Women-led business accounts for less than 2 per cent of the supply chain for corporate Australia. Claire Stewart asks whose responsibility it is to change that, and does change equate to preferential treatment.
Walking on a beach in South Africa not all that many years ago, Annalise Law was daydreaming of Richard Branson and that strangest of birds, the guinea fowl.
She'd read Branson's biography and decided there on the beach that she wanted her own group of companies. It was natural that the company symbol be her favourite bird. "Kanga is Swahili for guinea fowl," she says, not as many people think, a nod to Australia's largest macropod.
The Kanga Group operates through Britain, Hong Kong and Australia and is moving into the US, designing bespoke-branded product ideas for organisations to use as marketing.
It puts Law at the front end of the debate about pushing more women-led businesses into corporate supply chains, how it should be done and whether it's worth the effort.
"In some respects we almost don't want to make it easier for women," she says. "You do not want to get lazy because the door's all of a sudden open and you're not kicking it in. It's a double-edged sword.
"Those of us who have been fighting for a long time think, 'Wouldn't it be lovely to be on an even playing field', but I think what gives women the [competitive] edge is because we have to fight. That's a big part of it."
She acknowledges her thoughts on the issue are knotty. On the one hand, Law says there shouldn't be special treatment for women because every company in a supply chain should win the right to be there on its own merit. On the other, there needs to be a level playing field to give women opportunities for entry.
"It's about getting in the door. You'll find everyone else has walked through then the door shuts and you think, 'It's a boys' club; I was never going to get in anyway'," she says, referring to the challenge of breaking into a well-established supply chain dominated by male procurement and supply officers, and entrenched suppliers.
But that's difficult for any new business – male or female led – to make headway, so suppliers must find a champion within their target business and build that relationship. Typically, for a female business that champion will be a woman, Law says.
"And the reality still is, there are more men in there that are willing to champion a business than there are women, or men willing to champion a woman's business."
US legislation proposed during the Clinton presidency was a first step towards a 5per cent target for female-led supply to government businesses.
It languished around 2.5 per cent until Obama enshrined the legislation in 2008. Now, in some instances, companies are allowed to set aside money for tenders under a certain price specifically for women-led businesses.
While it smacks of preferential tendering, it has boosted numbers significantly and quickly, to exceed the target.
Anne Tesch is chair of the Australasia arm of WE Connect International, a behemoth corporate-led non-profit organisation founded in the US to create national and global databases of suppliers controlled (at least 51 per cent) by women.
Linking those suppliers with corporate organisations such as Accenture, Johnson & Johnson and IBM is the goal. Suppliers are able to be certified as female controlled, a requirement for anyone wanting to tender in the US market and take advantage of the Obama legislation.
Certification includes a full company audit, and provides assurance for corporate members that any businesses they approach will be able to fulfil their tender requirements.
Tesch says she is seeing greater impetus from international corporates operating in Australia to increase their inclusion, but part of the difficulty is getting the local corporates on board, and the fact many companies can't easily identify and link with female-led suppliers.
"Procurement is only a reflection of what is happening in the overall business situation and the culture of particular organisations or companies," she says.
"It's a chicken-and-egg thing: many want to embrace more diversity in the supply chain, but their frustration is finding those women-owned businesses."
Law, who is a member of WE Connect, agrees that the responsibility lies with both parties, but says there are a number of useful networks, such as Westpac's Ruby Connection, the alumni of the Telstra Women in Business awards, or Commonwealth Bank's Women in Focus initiative, all of which she is also part of.
"We have to be asking the question, 'If we can find these women, are the corporates ready yet to have them in their supply chains? Do they see the value of having women-led businesses?
"I think it's actually easier to go and find the women; it's much harder to sell it into the big corporates as a value-led proposition."
But both women agree the impetus is growing. "It's a slow grind on both ends of the spectrum," Tesch says, although the growing visibility of relationships between women and enterprise through initiatives such as WE Connect is hopefully changing the game.
"They're hugely beneficial," Law says. "They're able to tell corporates, 'Hey, there are other people out there that you might want to consider who are doing a really good job."
