GE Burnova is bidding for travel management companies in the third quarter of this year, but Bernadette Busterfield, the energy giant's global procurement director for travel, meetings and fleet, has a problem. Busterfield is valued by her employer for the diversity of its suppliers, but she says, “We've researched this and we couldn't find any TMCs that are women-owned, so we can't say internally that we'll include those companies in the RFP process. Can we find them in the fleet industry? Absolutely not!”
There are many women working in corporate travel – 58% of GBTA Europe's buyer members are female – but this may mask an industry-wide perception that there are “very few women-owned companies in the business travel sector,” says Basterfield. Apart from a handful of consultancies and recruitment agencies, she can't think of many more women-owned companies.
It's not just corporate travel: According to WEConnect International, which certifies and connects women-owned businesses (WOBs) with procurement teams, only one in three businesses globally and just 20 percent in the UK are WOBs. The majority only trade locally. It's estimated that WOBs account for just 1 percent of procurement spend.
The reasons for women's low representation in ownership are a mix of institutional and personal factors: Even in 2024, there may be ingrained sexist attitudes that manifest as fears about losing suppliers' interest due to pregnancy or childcare, according to Jerome Flint, regional director at WEConnect.
But Jo Layton, CEO of serviced apartment agency CAP Worldwide, believes the biggest enemy is inertia. “The travel industry is inherently inclusive,” she says. “The barrier is how people have historically bought.” Established businesses are overwhelmingly male-owned, directly or indirectly, which means Flint “finds it difficult to get first and second major customers.” [for a WOB] is difficult.”
Another big challenge is access to capital, which Flint said is WOB's “biggest pain point.” WOBs accounted for just 2% of venture capital funding invested in Europe and the U.S. in 2023, according to PitchBook, a provider of data on venture capital, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions.
I had a huge network to contact, but I felt like, 'How am I going to compete?' so I gave up on it.
When your competition is overwhelmingly male (or white), those who aren't can feel out of place simply because they're different. Busterfield briefly moved to the supplier side in the 2010s and started a consulting firm, but even she, a widely respected and experienced professional, fell victim to imposter syndrome. “I knew I was up against some very vocal owners of consulting firms,” she says. “I had a huge network I could reach out to, but I was like, 'How am I going to compete?' and I gave up on myself. I didn't have the confidence to follow through.”
It is to address all of these inherent disadvantages that the concept of supplier diversity has taken hold in the US, and is being rolled out in the UK, although other European countries are lagging further behind, Flint said.
Layton attributes the growing interest in WOB to the UN Global Compact, which has 20,000 companies around the world signed up to pledge their commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including achieving gender equality, empowering all women and girls, and “equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in politics, the economy and public life.”
Some UN Global Compact signatories may raise eyebrows for their track record on other sustainability issues, so it's fair to ask whether all those making perfunctory statements about supplier diversity are really serious about it or just virtue signalling.
Diversity may just be a check-box initiative for some, Flint says, but “there are a lot of companies that are really committed to it, tying performance and bonuses to investing in women-owned businesses. A third aren't committed yet, a third are just paying lip service, and a third are committed, but I think we're on the path to more serious change.”
In addition to GE Burnova, another company that has set spending targets for diverse suppliers is pharmaceutical company GSK, which has hired Louise Harries as its full-time supplier diversity manager. Harries is adamant that GSK embraces diversity not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it's good for business.
“At GSK we sell to diverse communities and so the communities expect us to support them,” Harries says. “This gives us greater cultural understanding and having diverse suppliers creates diversity of thought. WOB certainly has a different way of thinking and approaching things.”
Basterfield shares a similar view. “Minority-owned businesses can offer a different perspective on how to serve the needs of GE Burnova,” she says. “And our customers are looking for it when they look at our supply chain because they encourage it in their own environment.”
While large companies are looking for suppliers who can serve them on a global or local scale, this is much more difficult for small women-owned businesses.
CAP Worldwide is a supplier to GE Vernova. Now, Leighton is taking the same approach with its serviced apartment suppliers. After receiving certification as a WOB from WEConnect at Busterfield's urging, Leighton launched “At CAP, You're Welcome.” Under the program, CAP actively seeks out fully certified WOBs and other minority-owned businesses and, just as important, tracks the availability and usage of diverse partners.
“This will ensure that you are judged on your actions, not just your words,” Layton said, emphasizing that “whether a provider has one unit in a third location or 90,000 units across the world, we expect all providers to provide the best, safest, and highest level of service and products in their respective markets.” Layton also pledged to provide guidance to diverse owner-owned suppliers and give them the same attention as large incumbents.
Layton says executive support is essential for travel buyers seeking to engage with WOB. If executives are supportive, she urges buyers to do thorough research and differentiate between women-owned and women-led businesses. “A 'women-led' business is a male-owned business,” she says. Buyers should ask for a certificate of ownership.
Like Layton, Harries emphasizes the importance of buyers supporting WOBs through the RFP process: “I try to be a mentor. Sometimes they don't know all the jargon. Inviting them to bid and supporting them in their bids is really important. We intend to award the business to the best suppliers, but at the moment those suppliers don't even have access to the bids.”
But the biggest change buyers need to make to accommodate WOBs, especially if they're large enough to hire a full-time travel manager, is a shift in mindset. “Today, choosing a WOB usually means choosing a small company,” Flint says. “Large companies look for suppliers that can serve them on a global or regional scale, but that's much harder for smaller WOBs.” It's a dilemma: WOBs and other small companies aren't big enough to capture big customers, but they remain small because they can't capture those customers.
Recognising this contradiction, public procurement is trying to reform. For example, the UK Procurement Act, which comes into force in October 2024, aims to increase government use of SMEs. But the private sector could also benefit from following the same path. It is often said that SMEs work harder and are more agile to provide better services, but travel managers may also need to work harder and think more flexibly by adjusting their purchasing practices to work with more small providers.
