Leading the charge: KRDS' Sunny Johar on purpose and equality

The marketing and advertising industry is a rapidly shifting realm where emerging trends, technologies, and creative ideas come together to reshape how brands communicate with its audiences. As the landscape evolves, it’s crucial for those in agencies to stay ahead of the curve — embracing change, exploring new possibilities, and challenging the status quo.

While female leaders are steadily rising to the top, there's still much work to be done to accelerate gender equality and ensure that every voice has an opportunity to be heard. This International Women's Day, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE celebrates the voices of women who are making waves in Singapore's creative, media and advertising landscape, breaking barriers and paving the way for the future generation of leaders.

Hear from Sunny Johar, managing director at KRDS SEA, on what she has to say: 

Don't miss: International Women’s Day: What 'accelerate action' means to SG marketing leaders

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How do you define leadership, and how do you believe women bring a unique perspective to leadership roles?

Johar: Leadership to me is inspiring and elevating teams towards a shared common purpose.

Whilst leadership is gender neutral, it’s important to reflect both male and female perspectives within industries.

I feel that being empathetic helps me be a stronger and more considerate leader for my team.

MARKETING-INTEARCTIVE: What were some of the most significant challenges you've faced as a woman in the industry, and how did you overcome them?

Johar: As a woman, especially as I was fairly young when I took on my first leadership role, the biggest challenge I encountered was being able to contextualise my experience and skill sets outside my organisation. Whilst marketing tends to be women-dominated, a lot of the extremely creative technical projects KRDS does include working with tech or IT teams, which are typically male-dominated, if not male-exclusive. Coming from a background where I learnt tech on the job, this was an unexpected challenge to navigate.

Within my own organisation, it was a proud moment for me to be appointed the first female director back in 2020. Given the heavy tech emphasis of our day-to-day work at KRDS, somehow not any women had managed to previously reach this level.

MARKETING-INTEARCTIVE: What is one bold step you are hoping to take to 'accelerate action' in the industry?

Johar: As a leader, I aim to create an environment for the next generation of marketers to be able to thrive regardless of gender. I love to equalise opportunities across all functions, especially as content becomes commoditised and creative digital work relies increasingly on having a sound technical knowledge. By setting up training programmes for marketing teams by tech teams, I aim to create a workforce that can deliver cutting edge digital solutions.

MARKETING-INTEARCTIVE: What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry who want to make a meaningful impact and stand out?

Johar: 

If you can dream it, you can do it. Don’t let anything or anyone hold you back.

Join us this coming 23 - 24 April for #Content360, a two-day extravaganza centered around three core thematic pillars: Challenging The Norm; Technology For Transformation; and Unlocking Imagination. Immerse yourself in learning to curate content with creativity, critical thinking, and confidence with us at Content360!

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