Office With a View: Innovation expert Fareeda Ahmed had to get past her own impostor syndrome to emerge as a powerful advisor to studios and other media companies
Fareeda Ahmed has seen her share of sexist environments. She got her MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, worked on Wall Street and most recently joined Arthur D. Little, a global consulting firm, to advise Hollywood firms on technology. The Consulting Report named her one of 2023’s top 25 digital transformation leaders: She was one of only five women on the list, and she can tell you why.
“Consulting can be a really difficult industry for women,” she told TheWrap for this week’s Office With a View. “Women, including myself, go through impostor syndrome, undercutting ourselves and apologizing before we give answers can undermine the trust that’s required for successful consulting engagements. To be perceived as a trusted expert, a wise advisor requires a different paradigm of what it is to be a woman, in my opinion.”
Ahmed’s credentials go beyond the geek or finance wonk stereotypes. She trained as a classical singer at the Juilliard School, is a produced playwright of short plays and serves on the board of two nonprofit theaters in New York City, and her consulting work ranges from the use of NFTs in Hollywood to the challenges with EV charging.
Her creative bent serves her in her consulting work, especially in Hollywood: “It’s connected me to the other side of the business equation,” she said. “We’re setting up the technology and designing businesses so they can be platforms for storytellers.”
In a no-apologies conversation, Ahmed offered her insight into how to avoid being deterred by “gendered feedback” in order to “speak the truth, know the truth and get s–t done.” She also gave her view on how Hollywood can move forward in what she called “Act III of COVID.”
This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
Tell us about why the tech world is harder to navigate for women executives than perhaps other areas of business.
I went to business school in Silicon Valley and I can say after working on Wall Street and being in school in Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley is definitely the bigger boys’ club, an absolutely huge boys’ club… and the pay disparity between male and female MBA graduates is much higher than it is for [other graduate degrees]. And that extends to women in consulting, and extends to women in tech.
How do you address the problem?
Speaking the truth is saying: “Yes, I did do that work. That was my idea.” And that feeds into knowing the truth. I’ll get the feedback: “You know, that’s kind of arrogant” or “You are talking about your accomplishments a lot.” There’s a sense of a woman bragging versus a woman correcting the record. Knowing the truth is knowing when you are getting gendered feedback.
What about mentoring other women on the job?
I’m working at the edge of my ability because that’s the only way I’m going to grow [and that means] refusing some of the emotional labor of being a mentor. I definitely mentor other women, but I also say, “Hey, where are the men? And why don’t we get to bill hours to do that labor?” Because it’s labor.
For women, particularly women of color, there’s a lot of talk about the importance of seeing someone who looks like you in a high-level position as a role model. True — but on the way up, what about using men as role models because like it or not they’re the ones with those jobs?
That’s totally true… there’s no box to check for who owns the best idea. It can come from anywhere, it can come from anyone. And when there is a senior class of people who are — whether they are benefiting from the system or simply were receiving more training — are on the edge of what is new and what is now, it would be silly to not participate, or self-segregate. We have to conquer that fear and just go, “All right, I am going to be uncomfortable in this room.”
You hold a B.A. from Barnard College in English as well as Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and continue to be a playwright who sits on the boards of two nonprofit, off-Broadway theaters. Does the arts world represent a conflict with the tech world?
I don’t know if it’s kind of a dual life. Whenever I’m mentoring younger, or less tenured women at the company, I tell them the same thing: If you have a passion for a sport or for a creative endeavor, continue to pursue it. In some way, it will make your work better. [It’s about] knowing my strengths, and being able to put that into words for my employers to say, “Hey, I’m actually really good at math and at writing. I can help you solve problems.” I love puzzles, whether it’s word puzzles or number puzzles, and I love to solve problems.
For your Hollywood clients, what’s the most pressing question they’re asking you in 2023?
The things that keep our clients up at night are, “I know I need to be playing in the streaming space and if I’m not already, what do I do? Do I launch a FAST channel that gets pulled into Pluto or some other AVOD service, or do I have [my own] AVOD service? Do I offer a subscription video service?” It’s refactoring the pricing and distribution models of streaming now that we’re in Act III of COVID.
What about AI? How scared should we be out here in Hollywood?
I think personally that Hollywood is more immune to the effects of AI than other industries. In general, AI is a terrible master and a wonderful servant. There are probably some interesting [AI] use cases for Hollywood that would not be additive or value creative, and it’s natural to fear things that we don’t understand. But I would love for Hollywood to imagine the upside as only Hollywood can in what this new technology can bring.
It actually ties really beautifully into the question of gender in Hollywood. We have this myth of unsolvable problems. Here’s something that’s gone unsolved for a long period of time, or a new problem that’s coming at us and we don’t know how to solve it — therefore, it is unsolvable. And that’s simply not the case. How do we fix gender disparity, make (diversity and inclusion) a way of living and being in Hollywood, and how do we incorporate AI in a way that’s value creative? They’re actually related in terms of the the nature of the questions themselves.
Diane Haithman
Senior Entertainment Business Reporter • diane@thewrap.com • @dhaithman Diane came to TheWrap from a position as Staff Reporter at The Los Angeles Business Journal, covering Entertainment/Media, Philanthropy and Style. Diane was a Los Angeles Times Staff Writer for two decades, covering arts, culture and the TV industry. Her novel Dark Lady of Hollywood was published to critical acclaim by Harvard Square Editions in 2014. She serves on the adjunct faculty of Emerson College Los Angeles and has taught feature writing at USC. Diane is co-author of the nonfiction book The Elder Wisdom Circle Guide for a Meaningful Life (Penguin/Plume 2007) and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists-Los Angeles Chapter.