On Cloud Innovation and Women in Leadership

Technology jobs are still dominated by men. According to 2015 data from the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), women make up 47 percent of all employed adults in the United States, but only one-quarter of computer jobs.

However, the benefits of greater diversity are manifold. McKinsey noted in its 2020 report: ‘Many sides will win’more diverse companies have better performance, more engaged employees, and better retention.

Female CEOs are still thin in general, but in the tech industry Growth Acceleration Partners (GAP), an American-based provider of strategic technology solutions focused on digital transformation consulting, software and data engineering services. CEO Joyce Durst began her career as an engineer at IBM before founding GAP in 2007, and spends much of her free time empowering women leaders, from Hipower to the Women’s Presidents Organization.

CloudTech We spoke with Darst about leadership, human-centered software engineering, and cloud and data innovation.

CloudTech: Hi Joyce. You started out as an engineer before moving up to sales and eventually started your own company. Tell us about the dichotomy that can exist between the need for corporate advancement and an entrepreneurial mindset while maintaining a technical interest?

Joyce Durst: I love the problem solving aspect of engineering. I really love the idea of, “Hey, we’ve built this thing as a team and made it work,” rather than just sitting around writing code every day. I get that energy from working with the executive team to solve people problems or decide what services to offer. So it still resembles engineering.

It’s funny – people always ask me if I’ve ever had a lemonade stand or if I’ve always wanted to grow something. No, I never thought I would be the CEO of anything. I have completed my engineering degree in management. For me, the people aspect, how people work together, how you as a team can motivate, inspire and energize others to do something bigger than you is part of what drew me to management. Because as an engineer, it can be a big problem, but I can only solve one type of problem. As a manager, I can help many people achieve their dreams and advance themselves.

CT: Your leadership style has been described as a “servant-leader by nature.” Can you tell us a little bit about management ethics?

JD: I think it’s true that as humans, we get wiser as we get older, and we gather all these experiences and relationships, and when you look at that, you really reflect and say, “How can I be the best I can be?” Can I be?’ As a leader over the years, I think I still have a true engineering mindset and approach, but my empathy and focus on values ​​really come to the fore.

I think this is what really makes the GAP differentiator. We don’t have any foreign investors other than me, and we don’t have a board of directors, so I can say, “It’s right to put people first over profit.” During the Covid pandemic, we promised people on day one that we would never fire anyone – if that meant we would suffer financial losses, we were prepared to deal with that.

Fortunately, we didn’t – business was really booming. But when you look at it, we’re responsible for 550+ people who work at Growth Acceleration Partners. I wake up every day and tell them it’s my responsibility to create a great place to come to work, share what we’re good at, and do great things for our customers.

When I first became a CEO, I was more concerned with “the numbers should be right” or strategy. Now I ask, “Are we really making our customers happy every day?” is more concerned. And are we doing the same to our employees?’ If we do these two things, everything else seems to magically happen.

CT: This is a good place to switch to GAP itself. What does GAP do about the services it provides?

JD: Growth Acceleration Partners is in the business of partnering with companies on their digital transformation journey. We do this in two different service areas. One is pure technology consulting and advisory services. Some of our customers come to us and say, “We have no idea how to get all of our legacy applications into the cloud.” So they’re going to ask us to develop that strategy and innovation plan, tell them how they’re using data and data insights, and start monetizing the value that’s in that data.

The other side of our business is long-term, and a large part of what we do is engineering services. We are experts in software and information engineering. So people will come to us and say, “Well, you’ve helped us, we’ve come up with this great strategy on how to update our apps, but we don’t have the professional resources to do it.” Help us build your team and work in a hybrid model with your existing technology organization.’ We have teams of 1 to 70 or 80 people working in large companies in the United States.

Our clients are in one of three verticals: financial services and health-related technology companies, and large enterprise data analytics and technology services companies. For these companies, we really become a key part of their innovation engine through development, testing and operations. We help companies leverage technology to improve their business results, which means better customer experience, faster revenue, better profits, and better profits.

CT: Tell us about how you manage the company in terms of core values ​​and the concept of “human-centered engineering”?

JD: If you dig into the name Growth Acceleration Partners, every word was deliberately chosen 15 years ago. We’re really focused on growth: the growth of people, the growth of companies, the growth of our communities.

And our values ​​represent the ‘gap’. The first value is “G” for greatness: striving for greatness in everything you do, wherever you are. ‘A’ stands for agile; Be resourceful in your mind, not just in software development. Be open, collaborative, and willing to reflect, change, and share your leadership. Finally, the “P” is because GAP invests in people. If we don’t do all three of these things, we are failing. I think that culture is really evident not only in the people who work at GAP, but also in the people who work with GAP and our customers.

CT: What obstacles do your customers face and how can GAP address them?

JD: For clients, there is a very limited pool of technology experts around the world. Even if you can find really good engineers, it’s very difficult to retain really good engineers. The “Great Resignation” had a big impact on technologists. In the US, an engineer can get three to four job offers a week.

Then, it is also very difficult to keep up with the necessary skills in this fast-paced world. If you’re a financial services company, you may not have the budget to retrain all of your engineers on the latest tools for the cloud, or on the latest frameworks and libraries. That’s where GAP can really come in, because we have the advantage of working with 50 or 60 large companies, rather than just working with one company, so we can see first-hand all kinds of best practices that we can use. Every individual we work with.

CT: You mentioned the United States specifically there, and that ties into another core value of focusing on the Americas. Could you please explain your reasoning?

JD: We are now in 18 different countries. When we started the company, someone I knew who worked with me at a previous big company said, “You should just come to Costa Rica.” I was very busy starting a new company, but this gentleman called me directly every week for two months. And I finally said, “Well, I’ll go down there, and you can stop calling me.” So I immediately went down there and interviewed four people. As soon as I met these technologists, some women, some men, I thought, “Oh my God, we have to be here.” That day we hired four people and set up our company in Costa Rica.

The GAP was far ahead of the coast that approached Latin America. They have excellent English skills and great talent in one time zone. All reports are there for the next 5-10 years is a big wave of companies coming to Latin America, and US companies will want to keep their development teams there. We will expand there as quickly as possible with the number one goal of hiring only people who align with our values; We are hiring people who are skilled in the technology field and want to grow.

CT: Going back to your leadership, you are very active in supporting and mentoring women in technology and business. Tell us about the work you do and how the space has changed in your career?

JD: Unfortunately, we have a lot of work to do as an industry. The number of women leading tech companies hasn’t changed dramatically. I think it’s an industry belief that we’re doing everything we can to make it a safer, more comfortable and more attractive environment for women. At GAP, 60% of our executive team is female, 60% of my engineering management team is female, and no one questions whether or not a woman should lead engineering.

So that’s part of what more companies should be doing. On the mentoring side, we are very passionate and proactive. We have many philanthropic initiatives aimed at engaging middle and high school girls in STEM activities. We sponsor bootcamps and host hackathons. You should start early.

Additionally, in my role as a CEO, I mentor several female CEOs of both tech and non-tech companies. I am also a member of the Austin Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and Chair of the Global Technology and Innovation Committee. All of these initiatives go along with the idea of ​​”hey, we should get more women in leadership positions at all kinds of companies,” because every company is a tech company. They may not know it yet.

CT: If you could give one piece of advice to a young woman reading this who wants to go into STEM, what would it be?

JD: I would say open your mind to how you can use those skills to change the world. For example, the fashion industry is being driven by technology. The food industry is now driven by technology…the tourism industry. Any industry you’re interested in is driven by technology behind the scenes.

I promise that if you are tech savvy, you will have a very rewarding career for life. You’ll never have to worry about not getting a job – you’ll always have opportunities to work and make an impact.

For more information on Joyce and Growth Acceleration Partners, visit www.wearegap.com.