We partnered with fashion house Boss for a second discussion on leadership lessons and what it takes to build a growing business
Bosses come in all forms, shaped by their personal and professional experiences. This and more topics on the meaning of being a leader were discussed at an event that we co-hosted with fashion house Boss in Singapore on September 13.
Read more: Why leaders are not born but made
The discussion took place at the chic penthouse ETTA, with three entrepreneurs from the Gen.T community on the panel: Sabrina Ho, founder and CEO of career and headhunting platform, Half The Sky; Lim Wei Jie, co-founder and director of social enterprise Foreword Coffee Roasters; and Sazzad Hossain, founder of edtech venture SDI Academy.
Speaking to a room of about 25 guests, the trio opened up about the ups and downs in their journeys, and how they strive for excellence as a boss.
Shifting mindsets
Kicking off the conversation, Sazzad shared his motivation for starting SDI Academy. Born in Bangladesh, Sazzad moved to Singapore when he was 11 with minimal English skills. He struggled for years with the local education system and society, which helped him realise that this would be similarly felt by the many migrant workers also living in Singapore. He shared that they would have accidents due to not being able to read or understand the safety instructions provided in English.
Sazzad thus started SDI Academy to close the communication gap and equip migrant workers with key skills in the English language, as well as financial literacy and business.
Read more: The two millennial ‘nobodies’ who helped Malaysia get its democratic awakening
For Lim, Foreword Coffee Roasters was set up to tackle a different type of discrimination. During his university days, he came to realise the difficulty that people with special needs have in finding employment. So he founded his company to operate cafes that train and hire individuals with physical or mental disabilities, such as deafness and autism.
In Ho’s case, her experience with being stereotyped because of her gender led to the founding of Half the Sky. The career platform’s goal: level the playing field for women in the workplace through coaching, training, networking and access to equitable job opportunities.
