.png)
SheCanCode's Spilling The T
SheCanCode's Spilling The T
Leadership unlocked: Tips and insights
In this inspiring conversation, we sit down with Annika Bizon - newly appointed Vice President of Product & Marketing for Samsung’s Mobile Experience division in the UK & Ireland - to explore how bold female leadership is reshaping the tech landscape. Annika opens up about her rapid rise inside Samsung and the strategic vision she’s driving across the Galaxy ecosystem. She shares candid stories of breaking through industry barriers, the lessons that fuel her mentorship work with Women@Samsung, and why true diversity is now an essential business metric, not a “nice‑to‑have.”
We also dive into the state of gender equality in tech—what’s improved, what hasn’t, and the concrete steps companies can take to widen the talent pipeline. Finally, Annika lays out Samsung’s roadmap for AI‑powered innovation and explains how smarter, more democratic technologies can empower users from every background.
SheCanCode is a collaborative community of women in tech working together to tackle the tech gender gap.
Join our community to find a supportive network, opportunities, guidance and jobs, so you can excel in your tech career.
Hello everyone, thank you for tuning in again. I'm Kayleigh Bateman, the Managing Director of Community and Partnerships at Sheikank. And today we are discussing leadership tips and insights. With me today, I've got the incredible Anika Bison, newly appointed vice president of product and marketing for Samsung's Mobile Experience Division in the UK and Ireland. And she's here today to explore how bold female leadership is reshaping the tech landscape. Welcome, Anika. Thank you so much for coming on and chatting with us on Spilling the Tea.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00:It is lovely to have you on here. I have so many questions that I want to ask you, but can we get started with a bit of background about you to set the scene for our uh listeners?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I mean, I'll start let's start with the family side of it because that's actually then we'll talk about work. So I'm a mother of two. Um I have uh two girls who are both fast expressing their way into teenage years, although they think they're about 20 already. Um so I'm a mother of two. I have um worked most of my life was actually for media companies. So I work for 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures in various roles from sales through to marketing through to sort of um uh commercial leads. Um, and then moved across into 3Mobile, um, worked for 3Mobile for probably through the pandemic for roughly 18 months, two years, and then now I'm at Samsung. I joined as Omnichannel director, was then promoted to head up marketing as well, and all of our sort of full-rounded contact centres, etc. And now I look after the product as well. So product marketing and um omnichannel.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing. And what about um your route into tech? What was that like? Were were you that yourself? Were you that teenager that was kind of like, this is what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go into tech, I'm gonna take computer science, or were you one of those people that just fell into your career and then fell into tech? And it's the best thing that's ever happened to you.
SPEAKER_01:I always loved storytelling. So my career started, hence why I worked for sort of in the movie business for quite a long time and TV business, because I loved creative storytelling. I loved how you could tell a story and how that resonated with with everybody, you know, whether you sat around a dinner table or you're watching a movie or you're learning about a movie. And I'm but I'm not a create, I'm not a creative storyteller. I'm not someone who's writing story, uh writing movies. So I went into the commercial side of it. So actually, how do you tell us, how do you make something mass market when no one knows about it? And then at the same time, through that journey, I learned how many different consumers you're talking to, how many different people you're talking to, and how you can have different conversations with those people and how entertainment particularly started and spurred a new conversation again, around a dinner table or in a boardroom. Um that then led me, I was at 20th Century Fox when the obviously mass transition of the Walt Disney Company bought uh Fox. And I decided at that point, well, I was lucky enough to be offered an opportunity in technology. And I thought, you know what, at that point, that stage, there was a whole transition around driverless cars. So we were talking to a major operator around what do you do if you're not driving a car? Well, actually, probably watching content. So I'd spent a lot of time with that operator and I'd realized that, you know, with the transition from, you know, I worked in DVDs, Blu-rays, then on to digital platforms that, you know, tech 20 years ago no one had ever heard of, and Netflix, it was just not non-existent. I could see technology and how this, how these two things came together. So I was quite fascinated by technology and the rapid advancement of technology. But then I got to the point where, you know, obviously I went to work for a mobile operator, got to see it from the other side and understand how passionate people were about technology, and then had this great opportunity at Samsung to come and head up their Omnichannel journey, which is how do you link the whole customer journey together so people could understand? You know what? You know, we I go back to the fact that you have 12 different behaviours before you buy a product, and actually they could be going into store, it could be on social, it could be YouTube, it could be through our dot com site. How do we make that a consistent journey? And that fascinates me. So it's more about customers than it is necessarily just about technology. It's what what are people doing and how can I understand that behavior more to make it better?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I love that because so many people in our community they think that to come into tech, you have to be techie, you have to know how to code, you have to take a techie route. That's why this podcast was started to talk to lots of people in lots of different roles about what it's actually like to work in the tech industry and that you don't have to be that technical software developer, engineer, um, to work in tech. So it's always great when people share what motivated them to come in and how they can, how you can transfer skills that you've had in other industries as well that just seamlessly move into the tech industry and you can still be really successful in that way.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's the key thing. Everyone talks about technology around you've got to understand all the no, you don't. You've got to be able to, from my job, I've got to be able to communicate the benefits of technology to someone who who is not necessarily thinking and reading every single blog and every single bit around the new technologies that are coming to market. And a good example of that is, you know, AI. You know, we have recently launched the, you know, we we launched uh 18 months ago AI to our consumers in the UK. AI can mean lots of different things to different people, but how do we make that simple and straightforward so that you can understand actually that circle to search, for example? Circle to search, a really simple feature that makes sense to people because they use it. And actually, you can take some of the dauntingness away from technology and make it quite straightforward. So for me, it's about taking this big, these big incredible technological evolutions, simplifying them so they make sense, so they make your life better.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and the importance of the soft skills needed for that. It's the the techie skills that people worry about coming into tech, where actually your job is more about communication, lots of soft skills, managing upwards, downwards as well, and all of those things that come with leadership. Um it's almost uh we say this on it regularly that the tech industry has this terrible PR problem where people think I have to be techies, come in and that's all I need to know. And then actually, when they do land in here and they meet people like yourselves, they hear about your story. Um, that they that actually there are lots of soft skills and they're actually important as well than those technical skills that you think you have to have.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you think about think about you know, the biggest part of the business I run is mobile, right? So if you think about how much time you spend with your mobile and what you use your mobile phone for, you know, truthfully, you probably spend more time with your phone than you do with most of your friends or your partner because it's generally attached to most people's hands on on an everyday basis. Well, you want to know that, you know, what does the camera do? And you don't need to know how some people want to know every single megapixel and every single thing it can do. But truthfully, most people want to know that the camera is is good enough that it does the things that they need it to do, or the battery works long enough to do the things that they need it to do, or that the that it's got enough memory on it that it can do the things it needs to do, and then you layer on top of that things like AI or all the other great things that come with technology. My job is to make that simple and make it make sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes, I love that. Um and congratulations on your new role as well. Thank you. Um what about what strategic priorities are you most excited to champion as the vice president of product and marketing for Samsung's mobile experience uh in the UK and Ireland? What what are you most excited about?
SPEAKER_01:So I as I mentioned earlier, I'm so excited about where we're going with AI. You know, we've got 400 uh 400 million people, devices in the world at the moment by the end of 2025 that people are going to be using for AI on a regular basis. Now, that's quite exciting. That's a whole new transition of how people behave. And my job is to make sure, firstly, that we show the benefits of using AI in people's time, because AI, when it comes to mobile, is about how do we give you back time and use technology to take away kind of the mundane and make you faster and more efficient. Then there's another sort of side of that, which is health AI. And for me, I'm so on. I was recently speaking in Cannes about this. Health AI is such an exciting space that Samsung are in when it comes to things like preventative health, when it comes to understanding how your body is working and how you can bring lots of pieces of data together around through your wearable device through to some health app, all of those things coming together, it's it's such an exciting space to be in. And my job again is to make sure that that is simplified as much as it can be to the consumer so they understand what technology can how it can help them in their way, the way they want to use it.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I love that. And I see one of the great things about working in tech as well, that there are there's just so much innovation and development. If you're in the right company and lots of new things are happening, you're just always going to be learning something new in technology and moving forward as well, which is always the theory.
SPEAKER_01:It's the bit that makes you get up in the morning. It's like, I didn't believe technology could do that. You know, when I look at it and go, I, you know, I'm personally on a journey where I you know I don't get enough sleep, no one does. But understanding what kind of sleep I should be getting, and I can do that through my energy score on my watch, or understanding, okay, do you know what actually I've been I've been measuring recently my cartoon's antioxidants and understanding actually I probably need to eat a bit more vegetable because that's popping up as part of my carotenoid levels are a little bit low. Those sorts of tips, not big people think sometimes it's got to tell you everything and give you, it gives you little tweaks to say, you know what, change your life slightly because deep sleep is more important. It doesn't matter sometimes how many hours you get, it's the deep sleep. I'm I'm obsessed with data and I love the fact that I work for a company that gives me some of these tools that then I can get passionate about and hopefully other people will with me. So AI is a very big, it's a big um focus area for me.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and uh, it's such a buzzword at the moment as well. Again, another area where a lot of people working in that area um or who want to work in that area can feel quite intimidated by the jargon and the buzzwords around it, and then actually, like yourself, when people just break it down, a lot of it is how you can break it down for customers to be more simple. Um, but again, with the PR issue, we have such a PR issue in tech. Everything is meant to be complicated and technical.
SPEAKER_01:You're absolutely right. I mean, I look at it and go, you know what, but AI is a big banner, right? It's a big banner for lots of things. AI in medicine compared to AI in mobile or AI in um there's so many different, you know, what I'm using in marketing is AI tools, but they're all so different. But AI is a banner, and for me, it's about simple things like how do you search more, how do you search quicker through using imagery? How do you change a photo if you want to and do it in a way that works for you because you've got, you know, I was saying recently, even with um, if you want to edit a photo, you can edit someone out of the background that's doing, you know, doing something silly. Or for me with audio eraser, really simple thing that I can I was at a party, uh, well, I wasn't a party, it was at my daughter's uh play, and as she was singing, my friend, God Lover, decided to talk over my ear and sort of say, Isn't she doing great? And I was like, that's wonderful, but I'm videoing it. And the fact that I can erase her voice out of it, that's where it comes in handy. It's the tweaks in life that make your life just a bit more effective.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah, and and the fact that that improves people's lives and and actually seeing how you can use it in action um is uh our community sometimes asks us about that as well. Uh, we work with lots of fabulous corporate ambassadors who uh I get to chat with their ladies and they all say when they work at companies where you can actually see um what you're doing for those customers and the difference it makes. Like you said, that that's what gets you up in the morning. You know the difference that you're making for your customers through the technology that that you're building. And that is the inspiring thing about working in tech. Not necessarily, even if you do have one of those jobs where you're sitting there coding day in, day out, it's actually the the um the final product and and how you're helping.
SPEAKER_01:And also, you know what, I I go back to I work in technology and what isn't that one of the wonderful things that I get the opportunity to try and change the narrative around exactly what you said that everyone thinks you're code. I mean, I'm not a coder, right? I'm not gonna pretend in any way, shape, or form I'm a coder. Um my job is to make things consumable and make them make sense. And that's a great fun place to be when you've got all these incredible pieces of innovation and technology coming to you. How do you make that simple? How do you make that make sense? And how do you look at it and go, I did I'd buy that because that makes sense to me. And and I always look at it through my own eyes or my friends, you know, people I know is like, would you what do you understand about this? What makes sense to you? What do you want? And then transferring that into the space I work in is really exciting.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, definitely. And I wanted to ask you a little bit about your experience of being a woman in tech as well. So you've navigated and you've thrived um in a traditionally mound-dominated sector, obviously tech. Can you share a pivotal moment when you had to push past bias or barriers and what that experience taught you about effective leadership?
SPEAKER_01:See, I'll probably step back into when I worked in film because that was also, you know, quite a heavily biased um industry when it came to um when it came to sort of gender. Um what I would say is many years ago, I was the youngest sales director um at a film studio. I'd just been really recently promoted. I walked into a room and there were probably eight slightly older gentlemen in the room. And the first time I came in, it was a cross-studio meeting, everybody sat there and you know, everyone was very nice. And he said, Aniki, you take the notes. And I went, Yeah, no problem, because I assumed I was the newbie, therefore you take the notes. Second time I came to the meeting, they said, Anika, can you take the notes? And I went, Why don't you have a pen? And handed them my pen. Now, what I'd say from this, it wasn't it was so naive in my head, because I was so young and so nervous. Truthfully, it was just an obvious thing to say, Oh, don't you have a pen, here's a pen. Versus what I didn't know I was saying was the underlying message of it stops, it stops here. Yeah and it never happened again. And now they all, you know, I know some of these people years on, and they're like, watch out, she's she's always got a spare pen. But the point is, my my experience is one is keep things relatively light, because actually, you know, but but call it, call it in the right way. And you know, and I've always learned through my career to be very honest and very straightforward about things and and you know, not be afraid to say what I think in a in an environment if I think it's wrong at the right time in the right way.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I love that, and definitely calling it, definitely. I I actually spoke to a guy who had a similar experience, but from his side, um, he noticed that that was happening to a woman in uh the boardroom that he worked in. And um I remember he he was chatting with us uh at Sheikankoda and he said, I almost um just wanted to know a lot of men might feel like, how do I call that out if I see that happening? And it was with the note taking. And he said, I had to almost point out, like, has anyone noticed that the young woman in the room, she takes the notes every week? Like, why don't we rotate that? So him calling that out, he almost wanted to to share that message. More men should be able to call that as well out as well. Because if you're quite young and you're feeling like I don't know how to do that, or how do I keep that light, or is it gonna um jeopardize my career and my next move if I do speak up and say something? Another man in the room noticing and speaking up for you um can really make a difference in in that environment.
SPEAKER_01:100%. And I think you've got to, you know, I've always been a big advocate of just being straight. Like the str and what I mean by that is being really straightforward in my language. It's just like, no, sorry. And and I've learned that through the fact that firstly you have to you have to prove yourself in an environment. Once you've proven yourself in that environment, then you have then you can have the more of a right to push back really hard on some of these things. And where I see that behaviour, it's quickly stopped now because you know, technology isn't necessarily an entire industry, it's not got a huge female bias to the level it needs to. However, it's on the right journey and it's on the right path. And that's part, you know, I'm really proud I work for Samsung and they've recognized me, you know, to lead some of that. And that's a huge responsibility I see in two different areas. One is make sure I do a good job. Secondly, make sure I'm paving the way because I do believe like empowered women empower women. So if I'm empowered, I've got a job to do to make sure I take people with me, because that hopefully will be my legacy one day.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, definitely. And talking of paving the way, Samsung has uh a mentor program uh called Women at Samsung. Um, how do you approach mentoring junior colleagues when we talk about paving the way? And what specific initiatives uh have had the biggest impact on female talent retention and growth?
SPEAKER_01:So I think there's a few things. We obviously have you know great groups like Women at Samsung, which is all about supporting women on their journey. We have a mentor scheme that sits in the business. I believe on top of that, there is a little bit about being you've got to power the community, you've got to power people up to understand they have a voice. And I've done personally a load of different breakfasts and lunches in the office with smaller groups of women so they can ask me honest questions about some of these things and have that, you mean, because I've been through, I've had two children, I've been out of the workplace, I've come back from the workplace, I've done, you know, I've worked into I've worked in industries that aren't naturally over, over female. And with that, there's little tricks and tips that you get on the way. And there's also the moments where someone just needs to ask the question, like, how did you do that, Nika? What how did you approach or what went wrong? And you know, we always talk about everything being perfect, it's never perfect, it's a journey, and the journey we're on has to have openness around. And I'm a big believer in if you just talk it straight and be honest with people, as like this went wrong for me, you know. So many years ago, there was not such a thing as flexible working. So I came back from maternity leave straight back into a full-time job that meant I left also moved was abroad for one week in every month as a new mum. You know, what that did to me, how that how that affected me, having that open conversation means that the conversation becomes normalized. And the more you can normalize a conversation, the easier it becomes for people to go, okay, it's actually it's okay. And I think for me, everything starts with normalizing conversations.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I love that, especially talking about things that have gone wrong. My gosh. Um, it's so much better to share true honest stories because a lot of people are feeling a certain way. They're all, you know, journeys are very different, but a lot of people have similar uh experiences and feelings, especially when they move into leadership and and what that feels like. And yourself and your own experiences of you know going away for a month um at a time and and wondering if you had said no to that, like how how that would have been taken. We I I hear a lot on here from our community as well, when you step into leadership for the first time, it's quite a lonely place as well, because you don't have people to share things with because you can't. And so it's kind of you have all of these worries about everyone suddenly expects me to know everything and I have to have the answer to everything, which is also terrible rubbish. But I can't share that with anyone either. And so many people have felt that way.
SPEAKER_01:You're so right. I mean, I look at it and go, most people are, you know, I'm generalizing here, but I'm I do believe this, particularly if you're promoted from within. I think it's even harder when you're promoted from within. We've all gone through a phase of imposter syndrome at some point in our career. And actually, you know, I spent a lot of time with someone I previously worked with helping her because she was absolutely brilliant, brilliant. Her biggest downfall was that she didn't believe it. And so when she didn't believe it, everything, and you know, literally to the point where she'd phone me up and be like, Nika, I feel like this. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, forget that. But that's that's the the devil on your shoulder. Forget her, because you know what, you own that room, you belong in that room, you have every right to stand there and and have a point of view. And I think the imposter syndrome in all of us, particularly when you're working hard, therefore, or you're you're, you know, I think is a really dangerous space because generally you're just having children, you're in that phase where you, you know, you've just come back from having children, you're in that early child phase, potentially. You've also got your job is probably moving into a leadership space. Those two things clashing leave you feel feeling quite insecure. And I think that should be an open conversation that people have. Because then actually, if you understand the few things or how someone picks you up or says, Do you know what you've got this? You know, for me, it's like you've got this. It's okay. You know what, everyone feels rubbish at some point in their life. It doesn't matter whether you're male, female, whoever. But the point is, don't let that gremlin overtake what you're capable of doing. Because if you do, you're letting yourself down. And and you're letting yourself down when you actually are probably your most powerful, if you could find the right way through that. And we all have it, you know, everyone has it. It doesn't matter who you are.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I couldn't agree more. I I don't know if that feeling uh it is um more common in tech as well, because when you're in meetings, if people if people are using buzzwords and they're overusing jargon, and that's something that we see a lot of in the in the tech industry. You a lot of people, especially in our community, they have that imposter syndrome feeling because you're almost sitting there thinking, I'm gonna get found out, somebody's gonna know, I don't understand all this jargon, someone's gonna find me out at some point, and it's almost we uh overcomplicate things sometimes in meetings, and and you know why people are doing it, but also I think a realization for me was uh you've been in work a few years, and then you think everyone else is thinking the same as I'm thinking. That penny drops.
SPEAKER_01:It it happened to me years ago where I was sat in a because it doesn't matter which industry you're in. I think there's always buzzwords and acronyms that people use, and you're like, it's and and also I came from one industry to another industry, and the same acronym was used for a completely different set of explanations. So I was like, I thought it meant this, and actually it meant something completely different. What I've done, I did it when I was in the studio world was built glossaries. So when someone joins as a glossary, it's like a buzzword of all the things, all the acronyms, because I think unless you've got that, and ironically, it gets used more by the people that have been in the business for a while than it does get used by new new people, but it takes it away. It's somewhere on the system, you can go there and have a look, and it'll tell you all of the terminology that everybody uses and it takes the embarrassment out. Because I think the more you can take the noise away from some of these things, you you you make it easier for people.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. And I that does make sense, I suppose. If they sat in a few meetings and they thought, I have no idea what people are talking about. I'm gonna go and find that glossary.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, find the glossary, and the glossary will make it even more complicated for you. But the point is, it actually does, it's there, and then you're like, Oh, I get it. Because it's generally a complicated acronym for something that's really simple. And so you're like, okay, right, I get it.
SPEAKER_00:So you know yes, and to have that to keep referring back to when you do have those days where you're like, I'm not quite sure what people are talking about today. We all have those moments. Um looking across the wider tech industry, where do you think we've made the greatest strides towards gender equality? Because we have made some. Um, but and uh where does progress still lag the most? Um, and I also wanted to ask you about practical changes. What practical changes would you like to see over the next five years?
SPEAKER_01:So I think first of all, I think the journey, we're on it, it's a journey, right? Everything's a journey, and you mean whether in the same way as gender's, you know, gender's a journey, ethnicity is a journey, uh, you know, diversity of thought is a journey, all these things are really important, and none of them are right in probably most industries, if I'm being really honest, obviously amplified through tech slightly. The journey I hope to see us on is one where there isn't more equal spread of gender, and there's more female voices talking to technology in a powerful way, you know. And I give you an example of the fact that, as we've talked about before, you know, I was in New York last week um presenting our unpacked. That's to 100 million people, and Samsung were supportive of enough of me to stand there and do that and advocate not just a woman talking about quite advanced technology, but secondly, a woman talking about talking to our brand. I hope that whether it's a woman or man, it's never ever, we don't have to have the conversation. I keep saying it to my kids. I'm like, I want a world where gender doesn't, we don't have that conversation about gender and a fair world, right? The journey we're on is definitely going in the right direction. You know, big brands like Samsung, putting people like myself in roles where they are global spokespeople, I think is really positive. And I have a huge, as I said before, and so does any woman in a senior position have a huge responsibility to take people with her. So, you know, again, I go to back to empowered women, empowering women. So I want to make sure that you know it's not necessarily I'm moving women forward, but I'm just moving the organization forward into a more balanced space and and not the organised tech industry into a more balanced space because this goes across the board. And you know, you've seen that transition in other industry sectors and it's starting to to bear fruit, and it's just going to take some time. But I'm really, you know, I'm very inspired by the fact that if you look at a number of senior leaders across the industry I work in, they're now women. So, you know, whether that be the Googles or the Metas of the world, there's some very senior, senior leadership taking place like women, which is fabulous.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and that they're visible. Wow, is the other thing. I remember um even uh sort of you know, 15 years ago being at a conference and thinking, don't know women here, there is never a line for the ladies' room ever. No, no, conference. And how much that has even changed, and just ladies being more visible, visible in senior roles as well, and being up there on stage and doing the keynote. And you know, even if you're not sitting there thinking, yes, that's my role model, you are subconsciously taking all of that in and thinking, if I did go in that direction, there are people there that look like me, and I can relate to that person and how they got there and their experiences.
SPEAKER_01:Which goes back to, I think, the whole, you know, just being honest about stuff, being authentic around how you lead. You know, I I've been asked, you know, in the past, do I have I had to be more like a man to succeed in the industry? I've got no. I've been dead strong. I I I am very proud to be a you know strong woman in this industry. And I sort of look at it and go, there's great opportunity in that, there's great power in it as well, if if treated in the right way. And I sort of think if you look at something as oh, I don't belong, no, you won't belong. But actually make yourself belong because you have every right to be there and you have every right to have a voice. And let's just be clear you know, almost 50% of the UK is are women, so therefore, every company is looking to sell somewhere. Ultimately, women are 50% of that. So you can just need to bear that in mind because I always laugh with people. I'm like, so you know how women buy things, do you? Yes. Yeah, okay, good, good. Who buys your trail? Who who who does the shopping at home? Who owns the credit card at home? Oh, my wife. Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And you are you're doing yourself a disservice if you're trying to be somebody that you're not as well, because that is usually why a company has hired you. They've hired you because you are a woman, you bring different um skills and attributes to your role, and they they want you to to lean into that and have a voice because your voice is going to be different to other people's in the room. And by trying to emulate even bosses that have been before you, say male bosses that have been before you, it's just it's not it's not going to work in your favour. You're not going to be an authentic leader.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think it's also about like, I mean, I go back to everything for me, doesn't I care whether it's a woman or a man, I care about diversity of thought. And diversity of thought is what makes it a great team. So, you know, by having somebody, you know, it goes back to the basics of have you got someone who's completely opposite to you and your mindset in the room? Yes, that's great because they challenge your thinking. Have you got somebody that is can looks at things in a more innovative way or in a future focused way? Brilliant. Because you need to have as many different mindsets around the book the table as possible. then what will happen is you're looking at everything through someone's through different eyes. You know, it goes back to the sort of basics of you're not if you're presenting in a room, you're not what people hear versus what you're saying. And I think it's goes back to how you bring your teams together, how you lead a team. My job is to build the best team and then get out of the way, being totally honest. And it's simple as that. It's like I I'm there to provide air cover, I'm there to support and I'm also there to be the most honest I can around when we're going off track or we're on track and and how we you know we navigate that route. But I want the best people beside me and I don't care whether men, women, I don't care. I don't care. I just want the best people that are on the journey with me.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And I had somebody tell me um the a story around nationality and diversity of thought as well and that they worked at a payments company and they said just having different voices from different countries really helped one of our projects because we were talking about something we were going to do in Europe and we were like oh this sounds great. And then this American voice just piped up and stuff we would not use that in the States. That is not how Americans would would um use their phone and and make payments and just for somebody to jump in and say there'd be a really big cultural difference of how we would use this.
SPEAKER_01:And that's the key thing. Everybody's different everybody's different and everybody you know doesn't matter and I when I say I don't care whether male or female what I mean is I care about the mindset of how how people think and that's what I want to nurture and I want to develop and I want to see grow and expand and I want to make sure that you know what there is fairness around the boardroom table and and I'm very passionate about that. Very passionate.
SPEAKER_00:Yes and and we've already touched upon this as well um another topic that you're really passionate about is AI. But I wanted to um ask you a little bit about Samsung um leveraging that. So AI is reshaping um virtually every product category at the moment. How is Samsung leveraging AI to democratize mobile technology and what safeguards are in place to ensure these innovations remain accessible and exclusive for all inclusive for all users sorry.
SPEAKER_01:First of all I think the exciting thing about AI is that AI is leveling the playing field it's democratising. So what I mean by that is if you have AI it'll give you a I get asked often will I lose my job to AI? No, you won't lose your job to AI you might lose your job to the persons using AI because they've got a leap they've got a leap start ahead of get uh head of ahead of you what it does do is it democratizes what potentially is happening you know people with more money potentially getting better having better opportunities because it's a level playing field it gives everybody the same opportunities. And when you look at mobile the exciting thing is you know we are bringing in lots of new functionality that makes your life easier and what I mean by that is I'll give you a couple of examples circle to search we launched with circle to search that's being able to look at something circle it and you can find it on the web and where to buy really simple simple idea but brilliant because it means that you can find something through your through a visual search instead of having to type something and what we're seeing now is um AI is kind of the new user interface that it's the thing that just whether you want to talk to your phone whether you want to write something down whether you want to circle it just makes it easier for people. Now the second thing is it'll give you a guide to the day and a real life guide to the day. So and if you're sat in a meeting I'm sat here on this podcast and I'm like oh my goodness I've got to go and pick my kids up it'll tell me in real life how long it'll take me to go and do that because of the traffic conditions outside. I mean I'm hoping I'm not picking my kids up this early but the point is it'll help guide me on that journey which even down to you know it's rainy outside take an umbrella simple tweaks just to to help you guide your journey and they're the really simple things. So we're really proud of the fact that all of our technology whether it be our watch telling you some of the things around how you sleep and being able to bring that data together through not just AI but also through advancements in sensor technology being able to give you very accurate data around your health and more importantly preventative health which I'm personally very passionate about. Now you asked me about safeguards. So with everything comes safeguards Samsung has taken this really really seriously because you have to right especially as a big as a big brand we have a responsibility so we've built in when people change a photo for example we've built into the metadata to say three stars at the bottom of the picture um which will say it's been AI edited so that people there's some visible markings that you can do to safeguard yourself. The second thing is we're working really closely with the government and you know we work alongside any new protocols or government rules that are coming in. And so we take all of this incredibly seriously and obviously a lot of our technology when it comes to your personal data is remains on device. So it's in your hands and it's done through the Knox vault. Knox vault is our security system that is incredibly unpenetrable when it comes to penetrable it's a word it's very strong in terms of making sure your data is safe. So you choose where you want to put your data do you want to put it in the cloud do you want to put it on device all of that's you're all in your control to do. So when it comes to data which is very important with AI we take that very very seriously.
SPEAKER_00:Yes and it's it's such a a hot topic at the moment um safeguarding as uh extremely important as well um and it it's such a uh something that you spoke about um so much at the moment because uh how do you move forward at the pace that we're moving forward at still be innovative but still make sure that those safeguards are in place um and and as you said it it it's it's something that just moves at the same at the same speed it's not like you're moving forward and then thinking about safeguards they're they're coming with you at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:You know I I think when you are a big brand like Samsung you have a huge responsibility to make sure that you bring you you look at everything through the nature of we have to right we're we're dealing with people's personal information we're very very responsible when it comes to that because that's the foundation of your business you can have the best technology but if you haven't got security sat behind that there is you know that's that's the the baseline basically yes exactly um and I we I could talk to you all afternoon on this topic especially on A but uh AI by the way um but I wanted to ask you um what advice would you give to young women whether engineers marketers or entrepreneurs who aspire to leadership roles in tech but they worry that perhaps the odds are stacked against them I think and I think this goes even you know it goes to tech but obviously on a more broad level and I you know I've been asked before what advice would I give myself because I think if you were to look if I look at the younger version of me what's the what's the advice? I think the advice I would say is one is don't take yourself too seriously try it put yourself in the environment because you only know you love it or hate it if you're if you're in the environment. So don't take yourself too seriously trial it trial stuff find support around you to take you on that journey find other people and and learn from them and then get them to help you on on that journey because community is really important. I think secondly don't let the imposter syndrome and the fear that oh god it's so different. It's the same you know I've worked in three different industries and I and I can honestly say they're not that different. You know whether you're working in whether you're working in film whether you're working in technology they're all the same in in lots of different ways and navigating your way through those organisations is actually quite a lot of fun as well and and people underestimate the level of fun you can have by trialing different things. And I think what I would say with technology is you know we need we need you so so come on the journey because actually there's a huge opportunity there. You'd have asked me 30 years ago God I'm old um if you'd asked me 30 years ago Nika would you end up in technology I'd gone no way no no no no I don't have any experience in it. Now I'm working for a top five uh technology company in the world you never know don't plan it too too desperately closely because you never know where you're going to end up but enjoy the journey.
SPEAKER_00:Yes I love that and and you're you're so right about the imposter syndrome as well we there's a there's a balance with imposter syndrome I think that it's it's almost healthy to have a little imposter syndrome because like you said you know don't let it take over but if you were to lose that entirely it's almost you would stop learning and stop you know being curious and wanting to learn more.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah um I think you're 100% right if you're not scared a little bit every day of what you're gonna do. And what I mean by scared is not getting up scared of someone scared by oh God I've got to go and do this. How do I do it? Then you're in the wrong job. It's time to move right but so for me you know I get up in the morning and I'm like oh I've got this problem how am I going to go and solve it? What am I gonna do? That's that's the drive that's the exciting part of the job. Um what I mean by imposter syndrome is thinking you're not good enough to do that job. We're all on the learning curve doesn't matter whether the day I retire I'll still be on the learning curve and if I'm not then I've failed. You know everything is about everything in your life is about a learning curve and you've got to be enjoying that learning curve and that's important.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely and sometimes that enjoyment comes from learning in the right company that enables that feeling as well that it that feeling that you have every day like you said you wake up you think I've got a problem but this is how I'm going to do it. And you don't always feel that way at all companies but feeling that you are at home and that you can progress and keep learning um is why some companies keep people for a really long time. Not only do they find the the women in tech they also retain them as well and for for good reason and and how they feel.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think that's your sense of purpose right we all need to find ourselves you know when people talk to me about what do you what do you need from your life you know everybody's looking for their own sense of purpose and when you find that sense of purpose and you feel like it's being nurtured and grown isn't that a wonderful place to be and actually you know um we also need to remember that that sense of purpose will only last for a period of time until you move somewhere else maybe and go and try something different and that can be a lateral move it can be a promotion it can be a million things. But the point is if when you've got that sense of purpose you have with that comes a sense of belonging and when you've got the sense of belonging it's where you find your enjoyment and those things coming together is incredibly important and it's any leader's job to help nurture that as much as possible.
SPEAKER_00:Yes I love that that is a lovely point to end that on um that is such good advice for our community um Anika I could keep talking to you all afternoon on this topic but we are already out of time so thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure to pick your brains. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks ever so much.
SPEAKER_00:And for everybody listening as always thank you for joining us and we hope to see you again next time
