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Globalization of world economies, robust collaboration, and a dynamic socio-economic environment have dissolved boundaries long ago. Beside these, it has been encouraging innovation and creating leaders furthering development. The who’s who from different nations and their respective industries attended the ‘Leaders Without Borders’, Annual Summit 2024 London making it one of the most important business events of the year.
World leaders inspire the world with their persona, attitude, and success. Their presence across nations influences people and economies through well-strategized projects. Besides that, it also paves the way for exchanging ideas, skills, and expertise, and provides international opportunities to regional potential. Leaders can upgrade society by increasing their exposure to knowledge, and better opportunities, and creating a support system that gives them the liberty to exercise their skills and get rewarded for it.
Leaders Without Borders’ 2024 edition brought 100 Influential Global Voices of 2023/2024 together who have made their marks globally across different sectors like as business, technology, arts, politics, and others.
Inspiring Generations and Creating Leaders from Laymen
The charisma of leadership has a profound impact on people, especially on ambitious individuals. In 2019, David Bladow, Co-Founder of BloomThat, told Entrepreneur that Elon Musk highly inspired him to “think bigger.”
World leaders and entrepreneurs whom we celebrate are some of the brilliant examples of ‘dream come true’ cases – common individuals rising to glory with their innovations, winning ideas, and exceptional merits. Take the success stories of Oprah Winfrey, Dhirubhai Ambani, Jeff Bezos, and several other eminent leaders who rose to prominence despite their odds. People can identify and associate themselves with their struggles; the fact that these leaders became successful gives them hope that they can even be successful and create a brilliant fortune.
The Changemakers: Leaders Without Borders
The feeds that you receive about world leaders’ achievements, their life stories, and the like; do they belong to your nation or are you familiar with your surroundings? Maybe not all of them, but you highly resonate with their ideologies and achievements.
Jeff Bezos
There is hardly anyone who doesn’t know him – the man who started an e-commerce company (an online bookstore then) from a rented garage that went on to redefine consumer experience and rank as one of our favorites. It wasn’t an overnight thought and work. Bezos grew up with a scientific temperament and nurtured it dedicatedly which played a crucial part in his exemplary success. Interestingly, Bezos said that humans will “colonize space” way back in 1982, in his high-school graduation speech. Later, he majored in Physics at Princeton University but then changed to study electrical engineering and computer science. His keen eye for emerging trends and ability to predict market inclination made him see the worth of an online store. He started his online bookstore – Amazon and the rest is history.
Currently, it has 500 solar and wind projects across the world – in the US, Canada, Spain, Sweden, the UK, India, South Korea, and Brazil to name a few. These projects created huge employment opportunities and boosted the economies. Besides that, it encouraged sustainability through extraordinary leadership and created space for more significant transformations. Thoughtful leadership is a dynamic force, and Bezos is a brilliant leader who embodies the spirit of transformational leadership.
Oprah Winfrey
Seen as one of the most influential women in the world, Oprah Winfrey is a household role model, irrespective of their gender. Her wit, phenomenal grit, and captivating persona have enchanted her and she continues to mesmerize us with her boldness and brilliance. The American television talk show host and actress turned entrepreneur Winfrey was born to a teenage mother in a financially challenged household. She became a victim of molestation during her childhood and early teenage. Oprah Winfrey became a mother to a premature child when she was only 14 years old, but her son couldn’t survive infancy. After that, she moved to her father’s home (Vernon Winfrey, a barber in Nashville, Tennessee, and took admission to a high school. That was the first time she got a job in radio, and by the time she turned 19 years old, she had become a co-host for the evening news. Her experience with life and nature added her signature to the talk shows that were personal and graceful, something that etched into audiences' hearts for years.
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Oprah Winfrey co-founded Oxygen Media in 1998; it launched a cable television network for women named Oprah Winfrey Network. Later, in 2006, she launched her radio channel – Oprah & Friends, and in 2008, she partnered with Discovery Communications, and the Oprah Winfrey Network replaced Discovery Health Channel after two years. In 2017, Discovery increased its majority share in Oprah’s cable TV network. However, Winfrey continued her involvement with the channel besides expanding her engagements in different organizations – as a special correspondent for 60Minutes and content producer for Apple TV+ steaming service – Oprah Talks Covid-19. The talk show created waves with thought-provoking and straight conversations on burning issues.
Besides her significant involvement in media, her philanthropic activities have won hearts, too. It’s Oprah’s Angel Network funds charitable works across the globe. She has been proactively involved in girls’ education, vehemently protesting against child abuse and other injustices. Her perennial initiatives have made the world recognize her and honor her with awards and accolades from organizations representing the civic, philanthropic, and entertainment sectors.
Michel Obama
Former First Lady of the United States, an American attorney, an Assistant to the Mayor, an Assistant Commissioner of Planning & Development, former Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, Executive Director for Community Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals turned Vice-President for Community & External Affairs, an author and a proactive social worker, she has several precious feathers in her exotic hat. Michelle Obama is a name to reckon with, a graceful persona inspiring and reassuring every time. Her words and conversations make a profound impact and have touched millions of lives through her work.
Michelle Obama represents a true picture of an independent and indomitable woman, a pillar of strength for her family and a perennial source of inspiration that transcends boundaries. Obama continues to expand to different terrains and win accolades. In 2020, she won the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for ‘Becoming.’ In 2020, she started her podcast “The Michelle Obama Podcast,” the next year she became the executive producer and presenter of the children’s cook show – “Waffles & Mochi;” which won two Children’s and Family Emmy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Awards, made guest appearances on television shows, produced a documentary and biographical drama. She has several jewels adorning her self-made crown that inspire people to follow her example and design their lives accordingly.
Indra Nooyi
Born into a Hindu Tamil family (in Chennai, which was then Madras), Tamil Nadu, India, Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, grew up in an encouraging environment, that built her confidence right from a very tender age. Nooyi’s mother was particularly very cautious about strengthening her daughters’ mettle (herself and her sister Chandrika Krishnamurthy) and their confidence and prepared them for esteemed positions and larger roles.
After earning her Bachelor’s degrees in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics from the University of Madras, she pursued a Post-Graduate Diploma Programme from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta before moving to the United States for studying a Master's degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management in 1980. Nooyi began her career as a Product Manager at Jhonson & Jhonson and held several notable positions at top companies before joining PepsiCo in 1994. After a few years, she replaced Steven Reinemund as PepsiCO CEO. The change of leadership happened in the year 2006.
Indra Nooyi’s tenure at PepsiCo has been one of the most eventful tenures, not just for her career but for the entire business fraternity. PepsiCo rose to newer heights with several strategic acquisitions and mergers. She has been named among the topmost business leaders and influential people time and again by Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Time, and Fortune, to name a few. Indra Nooyi has been graced with some of the honours of the highest order by prestigious universities from across the world and with Padma Bhushan by the Government of India. Her grit, proactive, and decisiveness have set higher benchmarks for aspiring leaders across the world alike.
Sundar Pichai
The world learns from Google, and who runs Google? Pichai Sundarajan represents ambition and grit behind the glitz that can make anything happen. Better known as Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO was a meritorious student and brilliantly shaped his career toward one of the most important offices that he holds today. Currently the CEO of Alphabet and Google, he joined the tech giant in 2004 to lead its product management and innovation initiatives that led to the formation of Google Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Drive, and then Gmail, and Google Maps, launched the Chromebook, VP8, and added Android as a Google product.
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In August 2015, Pichai became Google’s next CEO and in October (of the same year) he was made the CEO of Alphabet. He currently holds the same positions and has been a transformative force behind Google’s developments. Recently, the tech giant decided to move some of Google’s roles to Mexico and India ushering a series of developmental changes and opportunities.
Been There and Seen That
Leaders act as crucial transformative forces, identifying opportunities and aligning suitable talents to make the most of them. Globalization and inspiring tides of development have been encouraging ambitious people across the globe. Events like Leaders Without Borders, Annual Business Summit 2024 plays a pivotal role in dispersing the ethos of leadership and consequential effects on different sectors.
Prof. (Dr.) Sanjib Chakraborty, Founder & CEO of the Asian College of Teachers, was one of the dignitaries to take part in the summit. Let’s walk through his experience of the event where the world leaders met.
Question 1: How long have you been participating in the Leaders Without Borders, Annual Business Summit?
Response: For a pretty long time; 11th year to be precise. Earlier it had a different name.
Question 2: What did you expect from the event?
Response: It’s a great place for meeting leaders from all over the world. It’s held every year focusing mostly on leaders from Africa and the Middle-East countries, most participants and guests of honours are from that region. It’s not a typical, open-to-all conference where speakers speak on certain topics but the idea is to connect with people, do business networking, and talk about different practices in the different countries. The organizers ensure the participants have enough time to know and have quality interaction with each other. I have been attending this business summit for a long time, hence I am thoroughly aware of its features and what to practically expect from it. I wanted to meet the leaders, discuss industries, and get interesting updates. I met leaders from different corners of the world and talked at length about the industries where they are operating and how they have been transforming. This summit is one of a kind.
Question 3: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every sector and pushed the leaders to adapt to different survival and sustainable strategies. How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect leadership?
Response: The summit had leaders from several sectors; not just education. The pandemic did not have as bad an effect on the education sector as it had on hospitality and real estate. The latter suffered the worst of blows because there were no investments at that time. Education shifted from classrooms to online mode. When this summit was held immediately after the pandemic we did discuss at length, how the leaders coped with the situation, which industry was affected the most, and the best practices that they tried to have in place.
Question 4: How far has the education sector recovered from the pandemic effects?
Response: As I said before, the education sector was not affected that much; only the classrooms were empty but online education filled the gap and quickly became the best possible alternative for classroom education. The students and teachers easily adapted to online education and ever since then there has been no looking back. Education got much better than what it used to be. The business too flourished henceforth. The sad news was the campuses; a lot of them gave up their campuses because it got very difficult to impossible to maintain the costs involved with maintaining campuses. However, there wasn’t any dip in revenue. There are organizations and vocational institutions that started earning a lot more during COVID because a lot of people took a break and used that time to study online. The education industry, in fact, experienced a boom at that time.
Question 5: Since the Asian College of Teachers plays a pivotal role in training the workforce of the future, and the pandemic did challenge certain workplace practices, what modifications did you bring in your programs to ensure edge and flexibility for such situations if there are any?
Response: We adapted several fresh approaches to meet the challenges. The first thing we modified was our methods of delivery – from face-to-face, classroom sessions to online sessions. We also fine-tuned the feedback mechanism and impact mechanism to improve learning outcomes. With every passing day, during the pandemic, we adapted new techniques – to engage, evaluate and ensure quality learning. That phase was an opportunity to evolve. I don’t say that I don’t welcome the pandemic for changes but I do welcome the positive outcomes.
Question 6: What are you taking home from this summit?
Response: It’s a great event to know what others are doing across the world, what’s working for them, and some of the best practices. I did reflect on a lot of things; plan and prepare and see what is that you can come up with. This kind of summit presents you the opportunity to meet people and know what is going around the world. I would say that a lot of knowledge and lot of ideas, out-of-the-box thoughts. Then when you consolidate them, you will get a lot of fresh perspectives to work on.
Content Disclaimar
The content is intended to reflect the diversifying and widening reach of world leaders to influence, inspire and encourage the masses beyond the geographical periphery. Prof. (Dr.) Sanjib Chakraborty, Founder & CEO of the Asian College of Teachers, shares his personal experience of attending the prestigious Leaders Without Borders, Annual Business Summit, 2024 which further enrich this article's perspective.