Dream big, think Small

Kerry Small has spent a career working across British institutions. From her initial career take-off on the British Airways graduate scheme, to a long spell holding various senior international roles at UK mobile giant Vodafone. Last year, she joined BT to become the chief operating officer at the British incumbent’s Business branch

According to Small the lure of travel initially attracted her to BA – on day one she was handed a ticket to fly somewhere, so she headed out to Atlanta, Georgia.

But she soon found that the airline space was becoming heavily regulated, and eyeing the opportunities provided by the mobile boom of the late 90s/ early noughties, she quickly pivoted to telecoms.

“It wasn’t tech so much that attracted me initially,” she explains. “It was the opportunity for growth – to learn and to innovate.

“Telecoms was an area that was exploding, and some very early advice I was given was to follow the growth.”

Landing at Vodafone at the end of the 90s was, in her words, a “bit of a roller coaster” because the speed at which the mobile sector was developing opened vast opportunities for career development. It also sated her wanderlust.

“As soon as you could deliver, you were given another role, and with that came the opportunity to travel.”

Small took on positions across three continents: these included a role acquiring spectrum for Vodafone’s operations in Africa; she also worked for one of the telco’s operating companies in India; and spent time working at some of Vodafone’s European operations.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to move around countries and work with many people from elsewhere and learn about their cultures.

“But it was also challenging – you have to live and work abroad to understand the culture, the regulations, and be much more open-minded as to how you approach business in emerging markets, as opposed to those that are already mature,” she notes.

Working in Ghana, for instance, was a major highlight, but also brought several challenges for Small. She explains that she went to work for an organisation where being a white female in a position of seniority could be “quite difficult”.

“It was a really big learning from a cultural experience and was actually hugely humbling.”

Her role saw her supporting local businesses by resellers of mobile SIM cards, who saw the opportunity as a route out of poverty for their families.

“Ultimately, we built a very credible business out there, which did a lot for the local community, and it has now been absorbed into another organisation. I look back fondly at some of the memories of staring into empty shops and helping the people there create a whole brand and retail experience, which they used to better their lives.”

Breaking the old boys club

Telecoms in the nineties and early noughties had a reputation for being a bit of an “old boys club”, with the industry very male dominated, which Small admits could be “quite hard” as often the lone female in the room.

“The inclusivity we enjoy today certainly wasn’t there,” she acknowledges.

“I had to fight twice as hard to get my voice heard and to be included in the important meetings,” she recalls.

One of the biggest challenges she faced, however, was after returning from maternity leave.

“It was challenging as I felt I had to show that even though I had been away, my brain hadn’t suddenly scrambled, and that I hadn’t forgotten everything I’d learned in the previous 10 years of my career.”

“It was a harder battle than it should have been – though I was fortunate to never have felt disadvantaged, which is a credit to the bosses that I’ve had around me and the support offered, because that is really important.”

From here to maternity

Her experiences led Small to sponsor Vodafone’s Return to Work Programme for maternity leavers.

“It was one of the biggest places that we would lose women,” she explains. “Particularly in tech, because it is so fast-moving, there is a very high risk that when you come back, you find that everything has changed.”

“When you return to work, your confidence may be knocked anyway, just because of the experience women have while having a baby, but returning to work, you can feel like you’re out of touch.”

She helped sponsor and set up a maternity programme that created a framework for women returning to the workplace, making sure they had the necessary time to adjust and get up to speed with any technological changes.

“It made a huge difference – the number of women that did come back in, then stayed and carried on growing, was good, and I am very proud of that, because I think it makes a huge difference.”

“If you lose that middle layer, that’s why you don’t see so many women at a senior level.”

BT itself has several women in senior leadership positions, including right at the top, where CEO Allison Kirkby has been in the role since February 2024.

Vodafone also now has a female leader – Margherita Della Valle – who was previously CFO at the mobile giant. It is a pattern that can be seen across the telecoms sector.

Small says it was a “privilege” to have worked at two organisations that are being led by women, and something the industry should be proud of.

She credits this to the “diversity of thought” within telecoms that has seen in transform from “the old boys club”.

“The technologies come thick and fast, often before we really understand the use cases,” she explains.

“As the industry has become more stressed commercially, we’ve had to try and learn how to monetise some of the technology, which is where this diversity of thought comes in,” she adds.

Though telecoms was initially led primarily by engineers – a traditionally male-dominated profession – its customer base has always been more diverse, leading to leadership teams that are far more “outcomes-based”.

Small adds: “The industry is now more proposition-based, which often comes more from the marketing and product side, which has arguably had a better balance of genders than the engineering side.”

Business time

Throughout her career, and certainly more recently, Small has worked on the business-to-business side of telecoms. I ask what attracted her to B2B in a sector where much of the noise is focussed on consumers.

“It was really the tech,” she says. “It is far more interesting on the B2B side. We provide a large-scale service to our customers through mobile, broadband etc.”

“But when you start speaking to the organisations who are looking at how to transform and grow their businesses, it becomes a much wider spectrum in terms of what we can offer as an operator – that is where it becomes interesting to me.

“I love being part of that early adoption innovation.”

She points to technologies such as the internet of things, (IoT), Cloud and AI as those exciting her now and confesses to using a “huge amount” of AI in her daily life, which is making a “massive difference” to the job she does.

One key task she has picked up is helping to transform BT Business (formerly BT Enterprise) as part of a merger with BT’s Global division into the newer version of BT Business.

This was part of the appeal when Small decided to leave Vodafone after more than 20 years and move to BT.  She says the current transformation at BT is focussed around “getting the experiences right for our customers” but admits it is “big, heavy lifting” to move the telco giant’s portfolio, IT stack and its sales channel into the correct lanes.

“It is a multi-year journey, but it is a very exciting one,” she adds.

“What it allows us to do is to make sure that we look at where our customer is, where the market is, and what those technologies are going to change for them.”

 Learn-it-all

So, what advice would she offer to women considering a career in tech? The same piece of advice that she was given all those years ago: “Go where the growth is”.

“It is fuelled by tech anyway, but going where the growth is brings opportunity. And if there is an opportunity in front of you, say yes – it is the quickest way to experience something new. Those experiences will build your confidence.”

She points to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as someone who has inspired her, quoting him as saying” “Be a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all.”

“Technology forces that mindset because it is moving so quickly, you must keep asking questions and be curious.

“Living in this environment means you must go and find out more, keep your mind open, and ask the right questions. What I love about [working in] tech is you are consistently learning, and I love to learn.”

TechInspired’s key takeaways

Go where the growth is: Small left BA to move into an exciting growth opportunity, and says some of the best advice she received was to follow the growth opportunities.

Seize the opportunities before you: When there is an opportunity in front of you, say yes, Small explains, as these experiences can help build confidence.

Don’t be afraid to apply for jobs that you might not meet the entire criteria for – Small worked her way up the ladder by seeking different roles, but acknowledges that too often women are put off if they don’t fit the criteria perfectly.

Be a learn-it-all: Don’t pretend that you know everything; instead, keep asking questions and stay curious.