I feel very fortunate that in my role I get to speak to leaders every single day. I have worked with a huge range of clients, and it has been so exciting for me to have watched so many candidates develop into some of the most successful leaders in the retail and consumer industries. However, there is something I have seen over the last three decades since I founded The MBS Group that separates the good from the great – those that act as role models for future leaders, are usually the best leaders themselves.
This week, I attended two inspirational events that recognised some of our current and future leaders who are doing just that. The first was the launch of the Role Models for Inclusion in Hospitality, Travel, Leisure and Retail Index, a publication that we have collaborated with WiHTL and DiR on for seven years which spotlights individuals who are doing exceptional work in progressing inclusion within their organisations. The second, was the dinner for the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards. I have sat on this panel 15 times and am always excited to see which incredible women have been nominated.
“In order to create the community we want to be part of, we have to show up for it” – Tea Colaianni MBE, Founder and Chair, WiHTL & DiR
Attending these events, made me think about why leading by example matters more now than it has for some time. Every single day, I read the news and something has changed. In a single day this week, I saw three separate articles about companies scaling back their recruitment and using AI instead because of economic pressures. Inflation is rising in major economies, and businesses across the globe are being impacted by conflicts happening around the world. But the people that were being celebrated this week reminded me of the importance of standing firm on inclusion and leadership, and building the way for future generations of leaders and advocates.
At the Role Models for Inclusion launch, Tea Colaianni MBE, Founder and Chair of WiHTL and DiR – who is herself the embodiment of a role model – put the idea of leading with principles beautifully. “You don’t need to be an expert to make a difference,” she said. “You need to care enough to keep learning, ask good questions, and stand beside people when it matters. In order to create the community we want to be part of, we have to show up for it.”
That phrase – show up for it – stayed with me because it is easy to forget what role modelling actually is. It’s not simply doing your job well – it’s having values, and bringing your true self to work every day. It’s showing up in meetings, hiring conversations, succession planning, training sessions, board discussions and the small daily moments where culture is really formed. Dom Crothswaite, Chief Operating Officer of Flutter captured this exact idea explaining how he role models as a senior leader. “You have to show up, and think ‘how can I help people to do more?’” he said. “And you also have to ask yourself why certain people aren’t doing more.”
Two women that are certainly role modelling are the winners of the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards. As Thomas Mulliez, President of Veuve Clicquot, put it, this year’s winners – Smruti Sriram OBE and Alisha Fredriksson – are “shaping the future of business”. He said: “Their businesses tackle global issues and their achievements extend far beyond commercial success, offering powerful inspiration to the next generation of female entrepreneurs.”
The awards themselves are rooted in one of business’s original female leadership stories. Madame Clicquot was 27 when she took over the champagne house in 1805, at a time when women were excluded from much of commercial life, and built Veuve Clicquot into a brand defined by innovation, courage and international ambition. The Bold Woman Award was launched in 1972 to honour women who carry that same spirit into modern business, making it the longest-running international accolade of its kind.
Through Supreme Creations and Bags of Ethics, Bold Award winner, Smruti, has created a business that has helped to remove an estimated 30 billion single-use items from circulation. What makes her such a powerful role model is the way the business has been built, with ethical manufacturing and an 80% female workforce embedded into the structure. In a week where I was thinking about what it means to lead by example, Smruti was a reminder that role modelling can be powerful enough to live in the substance of the business itself.
The other finalists were no less impressive. Alisha – the winner of the Bold Future Award – and her business Seabound is a reminder that female entrepreneurship can and should happen in any category, even traditionally male spaces like shipping and technology. Paula MacKenzie has led PizzaExpress through performance growth, customer experience improvements, new formats and international openings. Kanya King CBE’s work with MOBO has helped shape one of the UK’s most important cultural platforms, while its newer initiatives are opening up access to skills and opportunities in areas such as AI. Marisa Poster has taken matcha from a specialist product into the mainstream through PerfectTed, and Josephine Philips is using SOJO to bring repair, logistics and technology into fashion’s waste problem.
What links these leaders is that their example give other people more versions of success to look towards. At the Role Models launch, Koreen Fader, CEO – Market Leader for QVC UK expressed this in a way that has stayed with me. “If you wanted to learn a new skill, you wouldn’t pick a teacher who knew exactly what you knew,” she said. “You would pick someone who knew more, and different things, to learn from.”
That is such a clear way of understanding role modelling. When research shows that employees with sponsors have been promoted at nearly twice the rate as those without, it seems clear to me that it is not about finding someone exactly like you, but finding someone who gives you a new reference point. Someone whose experience expands your own. Someone who shows you another version of leadership, influence, courage or generosity. Because the power of that impact is felt first by individuals, then by teams and businesses and, then, ultimately, by the world those businesses help to shape.
