Business must put gender on the agenda
They have been described as the “ladies who launch”. In the US, the number of businesses owned by women is estimated to have risen by 50 per cent since 1997. Elsewhere, according to Breaking Trends in the Global Village, a London-based research consortium that tracks emerging trends, there are clear signs that female entrepreneurship is increasing. Yet even in the US, male business owners outnumber women by about three to one. In the UK, where the ratio of male to female entrepreneurs is still higher, the government has calculated that closing the gender gap would create 100,000 extra start-ups each year. It is not only governments that see the promotion of female enterprise as an economic priority. Many large corporations depend on the custom of small businesses for a high proportion of their revenues. This gives them a commercial incentive to encourage women to form businesses at the same rate as men to accelerate the growth of their small- business customer base. So far, corporate support for women-owned businesses has been low, although some have taken steps to address this. Several banks and information technology companies have sponsored conferences on female entrepreneurship in partnership with business networks such as Everywoman in the UK. BT recently announced a business mentoring programme to help under-represented groups, including women-owned businesses, sell to the corporate sector. However, according to Alec Howe, managing director of Breaking Trends, what few people have thought through is that large corporations may need to develop a new, less masculine style in their dealings with smaller companies. Among the corporations with most to gain from a female-led expansion of enterprise activity are banks. But there is a problem: it appears that banks are better at doing business with businessmen than with businesswomen. To begin with, according to Professor Sara Carter of the University of Strathclyde in the UK: “Women form businesses, on average, with only a third of the capital used by men.” At a later stage, there is evidence that women use turnover to fund expansion in preference to bank borrowing. Why these gender differences should exist is not certain. One theory is that women are more risk-averse and less familiar with financial products than men. Another possibility - which will be tested later this year in a study involving bank lending officers, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council - is that banks unintentionally discriminate against women by evaluating all young businesses against a standard set of criteria that emphasises rapid early growth. “Male and female-owned businesses have different characteristics,” says Clare Logie, associate director of the women in business service at the Bank of Scotland. “Women are more cautious in their projections, develop their businesses more gradually and typically ask for smaller loans than men.” She adds: “Banks may be interpreting women’s realism as lack of confidence.” Equally vexed is the question of how best to market to businesswomen. One view is that there is no reason to distinguish between the sexes in business marketing. “If we do a great job of providing generic advice and offer compelling products, women will consume our products simply for the benefit they bring,” says John Coulthard, head of mid-market and small business at Microsoft in the UK. Opposed to this is the line taken by International Business Machines, supported by a survey conducted among Everywoman members, which suggests that marketing effectively to businesswomen requires a subtly different approach to that used with men. “Woman entrepreneurs are more likely to be driven by a sense of fulfilment than by the desire to make a lot of money. It makes sense to reflect those values in marketing,” says Erika Watson, director of Prowess, a UK advocacy network for female enterprise. Among women entrepreneurs generally, such statements are supported and deplored in equal measure. “I just want to be treated as an intelligent businessperson,” says Fiona Cruickshank, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, who sees “no reason why women should be marketed to separately.” That such a split exists is not surprising. The implication, however, is that to optimise their performance, corporations should adopt a nuanced approach to the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, addressing some businesswomen through mainstream media and developing tailored messages for others. IBM is known for this approach, having focused on women entrepreneurs as a group in the US for more than a decade. “When we target women the message is subtly different. We focus on issues with a particular importance for women, such as access to capital and juggling multiple commitments,” says Marilyn Johnson, vice-president of market development at IBM in the US. “We have also worked hard to increase the representation of women and minority ethnic women in our reseller network, so that we can have IBM services sold to women by women.” In the UK, gender-based marketing still arouses suspicion. But attitudes may be changing. The Bank of Scotland launched a website for businesswomen in 2002 and has a headquarters team dedicated solely to female enterprise. Similarly, Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry smartphones, has researched the priorities of businesswomen and plans to run campaigns aimed specifically at women. But while some business- women may welcome a distinct focus on women, some commentators see the acknowledgement of a female perspective in marketing as an indicator of a cultural shift that embraces both men and women. Siobhan Gleeson, knowledge centre director at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, says: “What we are starting to see, in ads such as HSBC’s ‘World’s local bank’ campaign, is corporations projecting feminine values, such as empathy and understanding, in a way that is relevant to both sexes.” If this movement towards what Breaking Trends has termed “the feminisation of the global village” continues, it may make it easier for advertisers to find a communications style that resonates with businesswomen without patronising them.
把创业女杰列入议事日程
女性企业家被人称为“创业女杰”。在美国，自1997年以来，以女性为业主的企业数量估计增加了50%。而根据设在伦敦的“全球村新动向组织”(Breaking Trends in the Global Village)研究协会的估计，其它地方也有明确的迹象表明，女性创业正在增加之中。
但即使在美国，男性业主还是在数量上大大超过女性业主，二者比例约为三比一。在英国，男女企业家的比例更加悬殊。根据政府统计，如果能够消除性别差距，每年可多产生10万个新生企业。
把鼓励女性创业当作优先经济事务的还不止是政府。很多大公司的收入来源中有很大一部分来自小企业的光顾。所以从商务角度看，它们也有动力鼓励女性达到与男性同等的创业速度，以加快它们的小企业客户群增长规模。
到目前为止，大公司对女性拥有的企业支持还比较少，但是也有一些公司已经着手在解决这一问题。有几家银行和信息技术公司与英国妇女会(Everywoman in the UK)之类的商业网络协作，赞助举办女性创业研讨会。英国电信集团(BT)最近宣布开展商业辅导项目，帮助包括女性企业家在内的少数群体学习如何面向企业销售。
但是，据“全球村新动向组织”董事总经理艾里克?豪(Alec Howe)的说法，很少有人想到这样一点：大公司自己在和小企业打交道的时候，或许需要培养一种不那么男性化的新风格。
银行是最有可能从女性企业扩张中获益的商业机构之一。但问题是：银行更擅长于与男性商人打交道，与女商人打交道就技逊一筹。
首先，根据斯特拉思克莱德大学(University of Strathclyde)萨拉?卡特教授(Sara Carter)的说法：“女性企业的启动资金平均只有男性的三分之一。”有证据显示，企业走上正规后，女性企业宁可通过营业收入的再投入来扩大业务，也不愿求助银行贷款。
为什么会有这些差异的存在？原因并不明朗。有一种说法是女性和男性相比起来，比较喜欢规避风险，而且对金融产品也不是那么熟悉。另外一种可能是，银行在对新生企业的评估标准中，强调早期快速增长，这对女性无意之间形成了歧视。今年晚些时候，在英国经济及社会研究局(Economic and Social Research Council) 资助的一项涉及银行信贷官员的研究中，这一可能就会得到验证。
“男性和女性拥有的企业具有不同的特征。”苏格兰银行(Bank of Scotland)负责女性商业服务的副总监克莱尔?洛吉(Clare Logie)说。
“女性的预测更趋谨慎，业务发展更呈渐进特征，一般情况下申请的贷款数额也比男性小。”她补充道：“银行有可能把女性的务实作风解读为缺乏信心。”
同样让人困惑的，还有如何面向女商人群体营销的问题。有一个观点认为，商业营销不应男女有别。微软(Microsoft)英国公司中小企业业务负责人约翰?库尔萨德(John Coulthard)表示：“如果我们能提供普遍适用的好建议，提供很有吸引力的产品，女性会因产品本身所能带来的益处而去消费它。”
与之相对的是国际商业机器公司(IBM)的观点。一项针对英国妇女会成员的问卷调查也证实了这一观点，即针对女性的高效营销和针对男性的高效营销有一些微妙的不同。“女性企业家更大的驱动力是成就感，而不是挣大钱。营销中应该体现这些价值观。”女性企业支持网络“巾帼力量”(Prowess)的主任埃里卡?沃森(Erika Watson)说。
在女性企业家当中，这种说法的支持者和谴责者势均力敌。“我只要人家把我当成头脑精明的商人，”某医药企业的业主菲奥娜?克鲁克香克(Fiona Cruickshank)说。她说她“想不通为什么要区别对待针对女性的营销。”
这种分歧的存在并不奇怪。但它说明的是，为了实现绩效的最优化，大公司必须对中小企业群体采取特殊对待的方法，既通过主流媒体发送针对某些女商人的信息，也对其他女商人发送定制的信息。
IBM就以运用这种方法闻名。它把美国女性业主当成独立群体而区别对待的做法，已经有十多年历史了。“当我们以女性为对象时，我们的信息内容有些微妙的不同。我们侧重于对女性来说特别重要的一些问题，比如融资渠道，各种人生义务的平衡等。”IBM美国公司负责市场开发的副总裁玛里琳?约翰逊(Marilyn Johnson)说。“我们也努力在我们的再销售网络中，提高女性和少数民族女性的比例。这样，我们就能实现IBM的产品有女性买，同时也有女性卖。”
在英国，男女有别的营销仍引起人们质疑。但是人们的观点或许正在改变。苏格兰银行于2002年推出了针对女商人的网站，且总部有团队专门负责面向女性企业的服务。同样，黑莓(Blackberry)智能电话的制造商“移动研究公司”(Research in Motion, RIM)，对女商人群体心目中的各项优先顺序进行了研究，并计划开展针对女性的促销活动。
尽管有些女商人欢迎商家对女性区别对待，也有一些评论人士把营销对于女性观点的认知，看成是一种面向男女的文化转型。
智威汤逊广告公司(J. Walter Thompson)知识中心主任西沃恩?格利森(Siobhan Gleeson)说：“我们开始看到，正如汇丰银行(HSBC)的‘环球金融 地方智慧’(World’s local bank)广告宣传活动所示，企业开始用男女都能认同的方式演绎女性化价值观，比如同情心和理解。”
“全球村新动向组织”把这一趋势称为“全球村的女性化”，如果这种趋势持续发展，广告商或许更容易找到能与女商人灵犀相通的沟通风格，而不是高高在上地对待她们。
