Bag Man: The Story Behind the Improbable Rise of Coach
by Lew Frankfort The longtime CEO of Coach shares stories and strategies behind the company’s stunning growth from a $6 million business to a $5 billion global brand. Lew Frankfort knew nothing about fashion when he became assistant to the founder of Coach. By the time he left, Frankfort had […]
China is empowering women and advancing ‘her power’
Thirty years ago, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, set the world on a new course, establishing strategic objectives and actions to advance women and achieve gender equality. On October 13 and 14 in Beijing, the Global Leaders’ Meeting […]
Funding HQ launches FundED: A game-changer for school fundraising in Aotearoa
Funding HQ, one of Aotearoa’s fastest-growing e-learning fundraising platforms, is proud to announce the launch of FundED—a new subscription-based programme designed specifically for the education sector. Created in direct response to growing demand, FundED equips schools with the tools, training, and expert support they need to build long-term, sustainable fundraising […]
Flexible work isn’t the fix: Women in tech still facing caregiving penalties
Women in Digital’s Annual Report reveals many women are being slowed down mid-career – often when they start families – despite more flexibility There is a growing disconnect between workplace flexibility and career progression for women working in the tech sector, Women in Digital’s (WiD) 2025 Report: Driving Change in Tech report […]
Leading from the inside out: Why clarity, impact and focus matter more than ever
-Deb Bailey, Coach, Facilitator, Speaker, Author When I stepped away from my global executive role at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do next, only that I didn’t want more of the same. I created space by completing an MBA, and by the […]
Operationalising AI for manufacturing in ASEAN
Karen Kim, CEO Human Managed While the hype around Gen-AI will shift to the buzz around agentic-AI in 2025, traditional sectors such as manufacturing will still be coming to terms on deploying AI strategies to become participants of Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is the next […]
How women can steer toward growing industries and companies
To build up their experience capital, women can pick the occupations, industries, and geographies that present the best opportunities to enhance their careers. Workplaces are full of talented, educated, and hardworking women. Many are caught off guard when, several years into their careers, they see that they are falling behind their […]
Aotearoa to host world-leading conference on women’s entrepreneurship
A major international conference in Auckland is putting the spotlight on how to better support female founders and highlighting wāhine Māori perspectives on entrepreneurship. What do female entrepreneurs really want and why is the system still stacked against them? These are a couple of the big questions due to be […]
Women in leadership: Lessons from companies leading the way
Top organisations are deploying a range of strategies to address the known issues affecting women’s advancement. While companies are increasingly active in their efforts to drive gender equality, women remain underrepresented in the career pipeline. Women constitute 42 percent of all employees, yet make up just a quarter of […]
Cloudian appoints new APJ Channel and Marketing Directors
Cloudian has appointed Anna Christensen as Asia Pacific and Japan head of channel and alliances, and Victoria Meldrum into Christensen’s former role of Asia Pacific and Japan head of marketing. The appointments come as Cloudian experiences a surge in demand for its technology across the region as data demand rises […]
Kweh Jia Xuan
Meet Ms Kweh Jia Xuan, a 23-year-old athlete with mild intellectual disabilities, who represented Special Olympics Singapore in DanceSport (Latin Dance) for the Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025! The Special Olympics World Games is the world’s largest humanitarian sporting event, and was hosted in Turin, Italy, this year. […]
Afsaneh Abolhassani embraces the technical side of warehouse automation
Swisslog Technical Lead, Afsaneh Abolhassani Swisslog Technical Lead, Afsaneh Abolhassani, has always enjoyed the technical aspects of complex automation and intralogistics projects, and encourages others to continuously learn the latest technologies and trends. In a career spanning more than 15 years in the logistics and automation industry, including eight […]
Bag Man: The Story Behind the Improbable Rise of Coach
by Lew Frankfort The longtime CEO of Coach shares stories and strategies behind the company’s stunning growth from a $6 million business to a $5 billion global brand. Lew Frankfort knew nothing about fashion when he became assistant to the founder of Coach. By the time he left, Frankfort had spent 29 years as CEO, growing Coach from a scrappy maker of leather bags with a small cult following to a beloved lifestyle brand. Along the way, Coach created a new market segment—accessible luxury—that redefined an industry. In Bag Man, Frankfort explains how the son of a Bronx policeman, after working in city government, built a business that challenged conventions, grew it 1000%, and became recognized as one of the world’s best CEOs. Bag Man offers lessons from both achievements and missteps as Coach reinvented itself over decades. Throughout, Frankfort considers a more personal aspect of leadership—how the double-edged sword of fear and drive can lead to success but also take a toll. He shares his struggles with a haunting fear of failure, including how it drove an obsession with consumer insights that made Coach unique in the industry. Summing up Coach’s philosophy in three words—”magic plus logic”—Bag Man shows how blending creativity and data-driven discipline can produce sustainable, profitable growth, helping to: Design and market products people love Build a roster of talent and a performance-driven culture Drive strategies that pair a brand’s unique value with the right market opportunities Scale the business to achieve next-level organic growth Operate as a respected public company A riveting, candid business memoir, Bag Man traces an extraordinary leadership journey that built a legacy brand.