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Background:
In 2017, Vanessa Kingori became British Vogue’s first female publishing director. Since then, she has become a mother, received an MBE and stepped into the additional role of chief business officer of Condé Nast Britain.
At BoF VOICES 2021, Kingori shared her leadership lessons with Mory Fontanez, purpose and intuition coach and founder of consultancy 822 Group. They discussed the importance of trusting intuition in the workplace to bolster data-driven decisions while also challenging conformity to allow for creativity.
“With the wonderful thing that is hindsight, I’ve realised it’s okay to be intuitive,” said Kingori. “It’s actually great to lean into your differences rather than try to push to assimilate too much.”
Key Insights:
- Throughout her life, Kingori has leaned into being a newcomer, “I think I’ve been extremely fortunate in that I have lived a life where I am used to being an outsider. I’ve been in an organisation now for over 12 years and in every single facet of my work at Condé Nast, I’ve been the outsider,” Kingori says.
- For Kingori, being different has not only been personally beneficial, but also forms part of her business philosophy. “I think conformity is the enemy of progress and creativity in business. It’s completely strange that we’re all sort of desperately trying to belong to a tribe, think the same, and all of those things.”
- Intuition is a cornerstone of Kingori’s leadership philosophy. “Let your intuition be the starting point. Intuition is about a subconscious understanding of something, but that subconscious understanding comes from somewhere. It’s not magic… It’s that you have experienced or observed something that underpins a strong belief,” she says.
BoF VOICES, our annual gathering for big thinkers, returns from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30, 2023. The entire event will be livestreamed for BoF Professional All-Access members. Register now to join us.
Additional Resources:
- Power Moves | Vanessa Kingori’s New Role at Condé Nast, Everlane’s Founder Leaves CEO Role: Kingori has been named chief business officer of Condé Nast and Michael Preysman will transition to a sustainability-focused position at Everlane.
- Vanessa Kingori’s Commercial Reboot of British Vogue: The executive has been named Condé Nast Britain’s chief business officer for style after helping to achieve ‘unprecedented revenue growth’ at the fashion title.
- The September Issue Gets an Overdue Makeover: For years, magazines disproportionately relied on white mega-celebrities to sell the most important issue of the year to advertisers. Now, they’re responding to readers who want more diversity by featuring women of colour and independent brands. Will the shift pay off?
