LAUNCHES


Former Capita director launches Black Box Partnerships consultancy


RAJ SACHDAVE, FORMERLY director of commercial partnerships at Capita Travel and Events, has launched Black Box Partnerships, a consultancy business for TMCs, event agencies and industry suppliers such as hotels, venues and ground transportation companies. The aim is to work with suppliers and agencies to “develop and execute a bigger, smarter and faster strategy around increased sales, commercial benefit and increased value to the travel market”. Sachdave said: “When you consider the effects – positive and negative – that travel and meetings can have on people, brand, bottom line productivity and budgets, it becomes clear that both HR and procurement strategies belong in the boardroom. “It’s the responsibility of our industry to make sure we further enhance business productivity and make travel effortless; supporting good employer status across all industries. Our focus is to ensure each element of the value chain is considered appropriately, to provide a clear and all-round proposition to the B2B travel market,” he said.


APPOINTMENTS


New columnist to write for BBT


ACCLAIMED WRITER AND CONFERENCE SPEAKER Doug Lansky has begun a new series of columns for Buying Business Travel. Lansky is a keynote speaker and a regular business traveller. In his new column he will share his frank views on the sector. In this issue, he asks: what happened to the art of the welcome? Guest column, p145


16 BBT May/June 2018


IN CONVERSATION Q&A: Sam Cande, UK country manager, Traveldoo


BBT talked to Sam Cande, Traveldoo’s new UK country manager, who co-founded LEVEL Women – the “social movement for the development and support of women in the UK business travel industry”, and asked for her take on the gender pay gap survey


personal brand, confidence, presentations and public speaking, managing upwards, diversity, CV writing, salary negotiations were among the most popular.


Sam Cande


What were the main reasons for starting LEVEL Women? I had a personal interest in starting a support group for business women, based on my own experience when I was looking for a new challenge and needed external support to discuss my career options. It was following a chance meeting with Ami Taylor [global head of rail at Concur] that together we identified a need to set up a group to support women in our positions. We approached Caroline Strachan [managing partner, Festive Road] and together we launched LEVEL Women, a volunteer-led support network to help the development of women in our industry.


What resources do you offer to women in travel? We have a Linkedin page featuring content and tips to help promote diversity in the workplace, and encourage women to be the best they can be, and for some, to aim for those boardroom positions. In our first year we held


four sell-out events. Due to their popularity we hope to plan to run a similar number of events in the coming year. At our first event, we asked the audience to vote on a huge range of topics, to identify the ones of most interest. Topics like


Compared to other sectors, how do you think business travel is doing when it comes to gender equality? Like most industries, business travel has a shortfall of women at boardroom level and very few that hold CEO positions despite the industry’s positivity towards gender balance. The industry is supported by many groups and organisations like LEVEL Women, including WINiT, Women in Travel and AWTE. In addition, many of our industry events and conferences include a session on women in business or diversity in the workplace to try and tackle the issues of inequality. Many companies have their own programmes, too. Traveldoo is part of the Expedia group and since joining I have also been invited to join a group called WELL… Women at Expedia Learning and Leading,


More than 1,500 British companies missed the deadline for filing gender pay results – why do you think this is?


Despite the media interest, the deadline and request for this new information has probably not been seen as a priority for many companies. As public interest has grown, pressure is mounting (along with the threat of a hefty fine!) to deliver the data. A study by the World Economic Forum in November last year reported that it will take 100 years to


close the gender pay gap. Worse still, the gap appears to be widening; in 2016, the prediction was 86 years.


What challenges does the business travel sector face when it comes to ensuring equality? Across all industries, lack of confidence and role models can hold some females back; only 14 per cent of CEOs globally are women. To change the status quo, we need to educate the next generation of females to aim high and ensure that they feel empowered to achieve the same status as their male counterparts. We also need to change the mindset of organisations


“A study by the World Economic Forum in


November last year reported that it will take 100 years to close the gender pay gap”


and engage with all employees to promote awareness of the importance of diversity in the workplace. In a recent Forbes article, it was reported that 90 per cent of the Fortune 500 have employee and business focus groups to promote diversity, yet women still constitute less that 15 per cent of the executive leadership. This shows that a systemic organisational change is needed to adjust to transform these figures and alter the dynamics in the workforce.


BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM


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