Journal
Insights on future ready leadership, the economics of justice, systemic innovation, and equity by design.
Who Said It? | Who Is? | What Is? | Did You Know? | Systems in Practice | Signals and Reflections
"You wouldn't need charity if the world was just."
“You wouldn’t need charity if the world was just.”
Charity matters, but justice matters more. What if the real work of leadership isn’t simply giving back, but redesigning the systems that create inequality in the first place?
Who is Rebecca Solnit?
The essayist who turns observation into action, Rebecca Solnit shows how stories can become tools for change — reminding us that “hope is not a lottery ticket, it’s an axe.”
Discover why her writing continues to shape how we see power, progress, and the systems that define us.
Who is Dr. Joy Buolamwini?
Known as the poet of code, Dr Joy Buolamwini exposed the racial and gender bias hidden in facial recognition systems — and forced Big Tech to confront the coded gaze it refused to see.
Discover how her work reshaped global AI standards and why her call to “design for justice” matters far beyond technology.
Who is Antionette Carroll, M.A. ?
What if design wasn’t just about solving problems, but about shifting power?
Through her Equity-Centred Community Design (ECCD™) framework, Antoinette D. Carroll redefines innovation to centre equity, justice, and lived experience — a blueprint with powerful lessons for anyone shaping systems, from policy to fintech.
What is Common Good Economics ?
Common Good Economics, championed by Professor Mariana Mazzucato, asks us to reimagine how value is created and shared — not after the fact, but from the start.
In fintech, that shift could change everything. Discover how “pre-distribution” thinking might redefine what innovation, inclusion, and impact look like in financial technology.
Who is Audrey Tang?
A teenage coder turned cabinet minister, Audrey Tang transformed Taiwan’s democracy with one radical idea — that technology should build trust, not extract attention.
Discover how her “no reply button” innovation helped turn polarisation into collaboration, and why her blueprint for digital democracy might just change the way we design fintech.
Finance is missing dignity as a design principle.
For too long, financial products have been built by and for those already inside the system, leaving many excluded by complexity, assumptions, and one-size-fits-none thinking.
Could dignity be the missing ingredient that unlocks both trust and innovation?
"Business cannot succeed in societies that fail."
Who said it? "Business cannot succeed in societies that fail." This quote hits differently in today’s world of rising costs, fractured systems, and growing inequality. It’s a timely reminder that social and environmental breakdowns aren’t distant threats, they’re business risks.
New Zealand first tackled pay equity in female-dominated jobs 50 years ago.
Did you know? New Zealand first tackled pay equity in female-dominated jobs 50 years ago, by imagining what a man would be paid to do the same work.
In 1973, unionist Graham Kelly QSO (my father-in-law) became secretary of the Wellington Shop Employees' Union and immediately faced a challenge: employers were creating new, lower-paid job classifications to defeat the intention of the Equal Pay Act 1972.
What is Intergenerational Equity?
Intergenerational equity refers to the principle of fairness between generations, ensuring that today's decisions don't compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs and enjoy similar opportunities. So, how businesses can create intergenerational impact?
False Economy: Undermining Pay Equity Creates Business Inefficiencies
The government's rush to dismantle New Zealand's pay equity framework last week wasn't just pushed through under urgency; there is broad sentiment that it was pushed through to make the budget look better.
The government claims the rushed changes to the Pay Equity Act will save “billions”, but this completely misses the bigger economic picture.
Gutting our pay equity laws isn't a triumph of fiscal responsibility; it's a budget allocation trick creating market distortions that businesses will ultimately pay for.
Do we have the courage to lead?
Do we have the courage to lead when human sense and business sense face formidable opposition?
Two years ago, I shared this Harvard Business Review article and research showing the financial consequences of politically-motivated business restrictions. Reading it again over the weekend, I was struck by how the warning is even more pertinent today than it was then.