Women With Impact #30 - Rodria Laline
Welcome back to Women With Impact, a newsletter all about the journeys of mission-driven women and how they have a positive impact in our world.
I’m Clara Richter and this is the 30th edition of Women With Impact. If you enjoy this issue, please share it with a friend and like it above.
For this edition, I interviewed Professor Rodria Laline, Founding Director of IMDBOND, who is based in the Netherlands. Her company provides board advisory services, constructing and executing risk-weighted and impact-weighted business strategies for corporations across industries, and prestigious academic institutions like INSEAD and Harvard. Rodria holds a doctoral degree in chemical physics and lectures on key topics in governance and strategic management. As an IMD alumna, she holds several board memberships.
Wishing you a pleasant read!
Best,
Clara
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The Journey
Who are you and how do you spend your time?
My name is Rodria Laline. I was born in Indonesia. Being raised in the West with a degree in molecular chemistry and quantum physics made it possible to live, work, and travel with family and friends all over the world. I am married, have two children and two grandchildren. At present, I am a founding director of IMDBOND and an alumna of IMD Switzerland.
Through various board positions including leading global research and development collaborations with renowned companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle Corporation, ING Bank, KPN, Elsevier, Groupe BULL, Siemens, and Philips, I served various industries and eventually became a professor in governance and strategic management.
What do you think is most important in creating positive change?
Positive change is the result of effective game-changing leadership reflecting on the new sense of urgency and intensity in the face of geopolitical uncertainties and changing capital markets, responding to the dilemmas in governance such as climate change, social inequality, the food -and energy crises, poverty and the rising populism sweeping the globe. It is positive change in a world that transforms.
The present organisational transition in culture, purpose, decision-making, and beliefs and values have often been too much internalised in stone. We need women with the courage to lead a potential 4th fiduciary duty in considering whose interest will be considered, taking responsibility for an impact-weighted accounts framework related to long-term DEI and sustainability policies.
It is high time to better align the activities of corporations with society’s interest in building a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economy. Courses at Harvard emphasise organisational transitions with agreed shared values, shared purpose, and rules of engagement fostering innovation, crafting measurable high impact solutions and capabilities with integrity towards the goal.
What is a recent success of which you are proud?
I felt so happy and so lucky when asked to help in establishing and onboarding the ABN AMRO Future Generations Board (FGB). Introducing sustainability at the heart of strategy. Future generations of the ABN AMRO Bank acting as stakeholders.
The Future Generations Board has been established since the 30th of January 2023. With this board, ABN AMRO Bank wants to give greater weight to the interests of future generations in decision-making and further anchor its purpose in the organisation: “Banking for better, for Generations to come”.
The Future Generations Board is an initiative from younger employees with the desire to give the bank’s purpose more meaning and make long-term thinking the norm. Until now, future generations had no place at the table. That is why it was important to create both structures and a culture in which their interests are considered. The Executive Board of ABN AMRO Bank recognises this importance and supports the initiative. In addition to ABN AMRO's current four stakeholders - the customer, the employee, the society, and investors - there will now be a fifth stakeholder: future generations.
The financial sector plays a key role in the EU CSRD, accelerating ESG and sustainable impact investing. The financial sector inspires in this context the next generation by becoming a good steward leader. By providing access to capital, incorporating ESG criteria in investment decisions, offering ESG-themed investment products, raising awareness and education, advocating for policy change, and leading by example, the financial sector can help to promote Integrative Thinking in this area.
The Lessons
What has been the most rewarding experience on your journey?
With over three decades of global executive director hands-on experience, it has been most rewarding to lead across borders, cultures, and industries, uniting minds, igniting growth and innovation. My journey is a professional odyssey that has spanned continents, from Asia's vibrant tapestry (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, India) and large petroleum regions (Kuwait, Nigeria) to the heart of innovation in the West (North America, Spain, Netherlands).
Every international adventure, every encounter with different cultures and people has contributed to the mosaic of my existence. These experiences have fueled knowledge, opened my mind to new perspectives and nurtured a deep appreciation for the beauty of our world's diversity. I am both humbled and inspired by the opportunity to explore unknown territories, both geographically and intellectually.
What's a challenge you have encountered most often and how did you tackle it?
Navigating uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity in a transformative era requires a risk-driven strategy implementation that is well balanced with an impact-driven growth and performance in an ever-changing world; a world marked by global governance challenges, the changing role of powerful stakeholders, the rapid pace of technology and innovation. A challenge that manifests itself in a different guise every time. It needs improvisation, surprise, incrementalism, and pragmatism. It needs a view on the mixing and the legitimising of values while working in twenty countries and sixteen cultures. It needs a firm personal view on long term sustainable value creation, social dynamics, and all kinds of imperatives that change the capitalistic system in an age of productive incoherence.
What is the best advice you have been given recently?
Probably easier said than done, however here a few remarks:
Lead from the balcony and the dance floor. Be an empowered woman on multiple dimensions: economically, psychologically, socially, and politically.
Start on the strength of your capabilities, face the pushback in negotiating your income, become financially more literate, and financially independent.
Understand the pillars of board effectiveness. There is a set of critical skills leaders need to win. Deploy the leadership quadrants model in creating synergies in board dynamics.
Be skilled in fostering collaboration, building cohesive teams, creating an inclusive work culture. Foster a culture of learning encouraging employees to grow, adapt, and innovate.
Manage change, inspiring and supporting teams during transitions, effectively communicating benefits and goals of change initiatives; demonstrate adaptability and flexibility.
Have a clear vision for the future and the ability to inspire and motivate others towards that vision with a shared purpose, inspiring shared value, commitment, and engagement.
Create strategic alliances and partnerships.
The Inspiration
What resource do you think more people should make use of?
There are various ways to learn. But the most effective one is by being a producer as well as a consumer of knowledge. As a producer, I created my own music group and big band seeking talent and asking friends to join me. I also approached wealthy people in my network to fund part of the transportation and purchase of musical instruments. As a consumer, I go online, watch events and music concerts, to update my skills and capabilities playing in the orchestra. Likewise, as a professor of practice I am a producer and give lectures in governance and strategic management, learn while teaching, and visit events and networks in the world to exchange views. As a consumer, I am a non-executive director required to obtain Permanent Education points in the government lifelong learning programme.
Who inspires you?
Many people are inspiring me. Each of them for a particular chapter in my life. I am inspired by Harvard professors Lynn Paine, Lynda Applegate, and Linda Hill. And here some books that I have short-listed:
“The Power of Money” by Paul Sheard (Matt Holt Books, 2023)
“High Performance Boards” by Didier Cossin (John Whiley, 2020)
“The Lonely Century” by Norella Hertz (Sceptre Books, 2021)
“When things don’t fall apart” by Ilene Grabel (MIT Press, 2018)
“The Globalization Paradox” by Dani Rodrik (Oxford Press, 2012)
Enjoyed this or have any feedback? Let me know in the comments!
If you know someone who fits my mission and should absolutely be featured on Women With Impact, please nominate them here.