Case Study

Case Study: How a Women in Leadership Accelerator Program Fueled Innovation and Strengthened the Succession Pipeline

Team Excellential
March 1, 2023

The Women in Leadership Program Case Study That Reshaped One Indian Telecom’s Succession Pipeline

When a leading Indian telecom company looked at its senior leadership lineup in 2022, the numbers told a stark story. As a result, the CHRO and the CEO knew they had a strategic problem, not just a diversity issue. Importantly, this women in leadership program case study captures how a year-long accelerator changed the trajectory: 30% more women in Director, VP, and SVP positions within two years, and a succession pipeline that finally matched the diversity of the company’s customer base.

However, the challenge wasn’t unique to this client. Across India, large enterprises hire women in equal numbers at the entry level. Meanwhile, in Director-level conversations, the room has visibly thinned. Furthermore, by the time succession discussions reach the C-suite, three or four names typically circulate — and most are male. In fact, why women in leadership matters for business performance is well-documented across global research, but the gap on the ground keeps widening.

What makes the case study of these women in leadership programs worth reading is what changed and how. Specifically, the company saw a 30% increase in women in senior leadership positions, stronger succession depth across critical roles, and measurable improvements in team psychological safety. Notably, McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2025 report on India calls this pattern the “broken rung” and confirms what this engagement showed on the ground. Targeted accelerator programs outperform generic diversity training every time.

Ultimately, the difference came from a deliberate three-part design: targeted leadership coaching, strategic sponsorship rather than casual mentoring, and culture workshops for the entire senior leadership team. Read on for the full case study: the diagnosis, the year-long program structure, and the measurable results that followed.

Industry: Telecommunications

Client: A leading national telecom provider with over 10,000 employees.

The Challenge: A critical gap in gender diversity at senior leadership levels created a strategic vulnerability. Despite a nearly equal gender split at the entry level, women’s representation thinned at each step up the ladder. The result: a weak and non-diverse succession pipeline.

The Challenge: Women Vanished at Every Rung of the Ladder

The company recognized that its homogeneity at the top was a business risk, not just an HR issue. Their challenges were multifaceted:

Visible Role Model Gap: The absence of visible women leaders made it difficult for junior and mid-career women to envision their own path to advancement.
Unequal Access to Growth Levers: Women employees had less access to the informal coaching, high-visibility mentorship, and powerful sponsorship that are critical for career acceleration.
Unintentionally Biased Culture: The leadership culture, while not overtly discriminatory, was unconsciously biased towards traditional, male-centric styles of communication and networking, creating barriers to inclusion.
Business Innovation at Risk: Leadership knew that without diverse perspectives in the room where decisions are made, their ability to drive customer-centric innovation for a diverse customer base and attract top talent was stagnating.

The Excellential Solution: The Women in Leadership Accelerator

Excellential designed a year-long accelerator program focused on moving beyond awareness to action. The program had three core components:

Targeted Leadership Coaching: A cohort of high-potential women received personalized, one-on-one coaching focused on executive presence, strategic influence, and navigating organizational politics. This was about building individual capability and confidence.
Strategic Sponsorship, Not Just Mentorship: We moved beyond casual mentoring by intentionally pairing participants with senior leaders (both male and female) who took clear accountability for advocating for their protégés’ promotion into key roles.
Leadership Culture Workshops: To address the systemic cultural barriers, we conducted workshops for the entire senior leadership team on identifying unconscious bias, building inclusive meeting cultures, and redefining leadership competencies to value diverse styles. This work is part of building a leadership pipeline in India that reflects the diversity of the workforce.

The Results: 30% More Women in Senior Leadership Within 2 Years

Within two years of launching the accelerator, the telecom company saw a dramatic shift in its leadership landscape and business health.

30% Increase in Women in Leadership Roles: Women moved into Director, VP, and SVP positions in significantly higher numbers, strengthening the succession plan at every senior tier.
Targeted Leadership Coaching: A cohort of high-potential women received personalized, one-on-one coaching focused on executive presence, strategic influence, and navigating organizational politics. This was about building individual capability and confidence closely aligned with our emerging leaders program for senior-track high-potentials.
Breakthrough in Succession Planning: The company now had a robust, visible, and ready-now pipeline of diverse talent for its most critical roles.
Enhanced Innovation and Engagement: Teams led by program graduates reported higher psychological safety and collaboration, which generated more original product ideas. Company-wide employee engagement scores, particularly among women, saw a marked improvement.
Stronger Employer Brand: The telecom company became an employer of choice for top diverse talent across India’s competitive telecom sector.

he Solution: A Year-Long Accelerator, Built for Real Change

The Excellential Accelerator fixed our system. By combining targeted support for high-potential women with a conscious effort to evolve our leadership culture, we unlocked a wave of talent we already had. This was a strategic investment that paid off in stronger leadership, better decision-making, and a more vibrant company culture.

The company’s transformation followed a similar diagnostic-led methodology to our future-proof leadership pipeline engagement but specifically calibrated for gender-diverse succession depth.

Is your leadership pipeline as diverse as your customer base?

A lack of diverse perspectives at the top isn’t just a diversity issue—it’s a business innovation and risk issue. A targeted accelerator program can transform your talent pipeline and drive tangible results.

Ready to build a more inclusive and innovative leadership team?
Contact Excellential Today: support@excellential.com