We are so happy to welcome our new Associate Managing Director Richa Agarwal!
As a committed social entrepreneur, Richa has worked at the intersection of the global apparel industry, education and human development and has led global teams for various organizations including fashion companies, international NGOs and foundations. At the BF+DA, she aims to fuse her design and engineering background to catalyze cultural change so business value is measured by a triple-bottom line benefiting all stakeholders.
As CEO & Founder of Global Shokunin, a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute as well as a Pratt Net Impact Adviser, Richa has had leadership roles that range from her work at Polo Ralph Lauren and Eileen Fisher to the Gates Foundation, NYC Braintrust and World Economic Forum.
We caught up with Richa to learn more about her views of the fashion industry, sustainable business models that work and how tech is factoring into the apparel equation. Here’s what she had to say:
You’ve spent years at the intersection of the global apparel industry and international development, in terms of entrepreneurship, how would you rate the current international climate?
We are living in a world of fantastic dichotomy at a time of hyper change and technological advances. While the international political climate is turning nationalistic and inwards, there are many opportunities arising from the environmental and social issues around the world. Entrepreneurs and businesses are uniquely poised to solving problems and I see tremendous hope in entrepreneurs that are launching businesses to solve some of world’s toughest challenges. I am seeing both innovative products and business models emerging that are creating a paradigm shift in the traditional one dimensional value-creation approach.
Where do you see opportunities for sustainable businesses?
Globally, business success is pegged to creation of financial-value and executive compensation is tied to stock market indices aka a company’s financial performance. If compensation could be tied to the triple bottom line (people, planet and profit) metrics, we can really move the dial on sustainability. Effective employee engagement is necessary by aligning individual performance metrics to a company’s sustainability goals at a very fundamental level. If companies empower employees to make decisions that incorporate a holistic definition of long-term value creation, they can capitalize on untapped potential and innovation that can emerge from every team and business unit.
