I create without giving a damn if anybody likes what I do. I put my life into it,” asserts the man behind the whimsical eponymous watch brand, Maximilian Büsser & Friends (MB&F), Maximilian Büsser
“We were here first,” asserts the Founder and CEO of an AI-powered content generator Lately AI, Kate Bradley Chernis. Lately is a social media management AI tool that was founded in 2014.
While some CEOs have caused corporate upheavals and others, such as Elon Musk, have taken unorthodox approaches, a few have successfully navigated challenges and led their companies to great accomplishments. These captains of industry employed various strategies and styles, but they all shared a deep knowledge of their businesses and a clear vision for the future.
Philanthropy has always been a vital component of business, with many successful business leaders leveraging their wealth and influence to give back to society. Their charitable endeavors have inspired others to follow in their footsteps.
In times of economic uncertainty, layoffs are often an unfortunate necessity, causing great emotional distress for both the employer and employees. However, there are some instances where corporate leaders have demonstrated genuine compassion towards their employees by taking bold steps, such as accepting pay cuts or even forgoing their salaries altogether.
An essential part of succeeding as an entrepreneur is consistently learning from your mistakes. Be it a rejected pitch or a project that was eventually shut down, taking stock of your mistakes and figuring out how things can be different moving forward is crucial to succeeding in the startup space. Suffice it to say almost everyone who has succeeded in entrepreneurship has done so through trial and error.
Despite progress in gender equality, women over 50 still face a unique set of barriers and challenges in society. Whether it’s in the workplace or social settings, these women are often overlooked and underestimated. In Asia Pacific, however, there are a number of inspiring role models who have broken barriers and achieved incredible success.
On January 19, 2023, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation in a surprise move, citing that she just “no longer had enough in the tank” to carry on. This news followed a slew of gender-related headlines—expectedly. Media houses seemed to enjoy their “I told you so” moment, with the BBC posting an archaic and sexist headline: “Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all?”
After a massive round of firings and failed changes to Twitter’s core functioning, Elon Musk has announced that he will step down from his position as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). His only condition for doing so? Finding someone foolish enough to take over. Since he started working as the company’s CEO, it has lost 60% of its share value and is clearly on a downward spiral.
On November 20, 2022, just two years after serving as Disney’s chief executive officer (CEO), Bob Chapek was fired from his position and the former CEO, Bob Iger, was re-hired to take his place. The company saw a 6.3% hike in stock prices soon after the announcement, which makes it pretty clear that investors were happy with Disney’s choice to re-hire Iger.
It is well-known that tech is a male-dominated industry, and PropTech (property tech) is not exempt. According to an article by Forbes, only 10% of startup founders in the PropTech space are women. Multiple factors could be attributed to this, including an unconscious bias against women during the hiring process and a lack of investment in women-founded companies, to name a few.
The recent FTX scandal has all the trappings of a Netflix drama series where the business tycoon—once lauded for his power moves—is brought down by greed, selfishness and the judiciary system (The Wolf of Wall Street, much?). The CEO of crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has come into the spotlight for bringing about the downfall of FTX and his other company Alameda Research. In November 2022, he filed for bankruptcy for both companies after a devastating collapse in the public eye.
28-year-old Reynold Poernomo may have moved on from his MasterChef Australia days, but the world certainly will never forget the contestant who urged even the infamously austere Gordon Ramsay to soften and dub his dessert—White Noise—“breathtaking”. Watching Reynold on screen was akin to viewing a sporting event, where you are constantly rooting for him with foam fingers and pom poms because you marvel at his skill and aspire to have his courage and creativity.
Employees of a startup are essential to its success. They keep the company running to ensure that the vision gets carried out and that the day-to-day operations continue seamlessly. High turnovers can be harmful to a company, especially for startups with less established internal structures, organizations and systems to mitigate handover disruption. This makes retaining employees a particularly important goal for startups.
As of 2021, the global maritime industry is worth US$1.6 billion and is expected to reach US$2.9 billion by 2027. For our readers who may not be familiar with this space, maritime refers to the movement of people and goods across the world over water. This industry is the backbone of the shipping sector, handling over 80% of international trade.
If you haven’t been living under a metaphorical rock, you must have heard all about Britain’s political drama and British media’s unhinged demolition of the people involved (watch: BBC’s hilarious Instagram reel about Liz Truss’s leadership). Many recent British leaders have become infamous for their rather ungraceful exits. In September, Boris Johnson stepped down in a similar fashion, facing pressure from the people after his many scandals got him undone.
