Fortune Most Powerful Women Asia Leaders Breakfast

All right, ladies, thank you so much for skipping breakfast and having this conversation with us. Yes. Let's see. So, Melina, let's start with you. I think women in this audience really want to know what it takes to become an MPW in Asia today. And I'm wondering if you could boil it down to one trait, what do you think the one trait is? And is it different today for a woman than for a man? Well, that's a big question. I don't know whether my mic is on. I think I'm muted only because I have a very good colleague working with me. I come from a competitive background, so teamwork to me, in the early part of my career, my interpretation, for example, is that you have the authority. But more and more, I think it's, I always use these two words, about influence. And that has been what I've been focusing on. Because a title doesn't automatically mean that you can do that. But to influence people, it's like when I was a rower, I have to make sure my team is there, we grow together, and then we create what I truly believe in. When I was in competitive sports, everyone, when you come to work, you spend so much, so many hours a day, you have to work together with people with complementary energy, and then when they work together... This is what leaders mean in the U.S. and in what I've been doing. I love it. Now, Cathy, we were talking about your approach, and you say that you do not lead like a man. If you want to cry, you cry. If you want to... So tell us more about your approach. Yeah, you know, for many, many years, I think to major leadership, only for one standard, that's like a man, right? So many people, they just expect you just tough like a man. I say no. I talk to my chairman, I talk to my team. I'm a woman. I'm a woman, so if I want to cry, I will cry. If I want to smile, I will smile, okay? But because we have a very strong capability, like, you know, resilience, that's our strength. Passion, passion and adaptability. I feel lots of our strengths, so stay the focus and so we can just get into there. And I also want to get a message to you guys. I think we need to try our best to closer to the business core, you know, because I saw many wonderful women. They are just stay in the supporting function. They don't really closer to the core business. So, uh... We need to change that, so just like me, I talk to my chairman, I say, I want to the key position, I want to achieve that goal, so trust me. You need to be a passion because they don't believe in the time being, okay? So every time you prove it, you make sure you can create a value to layer, then they will trust you. So that's why after I complete my rotating CEO, actually my role responsibility has been actually expanded. Yeah, I love that you have to ask for the big promotion, the big next step. Weiwei, in finance, obviously a very male-dominated Male-dominated. industry and a lot of women start out at the bottom but then when you get to the top there are so few women. What do you think the the solution is? How do we get more women to get all the way to the top? I think when we start putting more women at the top, the younger women and even male allies, actually their perspective change and more will arise. I want to put some stats there and I really think this is where all of us in the room actually have a role to play. You're right, banking is very male dominated and up to now for 15 years, I am still the only, at the moment, the only female CEO of a full-fledged commercial bank in the country, meaning there's a huge retail outfit and a huge wholesale. Now, I don't think it's because people intentionally say we just want a man out there. But I find when I was appointed, More and more women say, if she can do it, I want to do it. Ladies, all of you are in the top job. I'm sure you have inspired many women that way. But I want to say something. You know, Kev, I really want to applaud Fortune for doing this MPW. Do you know what was the reaction I got this year? And last year was the first time I made the list, and it's such a privilege to be with all of you on this list. But I found the market reaction was a lot of the... Men leaders actually wanted to celebrate this. They said this is so great, this is so great. But you know, this is what I'm thinking, ladies. Shouldn't this be new BAU? But they are so excited. It's like, wow, there's this woman hundred list. Frankly, I hope in five years' time, we may not need to have an MPW top 100 because we are part of that ecosystem. And I really feel... If we have more women in the top job, it's not about having a seat on the table anymore, right? More women in the top job, we are part and parcel of decision making. More women will be inspired to follow suit, and then I think the numbers would fall. The last thing I'm just going to share. Before I took over as CEO four and a half years ago, women was only 17% of my senior management team. I have 6,000 employees in the country. Today, women are 40%. My board membership, Should we shoot? for my board membership, before I took over, it was only 15%. Today, it's 50%. I will not share more about the future plans, but I think this is because People thought that If the leadership ever keep meritocracy, they will put their hands up and the women were all appointed because of their performance, not because of their gender. I'll stop there. I love it. This is the pep talk we need this morning. That's great. Those numbers are so impressive. Melina, let's talk, obviously you referenced being a competitive athlete. Let's talk about how do you, obviously you have a huge staff, not all of them are Olympic level athletes with an innate desire to compete. So how do you motivate? How do you encourage the rest of your employees to perform at such a high level? I think this is where women's leadership really brings back. Because what we try to do is to ensure everyone feels valued. When they feel valued, then they will start to contribute. And there's really a viral effect to that. We're talking here about women leadership and sometimes we said, okay, women needs to get more representation on the board or in the company at senior levels. I think we really have to start thinking not just about gaining access, greater access to the current model of leadership, but it's actually about women redefining what good leadership looks like. Because I see in my company it's quite evenly split with 50-50 in terms of senior management. And I can see a lot of my women leaders, they actually have more flexible leadership styles. Because when we work with different colleagues, even in the same country, different generation or different style of colleagues, you actually need to have different leadership styles as well to be very effective. And I think the mistake is to apply one leadership style to all. And when I work with my senior management, I do sometimes see that men's leaders, they tend to have one very strong style of leadership. While the women's leaders, they are more flexible. Now, it doesn't mean that they will change what they believe in. You need to be very strong with what you believe in, your value. But when you lead someone, it's not only about knowing yourself, because we talk a lot about leaders, you need to know yourself. It's also about knowing, well, who you are leading. And to be able to speak with them and feel that connection and confidence. When every colleague starts to feel confidence, they can all add value. And that's where success comes from. Yeah, that's true. Kathy, I talked to a lot of women leaders about what surprised them most when they took a very high level position. And a lot of them say it's how much men complain to them all the time. I don't know. Tell me about your experience and what surprised you most about being a top leader. Uh... Okay, that's a very good question. But before I answer this question, I would like to share a story to you guys, to ladies. I think maybe Chinese will know we have an ancient book we call I Ching. Okay. The I Ching, okay, it's a pattern of, it's helping people to understand the pattern of changes. Okay. So from 2024 to 2043, for this 20 years, It's associated with fire, fire means uncertainty, okay, and move faster with new opportunities and it's associated with greater friendship with women, okay. So that's why I want to say it's the right timing for the women. You know, we believe that I Ching, that Yijin just talked to us, for this next 20 years It's the woman's time. That's a woman's time, so so you know when I get an award from the recognition from MPW So many people they they surprised because before I took this recognition It's been 19 years Taiwan no one on the list Yeah, so I'm the first one to be recognized and I'm also the first female of the rotating CEO in the manufacturing, it's not my company, it's in the manufacturing, I'm the first one as the CEO. So everyone's surprised, I'm surprised too, I'm surprised too, okay? Because I think, oh. I do my best. I try to prove everything. I bring people together. I create a value together. So that's the result. It shows me it happened. So I just want to tell the ladies, you know, believe your chance. Believe your chance. Stay focused and keep moving forward. Then it may happen. Because it's our time. Well, that's 20 years. I love it. 20 years. It's our time. It's time. Thank you. Wait wait, I wanted to ask you. You deal with money all day, obviously. But a lot of women still have a lot of hang-ups about asking for a raise, negotiating, asking for a promotion. What is the advice to all the women that you manage? And how do you personally navigate that? We really should emulate Katie and ask her to make a job, you know? Not really, but it's amazing. Actually, it's true. Even I, for myself, might think I look confident. But actually, when it comes to asking for more pay, that higher job, I must say I have to give it to my male counterpart. They do it so effortlessly. So I think this is where, to be honest, I'm also trying to say, okay, what is the value I bring to the table? Am I being? We're in a place whereby I'm realizing my potential. So these are questions I ask. So I can imagine many of the females will ask that. Can you repeat your question again, please? Oh Wait, wait. How do you kind of psych yourself up to ask for more? I want to psych myself up, yeah yeah I think this is where, how do I see it? We all, as women, we really want to make sure that we justify to the cow, come home, why we deserve that job. There's nothing wrong because we value our credibility. But I think it helps also if we can take a page from our male counterparts to be assertive. But again, you know, we can be assertive to demand, but the perception that is being looked at on us could be different. And this is where I find I'm encountering it in my journey. Because when I'm in a room with all men, somehow, like it or not, and I don't know, Melina and Katie, whether you feel it. we are different yeah and i think they are probably also quite uncomfortable with the fact that we may be the minority or we are different so i feel and i haven't quite nailed this yet okay so i have to reflect on your question and see how i get better tomorrow but i feel we need to build bridges i i find that the more i help My male counterpart, whether it's my bosses or my peers, understand us more as females. Why we think this way? Why do we do things this way? Most of the time, 9 out of 10, they actually appreciate and they come round. So I think there's a need to build these bridges so that we'll come to a point whereby we can do it in our own fashion. comfortable in our own skin to say actually I'm good for that job. I may not be 100% right but you have to believe in my credibility so I think there is still work to be done. And I speak for myself, and Katie, I have to take some tips and advice now. 15 years, amazing, oh my goodness. And Alina, you wanted to respond to that as well. Yeah, because I've been taking a different approach. I've never asked for a raise. I kept asking for more to work on. Um, and as the company grew, um, there were times when it was difficult times or there were crises here in this market and that market and when the company was like really stuck with the issues, then I had the courage of raising my hand, let me have a try, let me fix that. So I think my advice is think beyond your job title. I don't usually like to mention job title because it really put you in a box. Outside of the job title and think how you can add value and how you can really create an impact and change. I think that's my advice That's great advice, and I'm struck by the fact that you have all volunteered yourselves for positions that you didn't have, and that's kind of led to an upward trajectory in your careers. I wonder, more advice for the rest of the room? If you're, say you're in this room and you want to be an MPW within the next 10 years, what would you advise the room to wake up tomorrow and start doing? Yeah. Yeah. So, um... I think for many women, we already see, we got a lot of great strengths, but we don't know how to show it. I think this we need to change. We have to try to show ourselves in every critical situation. It's quite important. So like my own experience, okay, Okay. You know, AI is very important, and my background is supply chain. One day, my chairman said, oh, we need to choose one person to take the lead for the AI transformation, for the AI software business. Then he said, we might be someone with very innovative, okay? Maybe this person not really with the technology background, okay? I don't have technology background. Women, ladies, I don't have, I'm a supply chain, I'm the lead of logistics platform. But finally, I won the job, I won that position. I will help my company to do an AI transformation. And for the past year, I did a great job. Okay, because I build a trust, I deliver the result. So now in my company, everyone believe me, I can lead them to do the AI transformation. So if everyone here, you really want to know how to make an AI transformation, please come to me. I have great tips for you. Thank you. Thank you. That's true, you know, because AI now is very important, right? Everyone should know, how can I do it? How can I scale it, right? I got great experience. I can give to you many, many importance. I will show to you guys, ladies, so you will get the experience and implement. Come back to your country, come back to your companies to implement that. Will be very successful. Cathy, I think you're going to be mobbed after this. Wait, wait, we're coming to the end of our time. So I'll give you the final word. Any advice for the ladies in this audience? I think we are all sisters across borders. And we are here today because we are clearly having influence and impact wherever we are operating. I generally feel we must keep going. I think for a woman to get the top job is not easy because physically we go through changes. There are many different responsibilities. I would say I'm quite sure there were days whereby we can't put our makeup but we have to run our company. So I would say I mean, if you believe in this same thinking like me, I would hope more of us will continue to champion for more women in decision-making roles. It's no longer about having a seat on the table. I'll tell you why. Women leaders have a role to play to help. We can help drive economic growth. sustainability and create opportunities for our future generation. If we don't play, we don't put ourselves in a seat that we can shape thinking, shape decision making, what does it mean for the generation that comes after us? And I think to Malina's point, and I'm sure Katie shares the same, we have the heart for that. So I just encourage all of us. Stick at it, when the going gets tough, remember Fortune, remember MPW, and I think we just have to keep going, and really hopefully in five years down the road, ten years down the road, we shouldn't be celebrating how many women on the top list, right, because the men never had to do it. Why do we have to do it? Thank you. I think that's the perfect note for us to end on. We're going to thank you guys so much. Thank you. I will not leave. In my team, I'm not on purpose a lot, but you know, now my team member is almost 90% all women. I love it. I love it. I'm not on purpose, but I don't know. You know, I just come to find men can really... They're just the best. Yeah, no, I know. You guys... So see? I love it. Wonderful woman. Yeah. I love it. I love it. We're going to hear from some of the discussion leaders now, I believe, For such a thoughtful and engaging conversation, we've heard from some very remarkable leaders on stage, and now we'd like to bring more voices on the floor into this conversation. So we have several MPW Asia leaders joining us this morning, and I'd like to share their perspective. I think starting off, we have Ms. Liu from Megaworld, and then maybe she spend a few minutes talking to us about her perspective. Hi, again, thank you to Fortune. I've been with the company for almost three decades and on all of those years, we have encountered a lot of challenges, economic downturn. and It's the women who lead the path during those times. So I believe that the power is more than the position. It's more than the title we are holding. um It is creating values. It is creating opportunities as Megaworld is going through, you. developing not only in the capital city but also in the provinces. And the hardest part would be... We are igniting the economic growth in the provinces, and that's where women come in, wherein we are used to being innovative and hardworking, actually. So, again, I thank the... Fortune magazine actually three years you have done this in the Southeast Asia and we have seen that there's more women leader being appointed on the top position after you've done it. So again, it's such a delight to be able to join fellow women leaders. Thank you. And then the next up, we have Ms. Winnie Chen from Bank of America sharing her perspective. Thank you everybody and thank you for the great panel discussion here and then I guess many of us have been doing a lot of you know leadership conversation with a lot of new hires or with a lot of young generation including all the the female next generation that we want to help them to actually grow in their careers as well. A lot of things that you know the common questions to to come to our ourselves is that when it when it comes to a certain critical moment Women tend to sacrifice career because of the family, the baby factors, and everything, right? I think it's very important for us here to continue to cultivate our next generation of the female leaders to be able to think in a way more positively, right? It's okay to slow down a little bit, right? Because we all want to be, you know, be a great mother, a great wife, And at the same time. a great leaders in in the career, but it's okay to slow down a little bit and you can always recover yourself and then because Women leaders are more sensitive more empathetic, right? We are we are more calm Well, yes, sometimes we are more emotional, but that's fine, right because we all have different traits better than the males, right? Try to leverage capitalize our Better traits to make intelligent decisions and then we will always get there. Thank you Thank you, Winnie. And now we move on to Ms. Joanne Rodriguez from Athin Bank. Thank you. Morning, everyone. You know, I think what Melina mentioned just now really struck me, you know, about how women are redefining leadership. And, you know, it's... It's funny to see, and I'm from a bank with Weiwei and also Winnie, and we know it's true, it's very male-dominated. But when you have a woman in the lead, even with what Katie said, the number of women that come in after that, now you have 50% women on the board, it's very deliberate, 90% in your section in the company, that's incredible. It's women that redefine that, and meritocracy stretches further. And I think that's what, as leaders, we should all be mindful of. How do we then encourage high-performing women to really find their voice and then take that step up? Because when I talk to a lot of the younger women or people who are aspiring, they aspire for leadership positions, but they're just not brave enough to say it. They don't seem to want to voice it out for whatever reason. And I think they need someone to really encourage them to do so. And I think all of us in this room, I think we're in a position to do exactly that. And it's definitely something I take back from this conversation today. And also thank you, Fortune, for putting me on this list with these incredible women. I don't even know what I'm doing on it, but it's such an honour. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Joanne. And lastly, we have Ms. Omi Dang from RGS sharing her perspective today with us. Well, first of all, thank you for all the vibes today on the very strong woman, but they also they are very respectful for all the wonderful ladies from Vietnam, Madame Lien, Madame Thanh and On the very high top and strong performance for Vietnam industry. And they won't be here today. Okay. And I think it's the way the panelists are already sharing. The strong leadership of women, but also very high EQ. The emotional intelligence, right? And we definitely believe that the vibe of the women leadership is not in Asia, but very strong growth at the moment. And we hope that the more engagement of us, they're going to be very strong to go through for the crisis or the uncertainty at the moment in the markets. And the activity that... From the bottom has bringing to us very high appreciate that you are the right side part of Vietnam and we believe that Vietnam is one of the key of South East Asia can more contributing for the women with women leadership in Vietnam quite high in ranking the market. And on those ladies is in just most of difficulty industry uh We are working on this and we believe that. The women leadership is going to grow more stronger and more powerful. Thank you very much and welcome to Vietnam. Thank you, Ms. Omi. And now I think we have some time for two questions from the floor for Q&A for any of our panelists. Before that, I'll raise my hand. I think at this point we will have to pay a bit of credit to the men, if possible. First of all, I just want to say the men also cry. Oh, I see. I mean, sometimes when I talk to my male colleagues, they do cry as well. So I think as leaders in your position, Focus more on providing opportunities for all genders because when you provide opportunities and you basically uplift giving them the chance to learn and giving them the chance to grow, I think that's very satisfying I think for us in this position to be able to do that. So be fair to the men as well, look after them. In my company, we have 70% females and 30% males. Sometimes I have to go to HR, and because they do, as a subject, they say, OK, we need women's empowerment program in this country and that country. We work in 30 countries. And then I said, look, do we need a male? We need a few men, yeah. Because we actually have less male colleagues in the company. And we also need to give them opportunities. We need to come up with men's empowerment program as well. So don't forget the men. I love it. I think just raise your hand if you have a question and I might find you. Hi, my name is Ira. I'm the board of Telkom in Indonesia. It's amazing to hear all of your story. But I would like to get some insight from you, just to give you the bit of a background. When I was in the FMCG, I was the CEO of Unilever Indonesia back in 2020 to 24. The journey to Thank have the gender balance, it's not as tough as when I moved to telecommunications. I think somehow the industry itself has its appeal to women for FMCG, but when I moved you. to Telkom, it's very, very difficult to break through. I'm the chair of nomination and remuneration, even with that, really finding and break through This, you know, woman's talent in the telecommunication is very, very difficult. That's why in our company, the percentage of women is still very low. It's like less than 15%. I think you mentioned about the manufacturing which is probably have a bit of a similarities of a challenge in telecommunication or technology company. So is there any insight or advice or probably tips that I can carry on in really building this diversity agenda in that kind of industry? Thank you. Thank you for your questions. I think just as I mentioned earlier, you know, the power is not talking about the title or authority. You have to try to do the right thing and helping more people and bring more people together to create more value. So, you know, I just share one case. Now I'm the executive sponsor of women employees across the group. So, through this association, I talk to many women how to build a trust, how to build a resolve. So, you know, every time when we talk and every time we show something to a man, They believe we can do that, so just you need to prove that you can create a value. So I think that's my experience. I wish this can help to you. So you, uh... Yeah, so that's my answer. So you're working one-on-one with some women in your... It's not kind of one-on-one. We, you know, we always we're from the meeting together and this meeting is not just not just limit in the women. We invite men to join us together. And we have some very hot topic to talking about that, so they can really understand what I'm thinking. So we can share our experience to them, we can help them. So I think that's very different, how we to do today. Yeah, I like to touch on this. I find what helps is, first thing, if all things be equal, Ask HR to make sure the CV is balanced. That's the first thing. You first must have good quality CVs of both genders. I think that is the starting point if you haven't got enough female up there. I find, I mean, this is some things that I did in my bank that has helped shape the outcome today. So when the CVs are of equal gender, then you choose based on meritocracy. That's one way. Another way is you have to talk about it. If the company's value is such that they are open to embrace DEI, and you happen to put female leaders, maybe the minority, but you put that, then you have to start talking about it. I think the leaders must role model. I talk a lot about DEI, which goes from gender to ethnicity to generation. So it's not just women versus men. If you drive that agenda, you talk about it, generally people want to do good enough. They will come around. So I find there's no shortcut. Of course, unless the company is so progressive, like maybe in the case of Melina, she's the first female CEO at 100 over years for Watson. I'm the first female CEO for UOB 75 years in Malaysia. So it depends. If suddenly the company decides they want to put a female there, if you've got that position, then you influence, you drive it. So I find you've got to work on it. HR must come on board, the management must come on board, the board must come on board. And to my earlier point, we women must stick in the job, so that we pave the way for others to come. Thank you. I think I want to add one more thing, you know, the 4chan, the MTW, is really helpful to us. And yeah, that's true. Yeah, I agree. Now, you know, because my company, when they see the recognition, they say, wow! Fortune, right? Fortune. So everyone will feel these things is different. It's different. So that will also help you. So if you are a long list, please show it. It will be very helpful. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Now, we have one last question coming from Alice and Chantelle. Hi, everyone. So I wanted to just say, first off, thank you all for joining us. We do have a most powerful people list, because for exactly the reasons that you were stating, we are so excited about a world where women are just part of the equation naturally. And we're seeing everything moving in the right direction. And we were just talking about how in Thailand, actually, they don't have this problem. There's a prime minister who's a woman, 40% of women are taking top jobs, so it's great. There's progress everywhere. But I actually had a non-woman-related question. As the AI transformation chief for Foxconn, I can't let you get away without telling us some of what you're seeing and what you're implementing. I'm particularly interested in... Robotics and in physical AI and how that's going to impact the manufacturing industry so I was going to just change the conversation a tiny bit to end on to get your wisdom and expertise on your industry and where you think Robotics is heading into factory work and just I'm just for everything. Okay But I think before I answer these questions. I really want to clarify a one one thing because Most of people, they thought AI will replace the people, but I can tell you in my company, no, we didn't replace the people. We changed the structure, the talent structure, and we upgraded people. You know, we have the operator in the first line. They are actually in a very low No skill, they're just a production operator, okay, but now they reach the AI transformation. We add them a lot of skill. Now they become an engineer. They are not just as an operator. Okay, so I can tell you now this year, our company already exceed 300 billion US dollars this year, and next year will be 30% increase. Wow, of course, 100% because we already have the order on hand and also we see our total headcount is increased. Market share is increased, so no one tell you AI will replace the people, so change this idea. Okay, so the tips for AI transformation. First, I think you have to treat AI as a human. Please, don't treat it as a tool or system. That would be fail. You must treat AI as a workforce. That's a very, very important thing. That's the first tip I would like to give to you. Then second, please, all the projects, you don't treat it as a technology project. No, you have to treat it as a workflow change, and you must align to the P&L, okay? You must link to P&L, otherwise, finally, the board will say, hey, you spent a lot of money, but there's no result. So, no. The third tip is all the AI projects must lead by top leaders. Don't just give to IT managers. They will screw up. Wow. Not true. Not true. You know, you have to live by yourself, because your vision is different. You know where you want to go. So if you just treat it as a technology project, leave it to IT manager, it will fail. Okay, so I think a lot of the things listen do you think I answer your questions or you want more? Okay, thank you so much. That's great. Okay. And now I think we have some awards to give out. Yes, so I think it's time to celebrate the remarkable women who Amplify the leadership and we'll move on to present the award ceremony in the next section So let us have a little bit of a change Let them down first before we go on to that portion. Yes