Accepting failure and respecting diversity were the key messages delivered by participants at the 2022 Global Summit of Woman (GSW) yesterday.
Speaking at a forum that invited young female CEOs to share their stories, Yada Piyajomkwan, co-founder and CEO of AJAIB from Thailand/Indonesia, said it is vital to be a quick learner in this fast-paced world.
"And it's also important to learn from the experiences other businesses in your sector in order to avoid making the same mistakes.
''I was very lucky to have good advisers who started the business before me and they were kind enough to share the mistakes," Ms Yada told the forum.
Her company developed a stock-broking application in Indonesia for a younger generation of clients hoping to make their fortunes in investments.
Now with several million clients, she said that her company has put a focus on sustainable strategies that yield healthy returns in the long-term and are unlikely to cause her clients sudden, large losses.
Hers is now the number one stock-broking application in Indonesia and is number seven on the country's Unicorn business list in terms of value.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Ngoc My, CEO of Alphanam Real Estate JSC in Vietnam, said that one of the main challenges of doing business is how to manage human resources, but that diverse modern workforces also tend to be highly creative.
"What we have focused on in my office is building an environment where gender equality is normal. Vietnam has one of the fastest rates of economic growth in the world.
"I am very lucky to be born here and able to start my business here. The country is a hotbed for young, talented entrepreneurs. I want my company to set a precedent for gender equality in society," she said.
She also emphasised the need for entrepreneurs to learn from their mistakes as part of a work ethic that cultivates a belief constant learning and constant improvement, even from the worst missteps.
Karla Huerta, from Mexico, was the youngest CEO in attendance at just 26 years old.
As founder of APB Sistemas, which is the largest auto-car parking management company in the country, she said that it had been tough at times working with an all-male executive team but her experiences in the army had proven invaluable.
"If they [men] want to be in charge, let them. I have no problem with allowing my male staff to receive plaudits as I think this country is quite open to women sitting in senior positions supervising their work." she said.
Ponglada Paniangwet, co-founder and CEO of Freshket (Thailand), who developed an application for farm traders, said that as there is no handbook for being a CEO, learning by doing is a necessity.
"We do need to design our own journey and know where we are now, where we want to be and how we plan to get there," she said.
