?Interview with Maggie Scott, CEO, Principle One Ltd

We are dedicated to creating pathways for diverse talent to thrive, fostering innovation and inclusivity in the tech sector. We believe supporting individuals from all backgrounds is a collective responsibility, essential for a more equitable future. Tech companies have the power to drive positive change, and our goal throughout the month of March is to celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion while recognising the ongoing work ahead.??

This article is part of a series of interviews where techUK members and stakeholders share their experiences, shedding light on the diverse realities of working in the industry. By exposing the good, bad, and ugly aspects, we aim to underscore the significance of cultivating a diverse tech future through their stories.??

Meet Maggie Scott , CEO at Principle One

?How did you get into tech???

My journey into the tech sector began back in the 1990s, when I completed a degree in International Business and Languages but had very little idea what I wanted to do next! I was attracted to the variety and problem-solving nature of consulting roles and ended up joining a graduate scheme at one of the large firms. I very quickly learnt that I was never going to set the world on fire as a software developer, but my interest in understanding customer challenges and bringing together teams of people with diverse skill sets to solve them led me into broader consulting and eventually account management roles. I must have tried out almost every role that exists in tech consulting over the last thirty years, which I hope gives me a unique perspective on my current role as CEO of Principle One, a public sector consultancy founded in 2018.??

?Can you share your personal experiences navigating the tech landscape? What challenges have you faced, and how did you overcome them??

I found career progression very tough when I first went on maternity leave and felt that I was falling behind in my career and often written off for some roles. I found myself overcompensating – still travelling a lot when heavily pregnant and grabbing every opportunity I was offered once I returned from maternity leave, even if it meant I was missing out on time with my daughter.??

I was very fortunate to have a good network and some mentors in the business who could see roles that I would have a high impact in and I was able to get back on track before I burnt out. Coming back to work second time round was a lot easier, but this was largely down to my own attitude – I managed to lose the mum guilt that can have you feeling that you are letting everyone down at home and at work. I’ve now been working for longer as a parent than I did before I had children, and I hope sharing my experiences helps support staff at Principle One when dealing with parenthood and the balancing act that it requires. ??

?Tech is constantly evolving. How much do you think the industry has changed since you joined??

The tech industry is constantly reinventing itself and it’s easy to get lost in jargon and this year’s buzzwords. However, once you scratch the surface beneath the tech fad of the moment, the same challenges remain – getting to the root of the problem, understanding the true cost of delivery and managing ambiguity, uncertainty and risk. We do a lot of early-stage discovery work across the public sector and the hardest aspects of the problem are rarely how the tech fits in, but are understanding, planning for and managing the change. Although we have to keep pace with change in technology, those wider challenges never seem to change.?

?Have you ever experienced bias or discrimination in the workplace? How did you handle it??

I’ve worked for both large and small organisations over the course of my career, which led to finally taking the plunge to a start-up in 2019. One of the drivers behind that decision was the experience of working in larger, bureaucratic organisations who may sign up to the idea supporting women in senior roles but weren’t necessarily bought in to what that meant in terms of the diversity in ways of working and values they would bring! Having worked within the system for a long time, I found myself increasingly working against it. Moving to a start-up with the opportunity to get the culture right for women from the very outset has given me a new energy in my work and my advice to anyone who finds themselves stuck without the support is don’t sit it out indefinitely – find somewhere you are valued for being yourself!?

?What are some tangible ways companies can move beyond just talking about diversity and actually make an impact??

We’re a small company and when we started out, only two of our first ten employees were female. We are now proud to be more than 50% female across a 90-person workforce and attract some fantastic female talent at all levels and across all skillsets.??

We have achieved this through a series of small but systemic actions – not just declarations. These actions, when put together, make a big difference without requiring large scale investment. One area we feel has been really successful is our strong mentoring scheme for all staff at all levels. This has been especially important to our female staff. Secondly, we wanted to remove barriers to entry in recruitment and became an early partner of Coding Black Females to diversify our talent pool. We build on that by ensuring our recruitment process always involves female interviewers to provide diverse perspectives and show where your career could take you. It’s also important that much of our work is centred on customer missions such as tackling violence against women and girls initiative through our customer funded work. This resonates with our female staff and is underpinned by investment in social value initiatives such as membership of the Employers’ Initiative against Domestic Abuse, which amplifies this further.??

None of this is expensive and we have been able to build the diversity that we want to see in our company from the ground up. Our experience has shown it’s never too soon for small companies to make a start. I regularly interview candidates who have thrown themselves into their companies’ diversity programmes, who observe that we don’t have the same structures in place and yet have been more successful. Creating a diverse culture retrospectively is hard so start-ups like ourselves have to grab the opportunity to get it right from the very beginning. We’re proud of the diversity we have achieved across our workforce and our customers see its benefits in bringing diversity in thinking and contributing to our collaborative and creative culture.?

?What advice do you have for people who want to be better allies but don’t know where to start???

Deeds not words! I’m proud that Principle One became a member of White Ribbon UK last year, which gives a focus for allyship across the company. It recognises the need to focus on positive culture change and seeks to address the underlying factors that cause discrimination, harassment or worse. It’s a positive step that any company can take and has been a way to start a dialogue, challenge norms of behaviour and demonstrate male commitment as allies.??

?What’s one industry change you’d love to see within the next five years??

Working in public sector and in the midst of Q4 craziness, I have to say I would love to see a more realistic pacing in work from our customers throughout the year! As a people-based business, we only have so much capacity to take on projects in what has been our busiest ever Q4 and we know our customers only have so much capacity to absorb change. With ever increasing pressure on government budgets, I’d love to see longer term planning horizons to enable us to provide both better sustainable delivery and better value for money to our customers.?