The Modern Hotelier #136: How Accor is Handling Procurement & Sustainability | with Caroline Tissot
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Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of the Modern Hotelier. We are excited to launch this episode with Caroline Tissot from Accor. David, what was one of your highlights from the episode?
David Millili: Yeah, it was great learning what Accor is doing with procurement and sustainability. And I think, I think it was, for me, it was very educational. I loved it.
Steve Carran: I agree. I think this is the first time we've had somebody from procurement on the podcast. So it was great to learn a different perspective and also to learn somebody perspective who, you know, We get a lot of U. S. folks on here, but get somebody's perspective that is in Europe and, well, travels around the world a lot.
So, great episode and a lot of, fun, fun tidbits in this one. So enjoy.
David Millili: All right. Enjoy.

David Millili: Welcome to the Modern Hotelier, Hospitality's Most Engaged Podcast. I'm David Melilli.
Steve Carran: I'm Steve Karin.
Jon Bumhoffer: And I'm John Boomhoffer.
David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program today?
Steve Carran: Yeah, David. Today we have on Caroline Tissot, the Chief Procurement Officer at Accor. With a distinguished career spanning across multiple industries, Caroline brings a wealth of experience in procurement and international business. Today we'll dive into her journey and the evolving landscape of the procurement space in the hospitality industry.
Welcome to the show, Caroline.
Caroline Tissot: Thank you very much. Welcome.
David Millili: All right. So welcome. So we're going to go through a quick lightning round. We're going to get to know you a little bit better, your background, your career, and then we're going to jump into some industry topics. Sound good?
Caroline Tissot: Yeah, sure.
David Millili: Okay. What is something that you wish you were better at?
Caroline Tissot: Oh, very good question. what should I be better at? being able to spend some time without doing anything maybe?
David Millili: That's good. What's the most used app on your phone?
Caroline Tissot: ways just not to get lost.
David Millili: What's a
Caroline Tissot: very bad at that.
David Millili: That's funny. What's a luxury that you can't live without?
Caroline Tissot: Luxury. space maybe? In space when you're in my house, space in wherever I live.
David Millili: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would you trade places with?
Caroline Tissot: Maybe, you know, there is an actress I love. She is my generation. It's Julianne Moore. I'd love to spend a day in being Julianne Moore. I love her. I love the way she acts. I'd like, I'd love that.
David Millili: Yeah, she's great. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Caroline Tissot: well, I would say in business, it's the best advice I think is step back, breathe, step back,
David Millili: That's great. Okay. Now what's your favorite city and why?
Caroline Tissot: Paris,
David Millili: What do you like about Paris?
Caroline Tissot: everything. I love fresh people. I love France. I love Paris. I love having my family around me. I love having my friends. I don't like traveling. I love being home.
David Millili: Good answer.
Steve Carran: Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, well, that 
Caroline Tissot: that's very true.
Steve Carran: no, that's great. That's great. Now we're going to learn a little bit more about you kind of a little bit more about your background. So I know you've spent a lot of time in Paris. You went to college there. But where did you grow up?
Caroline Tissot: I grew up in Normandy. Normandy is around 150 kilometers from Paris. It's on the west of France, by the sea. how could I tell you? Do you know, Normandy? I
Steve Carran: Yeah, absolutely. 
Caroline Tissot: Rouen. I grew up in Rouen.
Steve Carran: Okay. How did growing up there shape you into who you are today?
Caroline Tissot: Very good question again. I think it's a city of my ancestors. You know, I am of one of these generation in France where we, generations before me, I've always been living in Rouen. My grand grandfathers, my grand grandparents, both sides, my parents, both sides, and I was the first generation to leave Rouen to study in Paris and then to work all over the globe, which is really, you know, the, so how did it shape me?
I think it gave me a lot of strength because I really belong to some, to somewhere where all my family is coming from and where I go back when I am tired or when I am, don't feel that good or whatever, you know, I have very strong roots.
David Millili: So you got your degree in economics and political science and then your master's in economics. What made you decide those majors when you went to university? 
Caroline Tissot: I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I hesitated in, becoming a doctor very hard and I decided not to become a doctor, which I think was a bad decision. But that's a decision I made. And, you know, like maybe 10 years after, when I was 30 years old, I really thought again about going back to school, even if I was working already, to study as a doctor.
And I remember my husband really encouraged me to do it, decided not to do it at the end. So to answer your question, I think it was riser general studies, as I didn't really know what to do.
Steve Carran: Sure. Sure. So, you've worked in various industries. What makes a hospitality industry so special to you?
Caroline Tissot: I have to say I loved all industries I've been working for. I loved, Telco was super interesting and, very interesting people. I really love GE. It's not an industry, you know, but I've been working for General Electric. It was a multiple industry company, but super interesting company on, on, on various aspects.
I was, I've also doing, been doing consulting for an American firm and I really liked it. So do I prefer hospitality? Maybe, because it's really a super exciting sector, because it's cheerful, it's, there is money, there is growth, there is, you know, it's, super nice. We're very gifted to work for this industry.
But I wouldn't say, yeah, I like it very much, but I also like the others, to be honest.
Steve Carran: That's fair. I think that's totally fair. So now that we got to learn a little bit more about you, we'll dive into your career, how you got to Accor right now. So you started your career as a consultant with Braxton Associates and then Deloitte in France. What did those early days teach you that you still take with you today?
Caroline Tissot: A lot. In fact, it was like doing an MBA. You know, like when you're doing a consultancy, when you're very young, you learn everything. You learn how to structure what you think. You learn how to, write. You learn how to tell a story. to a customer, you learn, you really learn a lot. I learned a lot during those five years.
And I loved it, by the way. I also loved it.
David Millili: then you founded your own company, I'm going to pronounce this right up, 
then from there you went to GE. Was it difficult going from the company you founded going to a large company like GE?
Caroline Tissot: First, it was not my really a decision is because my husband moved to, at the time, Brussels, we were living in Paris, then Abu was really a French company, it was difficult to operate from Brussels. And I decided. to sell the part I had in the company and follow my husband, which was my generation French type of things.
You know, I don't think the young French ladies at currently, for example, in the call would do the same today. And I think they are very, right in doing so. But at that time, you know, as a woman, you were always following, I've always been following my husband wherever he's been moving. So that's why, you know, I've been moving all over the globe.
It was difficult for various reasons. it was difficult because GE is a super processed company. I was not used to that. It was difficult because everything was in English and I was not used to speak English. And it was difficult because they were talking with acronyms all the time.
Letters. You know, but first I remember I was lost. I didn't understand anything, et cetera, but it came. I had a super nice manager. When I joined the company, and I'm going to tell you a story. Three or four months after I joined GE, I was about to resign. Really. because it was super, super tough. I felt I would never make it.
At the time I had three little kids, very little. It was too much. And one Monday morning, I was in my office and I was about to, well, I was about, I was thinking, well, I'm going to, I'm going to resign. I'm going to resign. Then this guy entered my, my, my office and he told me, how are you today? I say, well, okay.
he told me, well, I'm going to, I'm coming because I think you're about to resign. and it's too bad. I said, what? And he told me, well, I'm going to sit by you. We're going to take your computer and we're going to look at all those emails and things you have to do. And we're going to keep only what is important.
And he took everything out and he told me, okay, fine, nothing to do now. let's go on from scratch. It was incredible, you know, and, I learned so much from him. And I love, I, Again, he has been very important to me in my career. I've been working for him for five, six years, seven years before he moved. And, yeah, I remember very well that day and I was really about to resign.
Steve Carran: That's a great story. And it seems like GE and hospitality have in common. We both have a lot of acronyms in the industry. It feels like, so probably was easier to move over to the hospitality industry after that a little bit. But, so from GE, you went to, and I'm going to butcher this name too, Boise.
Telecom? Is that right?
Caroline Tissot: Oui.
Steve Carran: thank you. I was totally close. then, from there you went to a corps and became the group chief procurement officer. For those that may not be familiar with what your role is as a group chief procurement officer, can you tell them a little bit more about your roles and responsibility?
Caroline Tissot: Yeah, sure. In fact, you know, we are doing two things or I am doing two things with my team. The first thing is that we are a standard procurement organization and, we do procurement for our core, assets. We don't have a lot. So it's headquarters all over the globe and it's brand. So Thank you.
We buy around one billion, so it's a small organization. As you know, as, a hospitality company, we are asset light, so we don't own the hotel, but 90 percent of my job is something else is I'm running a GPO for Accor Hotels and also non Accor Hotels, by the way, because we also sell procurement to other brands.
So that's what we do, you know, being a GPO for hotels and also making procurement for the Accor company.
David Millili: So with your experience now being at a core, do you have a favorite memory so far or objective that you're most proud of?
Caroline Tissot: yes, I think when I joined the company, you know, we were 150 in the team. We grow the organization. We are 300 people. So GPO has been growing a lot since, since I joined the company. so yeah, maybe it's, the main, the main, achievement, I would say, it grew a lot because we are working more and more with Accor Hotel.
Again, procurement, I didn't tell you, but procurement, you know, at a core is not compulsory, which means that, well. Working with a core GPU is not compulsory, so the hotel can choose, okay, they can work with us or they can work with us as GPUs. So we grew the organization because we were able to grow, you know, our capture rate as we call it.
With our hotel, but also we were able to grow our GPO outside of Accor. So we are doing procurement for other brand hotels, but also for senior homes, student homes, golf clubs, et cetera, in different parts of the globe and in France, a lot in Europe, in other countries in Europe, but also, in Brazil and in Pacific and in Australia.
Steve Carran: That's awesome. So now, that we understand your background a little bit, now we're going to go into industry thoughts. kind of some areas of what you're working on at Accor. So one thing that Accor has done is made some significant strides in sustainability. you've eliminated single use plastics and promoting local sourcing.
Can you tell us a little bit more on some of the challenges and successes that you've had while implementing these initiatives? And if you have any recommendations for hotels, feel free to throw those in too.
Caroline Tissot: Well, I think Accor, and not only procurement, you know, Accor, has been really one of the leading company and is one of the leading company in terms of sustainability transformation. we have, a very strong sustainability chief officer. Brune Poirson, she is a former French minister. She was in charge of sustainability for the first Macron, government.
And then she joined Accor. She has super strong belief, but also super strong steel and skills in all those fields. And she really is pushing super hard the group in moving towards sustainability practices. So Thank you. You know, she's doing great procurement has been following super strongly what she wanted to do, because of course, as in most of the companies, procurement is now a big part of, sustainability.
in a company. So we've been working hard, to, as you were saying, eliminate, single plastic items, in hotels, front of the house, but also back of the house in every hotel, 6, 000 hotels all over the globe. in one and 180 countries. So it's a job. It's not perfect yet, but I think we are progressing super well.
we have been implementing some very interesting, different type of solutions around water. You know, this is something that is, important. no more plastic water. in very different as a, you know, types of, water solutions, in our almost 50 brands. of course you don't propose same solutions as you can imagine in an economic hotel and in a raffles for water or for whatever.
So we had. to work with, manufacturers, suppliers to, find, innovative solutions around water. We've been doing a lot. we're working a lot around, reducing the carbon emission of our supply chain. This is super important, as you know, like in every company, the emission of the suppliers are part of the emission of the company.
So what we do. Is that first we embark suppliers, we measure with them their carbon emission whenever they work for a core. And whenever we have this visibility with them, we put together some plans for them to reduce their carbon emission when they work for a core. it seems to be easy like that, but it's a huge work for all companies today.
today, in Accor, we have, around 4, 000 suppliers, which is not a lot. We've been doing, this carbon emission measurement. And action plan, with 1, 000 suppliers out of the 4, 000 suppliers. So it's done and those 1, 000 suppliers, they represent around 70 percent of what we spend. So I think we're progressing well, but to do so, you know, we are putting a hell of efforts.
We recruited a lot of people to work in procurement around those sustainability topics at corporate level, but at hub level, at brand levels, on the ground, everywhere.
David Millili: And so how do you think the role of procurement linked to sustainability can help transform change to the, hospitality industry? 
Caroline Tissot: it's super important, sustainability and procurement, we are changing the company today. but not only us. I mean, you know, the technical, what we call DTNS is the technical, technical direction at Accor is also working very closely to sustainability for whatever, you know, new type of product, new type of room we're going to propose to owners needs to be super sustainable.
IT, you know, we propose a lot of IT products, as you know, to owners, to hotel owners. They need to be sustainable. So IT is working super close to sustainability also. Procurement definitely in whatever, you know, I will propose sell as product or services need, to be much more sustainable. Maybe I can give you an example of something which I think is interesting.
we've been working on, sustainable housekeeping, Which means, we, we've been implementing, proposing to owners, more responsible outsourcing, with some contracts that are really more favorable, for people that are cleaning, hotels, more responsible towards themselves, you know, the way we treat them, the way we train them, the way they're respected, around their, A lot of things around the way they work, working conditions, et cetera.
All these type of things, you know, are really linked to sustainability and sustainability transformation of the company.
Steve Carran: So one thing that you're overseeing is the QSR, corporate social responsibilities, and the objectives that come with that. What are the objectives that Accor is focusing on in 2025?
Caroline Tissot: So, we have a lot around food, and, food waste, reduction, of course. there are different pillars. So there is a lot around social and respecting the communities, where we are, living and implementing.
there is a lot of course around reducing carbon emission for the company. So procurement is only one pillar. But you imagine there is a lot that we do, at the hotel level to reduce the carbon emission of the hotels directly, not, only through what they buy, of course. So carbon emission, food, social elevator, social, et cetera, I would say is the main, but I'm sure I forget some, but I would say it's the main things.
As, big things, you know, and then there are a lot of things on every pillar around again, around food, around carbon, around, eliminating plastic, et cetera.
David Millili: great. And so what emerging trends do you see in procurement that will be impacting hospitality? And how's the core preparing to adapt these emerging trends?
Caroline Tissot: Sustainability again and again, it's changing everything we're doing. the products and the services we are selling or we are to sell needs to be more and more sustainable. This is what the customer hand customers, you know, the guests, this is what they want. This is what the bank. wants when, owners want to finance a new project.
this is what our, employees want and our talent want to join and stay in a core. So sustainability, is definitely something that is really changing what I'm doing. I've been doing procurement for 30 years now. This is. The first time in my 30 years, I have such a subject breaker, if I may, you know, something different.
so system is inevitably, and I would say in a common manner, you know, all around, artificial intelligence is changing tremendously, but not only procurement, but I see it in procurement every day. You know, the way we find suppliers, the way we make sure our supply chain is, is, sustainable, the way we make sure our supply chain is whatever it needs to be.
all what we can do around data with those, with this new intelligence. every week I see things that is progressing around that. But again, it's not only procurement, huh? It's the whole company.
Steve Carran: sure, absolutely. So do you have any advice for our listeners out there that may be interested in becoming a C level executive for a hospitality company?
Caroline Tissot: Hey, you know what? First thing is luck. No, but sure. I really believe that, you know, a lot of people can, become a C level. Why is it you that become? It's a question of luck. You are at a good place at the right time. Not only. But. You know, I think this is the first, so my, first advice is make sure you have some luck. and then what?
I'm from the old generation, so work. And, yeah. make sure that you, you, work properly and, you deliver what you're supposed to deliver. make sure you have a good team is the first advice. If you want to be a good C level, you need a good team. You know, it's not, you who will do the job. It's the team. So, make sure you you attract talent, make sure you retain them, and make sure you have the people that need to leave the team.
Steve Carran: I love 
Caroline Tissot: very important. 
Steve Carran: quotes is make your own luck. So I, love what, you just said there. So
thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So we've been asking you questions this whole time. This is where we let you, we flip the tables a little bit and we let you ask David and I a question.
Caroline Tissot: So, tell me about, what is a modern hôtelier, et cetera, exactly. I don't know what type of media you are, what you do, what is your origins, I don't know anything.
Steve Carran: David, I'll let you take this one away. You can tell her, what we do.
David Millili: Yeah. So our purpose with this podcast was really to kind of educate and help hoteliers look at kind of what we're doing as an industry and trying to adopt technology and trying to move forward because we are an industry that, you know, I've, I worked in hotels in the nineties and have been on the tech side for 25 years.
And, you know, we really look at it as, you know, we're trying to educate and bring, new thoughts to hoteliers. Yeah. To start thinking about how do they adopt technology and keep moving, just like you said, with AI and things of this nature, because I think I already said it, but hotels are just usually very slow to adopt technology, even if it helps the environment, it helps their staff or it helps their guests.
They're still just slow. So I think we've used this as a way to try to, educate the industry.
Caroline Tissot: Okay. So you work mainly for, hospitality
Steve Carran: So we'll interview hotel executives like yourself, technology companies that might be emerging to help the industry and things like that, but we keep it all hospitality.
Caroline Tissot: and you do it all over the globe or are you mainly U. S. focus?
Steve Carran: we are all based in the U. S., but we do have guests from all over the world on
Caroline Tissot: And who is listening to you?
Steve Carran: Hoteliers. So a lot of our, a lot of our listenership is Hoteliers. The number one listeners are GMs, decision makers in the hotels, and the second tier is their boss, owners of hotels, C level executives of property management companies, things like that. And then we also have some tech companies, tech folks listening as well, and then some students as well.
Caroline Tissot: But then maybe I can, if you allow me, give them a small message, deliver a small message for them, is that if ever they want a core to do their procurement, I would be very, pleased
Steve Carran: There you go.
Caroline Tissot: to have a contact with them.
Steve Carran: There you go. Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, our producer, John, has been listening the whole time here, so this is the last part of the show. He's going to ask you one more question, and then we're going to get you out of here.
Jon Bumhoffer: When you answer the question about your favorite city, it was very clear what your favorite city was, and you felt very passionately about that. So my question is kind of somebody who is there, who loves it so much, people who come to visit, what would you recommend that they do outside of maybe the normal stuff?
What are the things that they have to do besides like. The main touristy things. I want you to give like some real insight into, the, cool things to check out.
Caroline Tissot: Are you coming soon?
Jon Bumhoffer: I have a friend who's over there right now, actually. So
Caroline Tissot: Yeah. I don't know, you know, I love museum, I love theater, it depends on what you, like to do. But maybe, okay, maybe one thing I really like to do is, either walk or run. I love running. By the river Seine, you know, the one maybe you saw during the Olympics for the opening. On the two banks. you have some special now, paths, so where you can run or you can walk, and it's all over the Seine, all over Paris. It's great. It's absolutely great. You should do that as a start to look at the, to look at the city. The city is beautiful.
Jon Bumhoffer: I love that. Yeah.
David Millili: Well, that does it for another episode of the modern hotel year, Caroline, you already kind of started, but this is where you get to let people know how they can find out more about a core. How can they connect with you if they'd like to, so you can plug away.
Caroline Tissot: they can write me at, caroline, dot Tiso at accord. com. And I'd be very pleased to answer to whatever they would be interested in. And I also travel all over the globe. unfortunately, all the time. So I can meet whoever wants in big cities. I might be soon nearer their, place.
David Millili: That's great. Well, that does it for another episode of the modern hotel year hospitality's most engaged podcast, whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you until next time. Thank you.
And we'll see you soon. 
Caroline Tissot: Thank you very much. Bye bye.