Tag: Empowered Women

In a conversation with Azadeh Williams, founder and managing partner at AZK Media, she talked about her path to founding AZK Media including previous stints as a global journalist, lecturer, and living out her passion for marketing and public relations before finally deciding to establish her own.

“It all started with a laptop, myself, and a dream. [After two years], [my spouse], a design and technology professor and investor, and I formed a partnership and [hired a slew of talented people]. [And now] we’ve served [plenty of clients] from all over the globe,” she shared in the ‘Empowered Women’ interview.

Azadeh emphasised, “Before I was a journalist, I was also a lawyer and being a lawyer really helped me understand accountability, transparency, contract negotiation, a lot of the wider business setup and structures that you really do need to be able to set up a framework and scale a business.”

During the interview with Azadeh, we asked about her most challenging experience as a mother and as a professional, and she shared, “My husband and I, we have a very modern relationship. I feel like [being a good example] for our daughter, [will help her understand] that we’re definitely pushing all the boundaries that are what is expected from women and men in relationships and in business. 

“You know, when you’re servicing clients around the world across nine different time zones while also trying to spend meaningful time with your family, I believe delegating is a necessity. That’s for sure,” Azadeh adds. 

Listen to the full conversation with Azadeh over on YouTube, where she talks about her leadership philosophy as well as her advice for women marketers struggling in finding a balance between personal and professional life. 

In a conversation with Eileen Ooi, the chief executive officer of Omnicom Media Group Malaysia, she shares her career journey which began with working in different media agencies including Starcom, Mindshare, Carat, Maxus, PHD. Her job experience at several media agency firms has aided her in shaping her career into the chief executive officer she is today.

In college, Eileen did not receive full support from her mother but she still persisted in following her passion for marketing and advertising. 

“Self-belief can take you far or it can limit you as much as you want it to be. So for me I think just be fearless and courageous and go out there and [break your limits],” Eileen adds.

During the conversation with Eileen, we asked about her journey in working as a leader in the media agency industry, and she shared, “When you become a leader, let’s say director the way you need to manage your team is very different, you learn with leadership authority versus leadership with influence and thinking whether to take an empathetic route or a task route. It is the transformative moment where you actually become aware of who you are and where your gaps are and opportunities and strengths.” 

Meanwhile, Eileen also discussed how media agencies and media planning have changed, she explained, “We no longer just think about how do we win the consumers over but we also need to think about how do we win the algorithm and how do we outsmart the algorithm to ensure that our campaign will be the most effective and also the most efficient way of delivering it as well.”

Watch the full conversation with Eileen Ooi over on YouTube, where Eileen shares further on her best leadership practices as well as her insights on how the landscape of the media affects consumer behaviour. 

In a conversation with Vasuta Agarwal, the senior vice president & managing director for Asia Pacific of InMobi, she shares the career journey she’s had, from starting off as a chip design engineer at Intel, then climbing into the senior vice president & managing director at InMobi, and how she continues to champion for women in the world of marketing. 

Vasuta boasts more than 10 years of experience in the marketing tech space. Of what makes her thrive in different roles she managed, she shares, “I was fortunate to try different [functions] and [roles] and I think all of these different roles really helped me to get a holistic understanding of the business and help make my transition to advertising technology.”  

“I think it’s very important for women to [explore] and in order to sort of compete or survive you need to keep yourself continuously being updated and prepared for every new role and challenge and never stop learning because it’s the only way to thrive in competitive environments,” Vasuta adds.

During the conversation with Vasuta, we asked about her leadership and management journey, and she shared, “As a leader, I feel like I really need to create other leaders, I should not create followers that’s not my job as a leader but to create more leaders and enable other people in their leadership journey.”

“In management, it is really important to trust people to do the right thing because when you create that trust then they feel empowered to make the right decisions. Then you can encourage them to dream big to take risks, to take big bets,” Vasuta said.

Listen to the full conversation with Vasuta Agarwal over at Spotify, where Vasuta shares further on what she believes are the best advertising practices as well as her insights about the significant changes in the gaming industry in Southeast Asia in terms of consumer behaviour, management, and innovation. You can also view the highlights of the conversation on our Youtube channel. 

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