In the opening session, Jennie Chua (left), chief corporate officer of CapitaLand, said that the issue of gender had never been a factor in her career. The implication was clear – the minute you start to think of it, it becomes a handicap.
Chua, who rose to fame when she became general manager of the Raffles Hotel, also said it was the hotel “that made me” and as such, it was important to pick the right opportunity “that will make you”.
The “moment of truth” in her career came when, at 39, she decided to leave “government service” – she was with the then-Singapore Tourism Board – for the private sector, joining Westin at the time.
That decision opened up a new path for her which would eventually see her rise to CEO of Raffles Hotels & Resorts and onto CapitaLand. Pretty inspiring, really, for a woman who made quite a late career switch.
Her best advice? “Don’t overstay.”
Louise Daley (below), CEO of Accor Advantage Plus, believes it’s not from a lack of oppportunity that there are few women in the top ranks of hotel companies, rather it’s “lack of visibility”.
She urged women to “put your hand up”. She said that often when a woman was offered an opportunity, she’d say no even if she had nine of 10 qualities needed to fulfill that role. Men, on the other hand, were more gung-ho and would say yes even if they only had five out of the 10 attributes.
She called on women to have a bigger risk appetite. She shared two learning points from a book she’s reading. “Boys compete, girls cooperate” and “Men are decisive, women are bossy.”
The first led to women being more collaborative and thus not wanting to display too much ambition and aggression. “It is ok, make ambition your friend,” she said, “it’s okay to be aggressive despite our natural tendency to nurture.”
She said women needed to have self-belief – that they can be mentors instead of always being the ones mentored – and focus. “We always pride ourselves in multi-tasking but this will limit you.”
“Use whatever you’ve got and develop what you haven’t – perception is everything,” said Daley who is the only woman on the executive committee of Accor Asia Pacific.
Melissa Yang, co-founder and CTO of Tujia, the vacation rental website in China, also said she’d never felt disadvantaged as a woman in her chosen field. Alone, maybe, but not disadvantaged.
When she was working in the technology team at Expedia in the US, she recalled she was the only woman in the team of 20. “It can be a bit lonely.”
After seven years in the US, she returned to China, after the company she worked for, Escapia, was bought by Homeaway, first to join Microsoft and then, to co-launch Tujia.
In a country where many women are entrepreneurs, Yang said women in China were also the decision-makers when it came to making travel decisions.
She said however there were few women in travel technology. “Few women want to study engineering.” Yang wanted to study literature herself but chose engineering “because it is more practical”.
Aliza Knox (below), managing director, commerce for Google Asia Pacific and who runs the Women Leadership programme for Google, acknowledged the lack of women in technology which is why the company runs several programmes to encourage women involvement.
For example, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology where women get to engage in computing and tech and find role models and leaders or the Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day.
She said it was important more women were involved in travel technology “because we are missing a huge part of the workforce”.
She quoted Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president at Google: “With stiff competition and fast product cycles, there’s not enough room to be gender-biased.”
The belief is with technology playing such a dominant role in the world today, there needs to be more gender equality in how problems are solved.
“We now have men using technology to solve problems of the world but women are better positioned to solve women problems,” said Yang, who said she’d like to see more women take up math and engineering in schools in China.
