Introducing Tercera’s Women in Services (WiSe) Initiative and High Potential Sponsorship Program
As we wind down Women’s History Month, let’s take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come when it comes to women in business, but also on how far we need to go. Especially when it comes to female representation at the most senior levels of IT services.
According to McKinsey’s annual Women in the Workplace study, the percentage of women in the C-suite has risen from 17% in 2015 to nearly 30% today. That’s a pretty significant increase over 10 years. However, when you consider that women make up about half of the world’s population, are earning degrees at a higher rate than men, and account for 52% of workers in management and professional occupations (at least in the US), those numbers still look pretty anemic.
This situation is even worse for women of color, within the technology sector, and more specifically, within IT services. A few years ago, Tercera analyzed 60 investor presentations we had received from IT services firms between $8M and $100M in revenue. Of these, 28% had not a single woman on their leadership team and only one had a woman as the CEO. Anecdotally, we have not seen those numbers improve.
A few years ago, Tercera analyzed 60 investor presentations we had received from IT services firms between $8M and $100M in revenue. Of these, 28% had not a single woman on their leadership team and only one had a woman as the CEO.
Earlier this year Tercera kicked off a Women in Services (WiSe) initiative to do something about this imbalance. The initiative is a series of events and programs focused on elevating and empowering women leaders in IT services. And today, I’m very excited to announce a new Sponsorship and Coaching Program for high potential female services leaders that I’ll go into more detail on below.
More details on Tercera’s sponsorship program can be found here.
But first, let’s first cover why addressing the gender gap in IT services is so important to us.
Diversity should be table stakes
Building a workforce that reflects the broader population isn’t just ethically right — it also drives stronger business performance. Research has shown that diverse businesses are 39% more likely to outperform than non-diverse businesses.
People with different backgrounds, life experiences, and yes, genders, have different perspectives. This not only leads to better problem solving, but opens up different networks and access to a wider set of resources, customers and potential employees. Having a diverse and inclusive workforce can also lead to better employee engagement. This is especially critical for people-based businesses where attrition has a quantifiable and significant cost.
We realize that diversity is far broader than just gender. It’s about bringing people across different genders, races, ethnicities, age, religion, sexual orientation, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds into the mix, and creating an environment where they all can contribute and thrive.
We realize that diversity is far broader than just gender. It’s about bringing people across different genders, races, ethnicities, age, religion, sexual orientation, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds into the mix, and creating an environment where they all can contribute and thrive.
However, we routinely preach the power of focus to our portfolio companies and have embraced this advice internally as we consider how to maximize our impact. By narrowing our focus to gender representation and equality in services, we believe we can make a more significant impact.
We are also in a unique position here. While there are many areas of diversity we are working to do better on as a firm, Tercera is more gender-balanced than most private equity and venture firms. Half of our partners are women, as is 60% of our overall firm.
Why now?
While we’ve been a vocal advocate in this arena for many years, we believe a formal program to sponsor and support women in services in our portfolio and beyond can make both a concrete impact and draw attention to the issue. Which seems especially important given some of the factors at play that could flatline progress or even push us backward.
DEI has suddenly become a four letter word. Some of the most vocal advocates for DEI (Morgan Stanley, Target, Citigroup, Target, Facebook and Accenture to name a few) have been rolling back or shuttering their DEI initiatives for fear of litigation or losing federal contracts under the Trump administration.
The shift back to full-time, in-office policies could also disproportionately impact women. Women often take on more caregiving responsibilities, and if flexible work arrangements are withdrawn, it could potentially hinder career advancements.
The rise in AI could entrench existing biases. Women are not only significantly underrepresented in the field of AI, but AI algorithms are trained on data that likely reflects historical biases. This could potentially limit women’s opportunities in hiring, promotions, and evaluations.
We talked about a number of these issues at a recent International Women’s Day panel with women leaders from across our portfolio, and over 150 participants. You can listen to the recording here or clicking on the screenshot below.
Introducing the WiSe Sponsorship Program
One of the topics that has resonated the most across our dinners and discussions is the importance of sponsorship, not just mentorship.
As Leigh Bryant from Orium, one of the participants in our International Women’s Day session, put it in her blog: “While having a mentor can be invaluable, sponsorship is what truly changes careers…It’s one thing to support women when they ask for advice. It’s another to proactively champion them and create opportunities for them to lead.”
The impact that sponsorship can have on careers is what led to the creation of a formal sponsorship and coaching program within our WiSe initiative. Each year, Tercera will select a small group of women leaders to participate in a year-long program preparing them for the highest level roles in IT services. The program includes 1:1 executive coaching, cohort group coaching, mentorship from Tercera and its community of Advisors, and participation in select in-person executive events.
Each year Tercera will select a small group of women leaders to participate in a year-long program preparing them for the highest level roles in IT services.
We are taking nominations for the 2025 cohort through April 25, 2025. Open to VPs and above in IT services firms, these candidates must be nominated or approved by their CEOs, and commit to a one-year program. If there is someone in your organization that you think could be an ideal candidate, please visit this site for more information.
Let’s keep focus on women’s progress in the workplace well past Women’s History Month. Because if there was ever a year that we needed to be intentional about this issue, it’s this one.
