DiversityFeb 21 2023

Breaking the bias to support female advisers

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Breaking the bias to support female advisers
M&A activity is still biased against women, according to entrepreneur Claire Trachet. (Carmen Reichman/FTAdviser).

Financial services has become more attractive to women setting up their own advice companies, but the support behind female entrepreneurs is often lacking, a senior M&A adviser has claimed.

Claire Trachet, a merger and acquisition adviser and chief executive of business advisory company Trachet, has helped facilitate approximately £413mn worth of deals in the past three years alone.

But she claims while financial advice has made great strides forward in terms of diversity and inclusivity, she says there is still a gender bias within the M&A market, which can prevent women setting up their own companies and getting the backing they need to become entrepreneurs.

Sectors that are more quantitative, like financial services, tend to be easier for women to prove their talent.

She talks to FTAdviser about her own career and what is needed to help Britain's entrepreneurial women become business success stories - something which has become more urgent as rising numbers of senior women seem to be leaving UK finance.

FTAdviser: What encouraged you to set up Trachet?

Claire Trachet: As a former corporate finance professional and award-winning entrepreneur, I founded my hands-on boutique advisory business in 2016 with a mission to help others accelerate growth.

Over the past six years, my firm has built an impressive track record across a variety of sectors globally, from cybersecurity to other tech-heavy industries.

However, becoming an established business in a predominantly male-dominated finance sector came with its own set of challenges as a female-founded and led advisory.

As I embarked on my entrepreneurial journey, I realised that many startup founders, particularly women, had limited access to appropriate counsel.”

FTA: Are women more cautious when it comes to business and investing? Why?

CT: I wouldn’t say they're more cautious, especially in business. I think they're more conscious of the bias that is often against them.

Therefore, they tend to be more prepared by doing more research to backup decisions becoming more risk aware. 

Claire Trachet of Trachet Advisory. (Carmen Reichman/Pexels)
I have faced my own share of glass ceilings throughout my career.Claire Trachet

For female entrepreneurs, there is a limited amount of capital available, which tethers their growth potential and puts their survival at risk, especially in challenging economic climates such as the one we are currently experiencing.

Despite these challenges, women are resourceful and experienced in tough market conditions, which is a key reason why women-led businesses generate better ROI over time.

FTA: Are there still sectors where it's harder for women to succeed - and what can we do about it?

CT: Sectors that are more quantitative, like financial services, tend to be easier for women to prove their talent, but in more qualitative sectors, the typical attributes of leadership tend to be perceived as masculine, leading to bias.

It is important to be open-minded and not just look for the same profile of prior successful candidates, which often results in hiring individuals who exhibit typically more masculine ways of behaving or qualities.

It is an uphill battle, succeeding in the sector relies on being given a fair shot.“

FTA: Has Trachet helped any women entrepreneurs in the financial services/fintech industry?

CT: There are a couple of notable companies which we’ve supported in the sector, most often these were female founders from non-finance backgrounds who needed support structuring their path to scale.

One of these is Vestpod - a digital platform and thriving community that financially empowers women - the work we did for Vestpod was mainly around financial modelling and business plan optimisation, work we did pro-bono.

Claire Trachet, founder of M&A advisory Trachet. (Carmen Reichman/FTAdviser)
I am not advocating for the promotion of subpar businesses simply because they are led by women. It is about giving everyone a fair shot.

We also worked with CodeOp - the first international tech school for women, transgender, and non-binary individuals (women+) who want to transition to, or upskill in tech.

Another great company we worked with was Treasure Tress, the work we delivered enabled them to have more clarity on their pipeline and frame the potential of their business to investors.

FTA: Did you experience any glass ceilings? What did you do about these?

CT: I have faced my own share of glass ceilings throughout my career. It's frustrating to encounter something that is so hard to identify and even harder to break.

But I have always persisted, being stubborn in my belief that there's no reason I couldn't do something. I have also done a lot of self-reflection to do things in an authentic way that is true to who I am.

This has meant taking a bit longer at times, but it has always been worth it in the end.

Unfortunately, social models are still significantly biased against women and minorities, which is reflected in lower salaries, slower career paths, lack of access to C-suite or board positions, and fewer and smaller investments.

To achieve a more balanced set of opportunities for women and men, society must make conscious choices to address these biases.

FTA: What sort of steps can small firms take to help the next generation of female professionals? 

CT: To help the next generation of female professionals and address the issue of gender bias in hiring, it is important to give more fair shots to women and minorities without lowering standards.

This means being more open-minded when recruiting and creating a culture that is supportive of diversity – not just a corporate slogan. 

Despite these barriers, women-led businesses regularly outperform other businesses, delivering excess returns for investors in a more capital-efficient way.

However, I am not advocating for the promotion of subpar businesses simply because they are led by women. It is about giving everyone a fair shot and acknowledging that biases run deep within businesses and institutions worldwide, including tech.

To highlight the gender inequalities that persist in the UK's business arena, we commissioned national research that found 52 per cent of all Britons believe that women must work twice as hard or be twice as qualified as men to achieve the same objectives in business.

This need to work harder has a knock-on effect on mental health, with 36 per cent of women reporting feelings of tiredness, helplessness, or loneliness from their workload.

simoney.kyriakou@ft.com

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