Insurance Company®. Plan administrative services offered by Principal Life. Principal Funds, Inc. is distributed by Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. Securities offered through Principal Securities, Inc., member SIPC and/or independent broker/dealers. Referenced companies are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.​

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CLEVELAND, September 16, 2024 /3BL/ — KeyBank’s Key4Women will present “Emotional Intelligence in Diverse Business Environments”, a free, one-hour virtual event on Wednesday, September 25th at 12:00 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. MT / 9:00 a.m. PST.

Key4Women’s National Director and Head of Community Bank, Rachael Sampson, will have a conversation with Natasha Tous, Certified Executive Coach, to address the critical role of emotional intelligence (EI) and cultural empathy has in business success. Tous will illustrate how her experiences as a Latina business owner has shaped her EI, enabling her to effectively connect with and lead diverse teams.

In this webinar, participants learn how to:

Develop EI and cultural empathy to improve communication, foster inclusivity, and drive business growth.Navigate cultural differences and build stronger relationships.Create a more dynamic and successful business environment.

“We are thrilled to talk to Natasha about this important topic of emotional intelligence,” said Sampson. “These are conversations we need to have with ourselves and those close to us in our personal and professional lives. It is our hope that attendees will walk away from the webinar with the tools they need to drive their success.”

Tous is multicultural and multilingual, born in Venezuela to a Cuban father and a Colombian mother. She arrives in the U.S. when she was seven. Throughout her life, she has lived in seven countries, including a six-year stint as an Expat living in Hong Kong. She is trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

For more information, contact key4women@keybank.com or register online by September 24th here.

About Key4Women 
Key4Women started in 2005 as a campaign to lend $1 billion to qualified women-owned businesses within three years. The program achieved that in two years and has now generated more than $12 billion in loans to women-owned businesses. Membership in Key4Women is free. In addition to helping women business leaders and owners tap into capital to build and grow their businesses, Key4Women members gain valuable access to a team of local Certified Key4Wome Advisors who advocate, connect and empower women on their journey to financial wellness. For more information, visit key.com/key4women.

About KeyBank
KeyCorp’s roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $187 billion at June 30, 2024. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank Member FDIC.

This blog was authored by Karissa A. Breen (more commonly known as KB), Head of Cybersecurity Journalism at KBI.Media.

Karissa will present on Cisco Networking Academy’s Women Rock-IT webinar series in October, during cybersecurity awareness month. KB has been crowned a LinkedIn ‘Top Voice in Technology’. She is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the TMFE Group, a holding company and consortium of several businesses all relating to cybersecurity including, an industry-leading media platform, a marketing agency, a content production studio, and an executive headhunting firm, MercSec. Read KB’s blog below.

AI’s function in cybersecurity

AI’s function in cybersecurity is not just beneficial, but essential. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms can analyze and interpolate (insert) large amounts of data – much faster than any human – to uncover new patterns that would otherwise go unseen. Health, primary industries, manufacturing, and of course, security are all benefiting from even this embryonic state of AI.

AI is creating new paradigms in every industry

From aggregating and parsing medical scans to identify cancers before they fully form, identifying fungal leaf infections using AI powered drones, improving the environmental impact of manufacturing, to cybersecurity. In cybersecurity, AI can map patterns and identify anomalies that indicate potential security gaps or even systems that have already been compromised. This toolset allows organizations to detect and mitigate threats before they occur or cause significant damage, and it’s only just the start of this new war.

AI-driven tools are now being used by threat actors

From individuals to state-sponsored advanced package tools (APTs), AI is being used in (or to enhance) attacks on a wider range and number of targets. AI attacks may lead to more sophisticated attacks, with the ease with which it can pivot its attack model. Conversely, blue teams defending organizations can adapt to new types of attacks by learning from previous incidents, continuously improving their defensive capabilities by leveraging approaches like Autonomous Cyber Defence (ACyD). This adaptability can be critical within an environment where cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics, often by weaponizing AI against organizations.

With the effective use of AI, organizations can not only improve their current security measures, but also anticipate future vulnerabilities and resolve issues proactively.

The role and future of AI in cybersecurity

The role and future of AI in cybersecurity is contentious to say the least. However, it seems the good may outweigh the bad. Over the course of nearly 300 interviews, the advantages of AI have been covered again and again:

The Emerging Role of AI in Cybersecurity – In the majority of my podcast interviews, my guests demonstrate how AI enhances threat detection, improves data security, and automates security operations center (SOC) operations.The Importance of Generative AI – The importance of generative AI in creating advanced defenses and simulating potential attack paths.AI Augmentation – Although AI is significant for the future of cybersecurity, cybersecurity practitioners reiterate the importance of complementing rather than replacing human analysts.

Bridging the Skills Gap – Empowering a New Generation

Over the years, there has been constant talk around the ‘skills gap’. With advances in AI, this has led to an even greater skills gap deficit in the cybersecurity industry. As the adoption of AI accelerates, the cybersecurity skills gap widens – as many people within my network and during my media interviews have discussed at length. This gap is not just about technical expertise; it’s about understanding the human-AI interplay. Security professionals need to enhance their technical skills, particularly in technical security, but the need to develop ‘soft skills’ – I like to call these skills hard skills. Managing people, expectations and clients aren’t easy skills and this is where I do believe women have a great opportunity to excel.

A Call to Action for Women in Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity as an industry is dominated by males. When I entered the field not so long ago – about a decade ago – there weren’t a lot of women in cybersecurity. So I have taken on encouraging women to take up roles within the cybersecurity field as a part of my media role.

Now, while I don’t want to speak into any existing stereotypes about women specifically, having a diverse team brings unique perspectives and diversity of thought that is invaluable in addressing how cyber criminals might think. I’ve personally seen many women drive their careers to a new level with their empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Initiatives like mentorship programs, networking opportunities, and targeted educational resources can also play a significant role in attracting female talent in cybersecurity.

Moreover, when it comes to AI as a whole, women may have a decided advantage in understanding and spearheading alternate approaches. Nature and nurture, encompasses everything from brain chemistry and function through to social conditioning. We may find that this presents women with several advantages – or at least relatively novel models – in social cognition and the appreciation for the general theory of mind.

What Cuzzolin et al refer to as ‘hot cognition’ – how thinking and its processes are influenced by emotional state – may well help shape ethical and operational boundaries for the development and extension of AI. And given the innate duplicitous nature of cyber, this may have pronounced shaping of the future of security – one significantly sculpted by women.

View original content here.