The Creative Class

Staying plugged into the pulse of real life

Anna Wintour Anna’s early career at New York Magazine cemented her belief that great editors must stay immersed in real life. “Working at New York Magazine was thrilling,” she says. “I was surrounded by people who had absolutely no interest in fashion—and that was wonderful. They made me think about art, film, theater, politics. It made me realise that fashion only matters when it’s connected to the world.” That ethos has guided her leadership at Vogue for nearly four decades. Even now, she told the audience, she makes time every morning to read multiple newspapers, walk through Washington Square Park, and call colleagues across time zones before sunrise. “It’s really important to expose yourself to life,” she says. “Walk in the street and take in what you see. It will always give you an idea.” The power of instinct over analytics Despite leading one of the world’s most data-literate publishing houses, Anna says she’s never been ruled by metrics. “ I am not someone who follows data and analytics religiously,” she says with a grin. “I always make my choices with instinct.” Her most iconic decisions—like Vogue’s 1988 debut cover featuring a couture jacket paired with $50 Guess jeans—were the result of gut feeling, not focus groups. “Everyone was expecting something different,” she remembered. “This image related to the women I saw in the street. I didn’t want Vogue to be removed or distant.” The printer even called to ask if the photo had been sent by mistake. That cover went on to redefine modern fashion photography. Yael Taqqu (left) and Anna Wintour Anna Wintour on stage interview at McKinsey’s inaugural “Brilliant Moves” Speaker Series She recalled a 1989 conversation with a conservative businessman on a plane who said he could never imagine such a thing. “So, I went straight back to the office and said, ‘We’re […]

Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women’s Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours

by Corinne Low PhD You’re not imagining it: Women aren’t getting a good deal at home or at work. There is evidence to prove it. This book gives you the power to change it. For women, the promise of “having it all” is an ever-elusive carrot. Faced with unsustainable demands in every sphere, doing it all―but at a steep cost. Research shows that biologically, culturally, and economically, women are on uneven playing ground, and one that drains them of their happiness. But that same data can empower women to make choices that will reclaim their time, energy―and even joy. In Having It All, Wharton professor and economist Dr. Corinne Low unpacks the hidden factors that influence women’s decision-making, and how the unintended consequences of these choices alter the course of their lives. From when and whether to get married and (or) have children to what type of career to pursue, whether to obtain an advanced degree to where to live―Dr. Low explores questions such as: • What if there is no optimal time to “have a family” but rather a slew of different considerations at different life stages? • What if women approached decisions around marriage and partnership as rigorously as they would an employment opportunity? • What if women valued their time in dollars and cents, and structured theirlives around choices that givs them the greatest return on their investments? For too long, women have been expected to accept labor-intensive solutions to systemic problems―optimise, lean in, work harder. But Dr. Low isn’t suggesting women need to do more. In the tradition of bestselling books like Eve Rodsky’s Fair Play and Emily Oster’s Cribsheet, Having It All blends personal experience, research, and analysis to illuminate the complex decisions women face, and offers an evidence-based framework for creating a better, happier life. Consider it the essential economics […]

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 on Women will bring together stakeholders to renew the spirit of the 1995 Conference, accelerate the implementation of the declaration and platform for action, promote gender equality, support women’s all-round development, and foster a community with a shared future for humanity. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will attend the meeting’s opening ceremony and deliver a keynote speech, has long championed women’s development globally. At the 2015 UN Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, he outlined four guiding principles: synchronizing women’s development with social and economic progress, safeguarding rights, fostering inclusive societies and creating favorable international conditions. China’s advance of ‘her power’ Over the past three decades, China has consistently upheld the spirit of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, achieving remarkable progress in women’s rights and opportunities. Since 2013, targeted poverty alleviation has lifted millions of women out of poverty in the country, with 690 million now enjoying a moderately prosperous standard of living. Meanwhile, women now constitute 45.8 percent of China’s scientific workforce, over half of internet entrepreneurs and 42.3 percent of judges nationwide, reflecting greater leadership opportunities. And with an average life expectancy exceeding 80 years and recognition by the World Health Organization as a top performer in maternal and child health, women’s well-being continues to improve steadily. These accomplishments are rooted in institutional guarantees and decisive actions. Gender equality is enshrined as a basic national policy, and women’s development has been incorporated into the country’s Five-sphere Integrated Plan. Comprehensive measures – targeted poverty […]

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 end of my studies, I knew I wanted to start my own Leadership Practice. I’ve always been passionate about creating a world of work where people know how they contribute and feel genuinely valued. That led me to focus my Practice on leadership impact, building and sustaining high-performance teams, and helping organisations bridge strategy to execution. My approach is based on the belief that leadership must be measurable, just like other parts of the business whether it’s finance, projects, customer satisfaction etc. When we understand our inner game of leadership our strengths, blind spots, motives, and values, we improve our outer game: team outcomes, strategic results, leadership impact, and culture. Measurement brings insight; insight enables action; action drives results. One of the biggest challenges I see today is what I call the “Busy Olympics.” The world of work has become fast, demanding, and always-on. Technology was supposed to make things easier, but often it just means we’re available 24/7. There’s an unspoken competition to be the busiest, but all this busyness is eroding clarity. And without clarity, it’s hard to prioritise what matters most, at work or in life. Clarity takes courage and discipline. It means being willing to ask the big questions: Where am I going? What am I here to do? What matters most right now? When we have that clarity, we’re able to say ‘no’ to the noise and distractions and yes to the things that make the biggest difference. I believe business success is fundamentally about the quality of its leadership. […]

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 phase where disruptive trends including data, connectivity, analytics, robotics and human-machine interaction is said to transform manufacturing significantly. According to a Kearney study[1], while over 70% of ASEAN manufacturers polled claimed to be “non-leaders/followers” of AI adoption, 47% believe investment in AI is “very critical” for their business. Gartner’s[2] Prism use case of GenAI in Manufacturing encourages leaders to evaluate AI use cases on a strategy that addresses both value generation and feasibility . Value parameters include increased revenue, increased efficiency, managed risk and non-financial gain. Feasibility parameters include technical feasibility, internal readiness, external readiness. So how can leaders operationalize AI, keeping value and feasibility in mind? At Human Managed, we believe it begins with an understanding of data. A framework to understand the highest impact for manufacturing businesses in the age of AI, would be to understand “3 Ops”-DataOps (Feeding AI), MLOps (Tuning AI), IntelOps (Applying AI). Data Ops (Feeding AI) In the manufacturing sector, data can be provided through assets in an interconnected ecosystem. From a range of sensors, machine data on temperature, vibrations, pressure, power consumption, operating hours etc are collected. Industrial machines, robotic arms and assembly lines can provide process data includes information on production rates, cycle times, error rates, material usage. Image and video data from cameras capture data for product dimensions and defect detection. ERP systems provide information on inventory levels, order information, transportation data. Given the vast array of data, manufacturing enterprises have to first solve for the issues around understanding the data […]

Industrial technology concept. Factory automation. Smart factory. INDUSTRY 4.0

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 peers, and they can’t put a finger on exactly how or why. Women, after all, are doing everything they can to prepare themselves for successful careers. As early as kindergarten, girls on average outperform boys across all disciplines, including math. Women in almost all developed countries earn undergraduate and graduate degrees at higher rates on average than men, with better grade point averages. Yet quite quickly after graduation, many women start losing ground in the workplace. For example, despite making up 59 percent of college graduates in the United States, women represent only 48 percent of those entering the corporate workforce. And then come the first promotions to management roles: For every 100 men, only 81 women are promoted. The blended average of 81 women overall breaks down to 99 Asian women, 89 White women, 65 Latina women, and 54 Black women. This advancement gap persists and compounds over women’s careers, with lower representation of women at every step of the corporate-leadership ladder. We call this phenomenon the “broken rung.” The first broken rung of the corporate ladder opens up a gender gap that widens further at every subsequent rung, including senior-leadership positions. It is that first broken rung, however, that affects the entire talent pipeline. Despite initiatives to improve gender parity in the corporate ranks over the past decades, gains have been modest. The largest improvement has been in the C-suite, where women have moved from being one in five top executives to just over one in four reporting […]

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 tackled at the world’s leading research conference on women’s entrepreneurship held in Aotearoa New Zealand for the first time ever this year. The Diana International Research Conference from 1-4 July, brings together top researchers and industry experts from around the world to tackle funding inequities, structural barriers and discuss the future of women-led enterprise, with a spotlight on te ao Māori perspectives. “This is the only conference that focuses solely on women’s entrepreneurship research, and it’s an opportunity to garner insights from interested attendees, researchers and founders,” says Professor Chris Woods, the Business School’s Theresa Gattung Chair for Women in Entrepreneurship, and Diana Conference co-chair. “We’ll be asking: What do women entrepreneurs want? How do we bridge the gap between academic research and industry, and how can we tackle the barriers women face when building businesses?” Hosted by the Business School’s Aotearoa Centre for Enterprising Women, the conference includes keynote talks, academic sessions, and a public-facing Impact Day on Friday 4 July, a one-day forum featuring panels on capital access, wāhine Māori leadership, and entrepreneurial futures. The day opens with ‘A boomer, Gen X, millennial and Gen Z walk into a panel’: Mana wāhine across the generations’. Business School senior lecturer Dr Kiri Dell (Ngāti Porou) says the panel will spotlight the unique strengths wāhine Māori bring to entrepreneurship. The kōrero will also explore te ao Māori concepts of sovereignty and entrepreneurship. “It’s about being role models, sharing networks and giving each other emotional support, challenging mainstream models of the […]

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 executives and only 10 percent of CEOs for large, for-profit companies. The transition point from key management positions to CEO has the highest drop off (59 percent) in women’s representation of any in the pipeline. Over the past three years, the average growth rate across all industries in women taking leadership roles stands at 2.8 percent, with public administration and with rental, hiring, and real-estate services leading the pack at 19.6 percent and 15.1 percent growth rates, respectively. Despite the positive trajectory, women’s representation in management, C-suite, and CEO roles continues to be a particular challenge. Progress at the very top is expected to be slow Beyond today’s pipeline numbers, the low numbers of women in key management roles presents a challenge that is difficult to change in the near term. Of the 24 percent of women in key management roles today, many of them are in support roles, such as head of human resources and general counsel. Research on workplace diversity reveals, around 90 percent of CEO appointments come from line roles such as chief operating officer or head of a business division. This means the near-term pipeline of women who are in line for CEO appointments is even smaller than it appears. Efforts to achieve gender equality are apparent The objective to achieve gender equality and change these dynamics is evident. Companies implement stand-alone gender-equity strategies. Recruitment policies are the most emphasised area. However, while policies are a useful tool for progressing toward gender balance, they alone do […]

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 years with Swisslog in design and consulting roles, and most recently a year as Technical Lead, Afsaneh hasn’t felt any additional challenges being a woman in a male-dominated field. “That doesn’t mean others haven’t faced challenges, of course, this is just my experience. For women – and for anyone – entering a new field of work, it’s important to familiarise yourself with the needs and requirements of that industry, to see if it’s a good fit for you, and to figure out where you can add the most value,” she says. After an initial seven years with Swisslog, Afsaneh moved to another company in the logistics and automation industry for four and a half years, before returning to Swisslog a little over a year ago, to commence her new role as Technical Lead. “I chose to return because this was an exciting opportunity, and Swisslog has recently taken steps to further enhance its already excellent culture that continues to put people first, proactively encourages you to expand your skills, and makes everyone feel welcome and supported,” she says. Afsaneh’s role involves collaborating with design teams to create complex solutions that meet the customer’s specific requirements. As a global leader in intralogistics and warehouse automation, Swisslog’s projects range from standardised and standalone automation solutions, right through to highly customised solutions for unique and large-scale applications. “Regardless of the size of the project, my job is to ensure all the technical aspects work successfully, and that the customer is satisfied with the […]

Beatrice Toh, Founder, HeyDoodle

Beatrice Toh, Founder of HeyDoodle is a a mum of three who left a long career in architecture to turn her side-hustle into her now full-time gig. Beatrice founded the multi-award-winning HeyDoodle range of eco-friendly silicone playmats and creative play products in 2019, after recognising a gap in the market for products that combine education, fun and sustainability. “I was constantly on the hunt for ways to keep my kids entertained while encouraging their development and eco-consciousness. As any parent will attest, engaging young children in ways that aren’t screen-based especially when out and about can be very trying. So HeyDoodle is effectively my personal solution turned full-time business,” explains Beatrice. Today, HeyDoodle sells online and is stocked via more than 800 Australian retailers and trading in more than 25 countries and growing rapidly. Here’s a QandA with Beatrice which you’re welcome to quote. Otherwise, I can easily arrange for Beatrice to answer other Qs if you’d like to just shoot through to me… How did you decide to start your business? What inspired you? In a nutshell, a gap in the market. My eureka moment came amid experiencing the onset of the construction industry slump at the same time as my early years of parenthood in 2018-19. I am a Master of Architecture graduate and a registered architect. I’d been working as a full-time architect for many years and my husband runs an architecture firm. The slump hit us hard and it was quite an uneasy time for us – as for many in our field. In addition to all the professional pressures at the time and like most mums, I was constantly on the hunt for ways to keep my kids entertained while encouraging their development and eco-consciousness. As a parent looking for a convenient, affordable and […]

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