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Who decided what ambition looks like?

Poornima Luthra — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Who decided what ambition looks like?

Poornima Luthra Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

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Article at a glance

Women do not lack ambition. Dr Poornima Luthra explains that workplaces are still structured in ways that make career progression hard to sustain.

As a result, women are redefining ambition on their own terms, with many turning to entrepreneurship rather than climbing the corporate ladder.

The sheer volume of women leaving their jobs should serve as a wake-up call.
Businesses must rethink how “ambition” and “success” are defined by evaluating their workplace systems and cultures to make sure talent is not being lost due to poorly designed systems.

"Ambition” and “success” need redefining

Women do not lack ambition, as the 2025 Women in the Workplace McKinsey & Company report concludes. But there is a cost to success which has prompted many women to leave the workforce. Ambition is about growth and challenge; it's a personal driver which reflects our individuality.

A recent CNN Business report found that almost half a million women had left their jobs in the US between January and October in 2025 for reasons ranging from poor work-life balance, the cost and challenges of accessing childcare and toxic workplace cultures.

These pressures reflect a deeper structural issue: many workplaces were not designed with diverse career paths or life circumstances in mind.

As a result, many women are turning to entrepreneurship. Women are now starting nearly half of the businesses in the US, according to a recent article in Forbes magazine. A 2024 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Business Report cites the number of women-owned businesses increasing at nearly double the rate of male-owned businesses between 2019 and 2023. Choosing entrepreneurship doesn’t signal lower ambition. It often signals the opposite — ambition on one’s own terms.

When organisations fail to support diverse forms of ambition, they risk losing talented employees.

Why is this a business problem

The sheer volume of women leaving their jobs should serve as a wake-up call to business leaders. Many organisations are still largely run by men, and gender biases, both subtle and explicit, continue to shape workplace culture. When organisations fail to support diverse forms of ambition, they risk losing talented employees.

How business leaders can redefine ambition and success

We need to make both cultural and organisational changes, with a long, hard look at what ambition and success should look like. Business leaders must redefine these constructs for the workforce and next generation:

On the systems side, leaders must revisit hiring, promotion criteria, pay structures and performance evaluation. If we define ambition solely as vertical progression, we will continue to reproduce inequality and risk losing talented employees.

On the cultural side, leaders must model sustainable success. That means realistic expectations, visible boundary-setting, and rejecting the idea that heroic sacrifice equals commitment.

All leaders and team members should have the agency to challenge bias in their own teams.

Conversations about equity of opportunity must start early, in classrooms and around dining tables, as we speak to young people about success.

Before we question women’s ambition, we need to question the systems we’ve built. If the goal isn’t desirable, the cost is too high and the support isn’t there, disengagement cannot be named as a lack of ambition. It’s simply a rational response to inappropriately designed systems.

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Why the so-called “ambition gap” is really a leadership and systems failure

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Dr Poornima Luthra on advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in business and society

Shamita Harsh — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Dr Poornima Luthra on advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in business and society

Shamita Harsh Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

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Who decided what ambition looks like?

23 October 2025

Creating inclusive workplaces is no longer just a moral imperative but a business necessity. For Dr. Poornima Luthra, incoming Principal Lecturer of People, Culture & Inclusion and Deputy Head of Department (Teaching) at Imperial Business School, the challenge lies in bridging rigorous academic research with practical tools that enable organisations to foster equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

An award-winning author, speaker and educator, Dr. Luthra has spent nearly two decades building expertise in talent management and inclusive leadership across Europe and Asia. Her books Can I Say That? (2025), Leading Through Bias (2024), The Art of Active Allyship (2022) and Diversifying Diversity (2021) have positioned her as one of the foremost global voices on DEI. She is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review and a trusted advisor to global organisations including Deloitte, L’Oréal, Carlsberg, Novo Nordisk and Médecins Sans Frontières.

The School continues to strengthen the belief that the future of business leadership is deeply rooted in inclusion and Dr Luthra is excited to contribute to shaping future leaders with diverse representation and adaptability.

“I am thrilled to join Imperial Business School as it offers a dynamic environment at the forefront of global business education and research,” she says. “The School’s strong commitment to innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration and real-world impact aligns perfectly with my vision for advancing knowledge and nurturing future leaders.”

Carving a space with global recognition and impact

Dr. Luthra’s contributions to rethinking inclusion have earned her widespread recognition. In 2023, Thinkers50 named her among the world’s 30 up-and-coming management thinkers and listed her books The Art of Active Allyship and Can I Say That? among the top 10 management books of 2023 and 2025. The same year, she won the Nordic Blaze Inclusion Awards in the Trailblazer category, further underlining her impact as a thought leader shaping inclusive business practices worldwide.

As a keynote and TEDx speaker, she creates transformative learning experiences that empower individuals to recognise bias, practice allyship and embed inclusive leadership in their everyday work. Through her consultancy, TalentED, she supports organisations in making sustainable changes to culture and practice, ensuring diversity is not only celebrated but embedded in business strategy.

At Imperial, Dr. Luthra brings this global expertise into the classroom, equipping ��ý and future leaders with the skills to lead inclusively in complex, international contexts. Her work demonstrates how rigorous research, when paired with practical application, can shift organisational mindsets that enable real change.

With her mix of global perspectives and practical insight, Dr. Luthra is charting a new course for how business schools and businesses alike approach talent and inclusion in the 21st century.

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From bestselling books to keynotes to advising global organisations, Dr Luthra joins Imperial Business School to inspire the next generation of inclusive leaders

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2 minute read

Expert Q&A on EDI: “The goal is to create leaders who understand the power of inclusion,” says Dr Maria Farkas

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:07:20 +0000

Expert Q&A on EDI: “The goal is to create leaders who understand the power of inclusion,” says Dr Maria Farkas

Evie Burrows-Taylor Tue, 23/04/2024 - 14:07

24 April 2024

Senior Teaching Fellow in Diversity & Inclusion Dr Maria Farkas tells us about the challenges of incorporating equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy into organisations – and why it matters.

How did you end up specialising in EDI?

I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and everyone was white and Christian. But my family – immigrants who ate different foods, spoke another language, and felt deep ties to other parts of the world – was a bit different.

I was taught to value differences, to seek out people and experiences that would expose me to other cultures. I went to Wellesley College, one of the most diverse universities in the US, and my first boss was one of the first Black female professors at Harvard. With her, I studied post-apartheid South Africa and attempts to make business there more diverse.

What are the challenges of teaching diversity in a university?

There are several challenges at play. We have ��ý from over 100 countries, with a range of social identities, values and life experiences.

Diversity, power and privilege are often debated in the media. Yet, the lived experience of being different to those with power, the prevalence of implicit bias, and the impact of systemic bias are supported by as robust social science as anything else we teach. We can debate how to solve these issues but not the facts. Shifting the mindset from seeing diversity related topics as opinion-based to science-based can be quite challenging.

On top of this, there will always be people for whom the topic is abstract and others for whom it is their lived experience. While I want to give space to ��ý to discuss perspectives and opinions, I also need to maintain inclusive boundaries.

How do you believe EDI can strengthen businesses?

Diversity of people, of thought, of approach can be immensely valuable to organisations. If your business sees it as positive rather than potentially negative, the result is increased creativity, enthusiasm and passion. There is immense value that can be unlocked through a shift towards inclusion in mindset and culture.

What were you hoping to achieve with your award-winning “Working in Diverse Organisations” initiative?

The working world is incredibly diverse – and increasingly so. You're going to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds who have had very different life experiences and areas of expertise.

Historically, the work of managing diversity has fallen to members of marginalised groups. They did this by altering themselves to fit in. Now, many workers feel comfortable being authentic in the workplace and, as a result, diversity in the workplace is more visible, and the work of managing it belongs to the group rather than individuals.

We need a set of tools to navigate diverse environments. Our initial interpretation can be faulty because we’ve all internalised a way of understanding the world informed by stereotypes and biased representations. But we can learn to evaluate each other accurately and learn skills that enable us to listen to each other better, as well as to recognise that people can experience the same situation very differently.

What do you consider to be EDI priorities?

There’s research that shows that raising children to see racial differences, as opposed to a colourblind approach, increases their ability to acknowledge racism and pick up on it in later life.

At the Business School, we've already done a lot of great things, and, to my knowledge, “Working in Diverse Organisations” is the only obligatory EDI programme at a business school – and that is significant. The goal is to create leaders who understand the power of inclusion and have the skills to create environments that unlock the value of diversity in our workforces.

What are the main challenges of incorporating EDI principles into business?

London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, but winning hearts and minds is still one of the main challenges. Research shows significant organisational change needs strong, visible support from the top. The business world needs more senior leaders who are knowledgeable about inclusion and who are willing to make changes.

We also need to trust our first reactions and judgments less. Our instincts can often lead us to make biased decisions, whether regarding people, risk management or financial decisions. We all need to learn to be led by data and evidence.

Do you feel optimistic about the future of business?

Across the business world, things are very different compared to 20 years ago. I think things are improving and, hopefully, influencing a percentage of future business leaders to behave a little bit differently will have an impact. I feel so enthused and happy that I work somewhere that has given every student the opportunity to learn about diversity in the workplace.

The level of passion I had when I started my career has only grown. It’s magnified by having a biracial child, and by interacting with ��ý who are refugees, or first-generation university ��ý, or who identify as LGTBQIA+. I’m reminded that the human cost of not figuring this out is immense, and I'm grateful and happy that I get to do the work.

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Leading EDI through education: challenges to systemically changing mindsets

Tackling discrimination in business and society requires us to change the ways we define difference in education, from the day a child enters primary school to the day they complete their postgraduate degree

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