In a world gripped by transformation, where AI disrupts industries and consumers demand instant gratification, one truth stands out: The future of business leadership is already here, and it’s increasingly being defined by women.
The numbers tell the story: Four in ten women in Europe are considering launching their own business, and more than half of Gen Z women (52%) are planning a side hustle within the next three years. Their ambitions are both financial and visionary. Young women are leading the charge in cosmetics, education, childcare, and food, with a strong desire to create brands that are profitable and purposeful in equal measure. In fact, among Gen Z, one in five founders believe their idea can change lives—and they’re building accordingly.
Ambition is rising but so are the barriers
The surge in entrepreneurial ambition among women is undeniable, but so too is the weight of the barriers standing in their way. According to a study by Mastercard, while more women are looking to launch businesses that blend profit with purpose, only one in four (25%) feel confident making financial decisions, and just 15% feel equipped to network effectively, compared to 23% of men. The data reveals that it’s not capability that’s lacking; it’s support, representation, and reinforcement.
Confidence itself has become a defining obstacle. One in five women cite a lack of confidence as a barrier to starting a business, a number that climbs among younger generations—26% of millennial women and 25% of Gen Z. Beyond confidence, the most common hurdles cited by aspiring female founders are familiar and entrenched: risk of failure (31%), lack of financial resources (29%), and lack of experience (28%). These aren’t abstract fears—they’re deeply practical concerns that highlight just how high the threshold to entrepreneurship remains for women.
These insights came to life during a conversation between two of the most prominent voices in retail leadership, Sima Ganwani Ved, Chairwoman of Apparel Group, and Supaluck Umpujh, Chairwoman of the Mall. While both operate at the helm of major retail enterprises across Asia and the Middle East, their reflections reveal that even at the top, leadership is defined less by position and more by perspective. Supaluck reminded the audience that true leadership has little to do with power or status: “It’s about solving the problems no one else can.” Her framing underscored a truth felt by many women leaders: that leadership is earned in the space between vision and resilience.
For women without established platforms, however, the journey to that space remains harder. The barriers may be shifting, but they’re still very real.
A new kind of leadership
Ved and Umpujh offered two complementary visions of modern leadership at the 2025 RLC Global Forum. Ved, whose retail empire spans 85 brands in 14 countries, spoke of the need for agility and reverse mentoring. “We need to listen to younger voices. I feel like a dinosaur when it comes to tech,” she admitted. Instead of top-down authority, she emphasized the role of leaders as guides.
Umpujh, by contrast, spoke from a deeply human place—about sacrifice, about love, about leading a company the way one leads a family. “Leadership is not about being the smartest in the room,” she said. “It’s about trust, unity, and ownership.”
What ties their perspectives together is a clear rejection of outdated leadership models, the top-down, ego-driven archetypes of the past. Instead, both leaders demonstrate that emotional intelligence, adaptability, and purpose-driven innovation are not “soft skills.” They are the new pillars of effective leadership.
Hali Borenstein, CEO of Reformation, embodies this shift as well. Under her leadership, the brand has not only doubled down on sustainability but placed diversity and inclusion at the heart of its culture, investing in inclusivity workshops, evolving brand imagery, and expanding its people team to become the most robust in company history. As she’s noted, there’s no separating environmental justice from racial justice, and that belief now shapes how Reformation leads, hires, and communicates.
The consumer has changed. Has leadership?
Today’s consumer doesn’t just want products, they want experiences, speed, and values that align with their own. As consumer expectations accelerate, many companies are investing heavily in personalization, AI, and omnichannel integration to keep up. But while business models have evolved, leadership models are often struggling to keep pace.
Shoppers in 2025 engage, interrogate, and expect instant gratification across every touchpoint. This has forced organizations to rethink how they deliver value, and that shift extends beyond storefronts and algorithms—it goes straight to the top.
Michelle Gass, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., embodies the broader change in leadership mindset toward purpose-driven strategy. For her, profits and principles go hand in hand. “The role of a CEO is not just leading the business, it’s also caring for your employees,” she said during a podcast for the NRF.
At Levi’s, that ethos is reflected in initiatives like the Levi Strauss Foundation and the Red Tab Foundation, which support employees facing hardship. Gass also emphasizes the importance of speaking out on the social issues that matter most to employees—topics many retail brands tend to avoid. “They need to hear our voice,” she notes. “We want to make sure we’re on the right side of history.”
Renuka Jagtiani, Chairwoman of Landmark Group, also made this point clear in a fire chat discussion on leadership and growth. In her view, navigating today’s business environment means embracing complexity, not resisting it. “You almost have to strategize for change,” she said, pointing to the last five years as the most unpredictable—and instructive—of her career.
For Jagtiani, leadership is no longer about static plans or rigid playbooks. It’s about agility, resilience, and the ability to invest—intelligently and consistently—in both innovation and consumer relevance. “AI is a tool of investment to me. It’s not a cost-saving device,” she noted, framing technology as a means to deepen customer relationships, not replace them.
Her insights reflect a broader evolution in executive thinking. In a consumer-led era, influence is earned through credibility, transparency, and the capacity to evolve in real time. Not to mention the ability to design organizations built to thrive.
How women leaders are redefining success
The challenges women face on the road to leadership are well-documented, and very real. Confidence gaps, unequal access to resources, and disproportionate caregiving responsibilities continue to shape the entrepreneurial journey for many. But despite these obstacles, women are constantly showing up and showing the world what leadership can and should be.
Still, leadership is not about gender. It never was. Great leadership is about the ability to navigate complexity, to act with conviction in moments of ambiguity, and to lead others with clarity, care, and courage. It’s about emotional intelligence as much as strategic insight. It’s about capabilities, vision, and values.
As Renuka Jagtiani put it: “There is no ‘this is the way we do things.’ There is only what we need to do today… but it has to have a philosophy behind it.”
It’s that philosophy—the why behind the what—that’s defining the most effective leaders today. The ones who invest in people. The ones who lead with purpose, not ego. And as Sima Ganwani Ved said: “This is not about women in leadership. This is about leadership. Period.”
And as leadership continues to evolve, so too must the way we define it. It’s not who you are that matters. It’s how you lead.
