Fashion designer Josie Natori and Tupelo Capital Management founder Lulu C. Wang offered some sage advice to Columbia Business School students Monday night in New York.
Natori, who started her career on Wall Street before launching her namesake business in 1977, and Wang headlined the “Bold Moves: Weaving Heritage and Creativity Into a Global Fashion Brand,” and chatted with students. Organized by the Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business, the discussion was cohosted by Columbia Women in Business, Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership, the Retail and Luxury Goods Club and The Hub: Business and Society.
Afterward, Wang spoke about offering advice to others. “I look at life mostly as the glass is half-full. I always say, ‘Whatever you think is a detriment to you, make it a positive.’ People say, ‘Well, how can you possibly succeed on Wall Street being an Asian woman?’ I just say, ‘I use that as an advantage,’” Wang said. “Josie and I were both saying that you can make the fact that you’re Asian, a minority business [owner] and a woman an advantage, especially in fields dominated by men. In marketing, the key word is ‘differentiation.’”
Like Natori, Wang serves on the board of the Asia Society. Wang, who earned an MBA from Columbia, is also a board member at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller University and Columbia Business School. Emphasizing the importance of believing in yourself, Wang said that if men make you feel different or inferior, you’ve lost the battle. “Confidence can be very infectious. That’s what we should pass on to young people, and it applies to any industry.”
Natori said Columbia MBA students wanted to know how she crossed over from a career in finance to creativity. Acknowledging how different the landscape is now, she noted how there are about five major stores now versus hundreds of stores, when she was starting out in business. Natori said people often want to know about her “journey” and how she managed to combine being financially minded and creative. “My point is that creativity is not just fashion. There is creativity in AI and all of this other stuff,” she said.
All in all, finding something that you love and that interests you can be one of the biggest challenges about going into business today, the designer said. “I think they all want words of encouragement to go into the business world, and [they want to know] what to expect,” she said. “And it’s important to know that how you begin is not how you end. I just want to give a dose of encouragement and to let them know that you can make mistakes. That’s OK. You can learn from that.”
Suggesting that “men in suits” are taking part in some of the key discussions about AI, including ones at the White House, Wang hopes that more women will become part of that decision-making. She said, “I really feel that the bro culture is not healthy for the economy or for our society. We need to have women at the table, when the rules are set for AI. If we leave it to the guys again, it’s going to be lopsided.”
