Boardroom Briefing: Black Friday, Airbus Recalls, 2025 Beauty Trends
and in the art market, old is cool again
Happy 1st Week of December!! We are definitely feeling the Christmas spirit and love that Aperol season is finally upon us. This week we dive into Black Friday stats, streetwear’s first IPO, the global beauty trends that defined 2025, why we love Olivia Dean, Netflix’s marketing misstep, where Australia’s cash rate might be heading and a spotlight on the role of the ‘Operator’ and why it’s never been more critical when growing a business.
🎙️ ICYMI
Boardroom Briefing
Inflation’s surprise rebound with headline CPI at 3.8% and core inflation at 3.3% has reignited expectations that Reserve Bank of Australia may raise interest rates as early as the first half of 2026. (via ABC)
Dozens of Jetstar flights were cancelled or delayed after a global recall of Airbus A320 planes about 90 flights were grounded while the aircraft underwent urgent software repairs. (via ABC)
As Black Friday promotions ramped up, many Australian families are stacking up credit card and personal-loan debt with interest-charging balances hitting their highest level since 2021 as pre-Christmas spending surges. (via ABC)
WA is expecting a big drop in its mining-based revenue, the government forecasts that iron-ore royalties will fall by 36% for the two years ending June 2026, shrinking from A$10.3 billion in 2023-24 to around A$6.6 billion. (via ABC)
Australia is set to pass its biggest environmental overhaul in decades creating the nation’s first independent environment regulator, tightening land-clearing and forest protections, and speeding up renewable and housing projects, though critics say the reforms still leave major gaps on climate. (via BBC)
Black Friday 2025 delivered record online sales thanks to AI-powered shopping tools. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided” said Suzy Davidkhanian, an analyst at eMarketer. For our savvy shoppers, the Black Friday - Cyber Monday period offers some of the most competitive discounts of the year - which means December deals may be weaker - so shopping early can save you more, as long as you avoid impulse buys! (via Reuters)
Australia’s climate tech sector now employs 7,000+ people across 730+ startups, pulling in $680M across 69 deals in 2025, according to Climate Salad’s annual industry report.
Culture & Influence
Eucalyptus is set to become Australia’s next unicorn, closing a $190m round at a $1.37b valuation, more than doubling its 2023 valuation. The growth comes from surging global demand for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, with brands Pilot and Juniper driving mass-market adoption in Australia and other markets. ( via AFR)
Netflix, Nobody Wants This. The newest season of Nobody Wants This is one big commercial. Between blatant brand plugs - like Estée Lauder skincare being shoved into scenes - and lines like “we’re DoorDash people” coming off so forced, it feels less like a rom‑com and more like a marketing reel. Social media didn’t hold back.
Billie Eilish is releasing a 3D concert movie. Co-directed by Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron, it will launch on 20 March 2026, by Paramount in partnership with Darkroom Records, Interscope Films and Lightstorm Entertainment. (via Musically)
Ticketmaster is partially refunding tickets for several of Olivia Dean’s shows after she criticised resale platforms on her Instagram stories, calling inflated resale prices “vile” and “everything I don’t stand for.” We didn’t know it was possible to love her even more. (via Rolling Stones)
Beauty & Fashion
The trends & brands that won beauty in 2025:
💄 Beauty routines are simplifying and multitasking: instead of many separate products, people want “do-it-all” formulas or minimal routines that still deliver results.
🔬Consumers are getting smarter - there’s growing demand for clean, safe, effective and skin-health–conscious products, not just trendy ones.
📱Viral, social-media-fuelled brands (especially from TikTok) disrupted the industry: they captured attention quickly, but sustained popularity depends on the brand’s ability to deliver actual value beyond hype.
Streetwear’s First IPO. Human Made, streetwear label founded by Nigo, just went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, becoming the first pure-streetwear brand to do so. This is a watershed moment for the fashion industry. (via Hype Beast)
If you hate the look of an oura ring but still want to track your health stats, Lumia has the solution - smart earrings. Errm, we’re not convinced. Let us know if you buy them.
Chiara Ferragni is currently on trial in Milan, charged with aggravated fraud over holiday-themed products she promoted (a “pandoro” Christmas cake and Easter eggs), which were marketed as if buying them meant a donation to charity or a children’s hospital. Prosecutors argue that the campaign misled consumers - they claim buyers were told their purchases would support a pediatric hospital, when in fact the donation was minimal and unrelated to the sales. The court heard prosecutors ask for a 20-month prison sentence if she is convicted. Ferragni denies the charges. (via Instagram)
Amnesty International accused the fashion industry of being complicit in anti-union abuse across South Asia. (via BoF)
💌 ANONYMOUS TIP
In the Art Market, Old Is Cool Again
Last week at Sotheby’s in New York, whispers of an art market recovery seemed to be vindicated.
Following a 20-minute, six-way bidding war, Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” (1914–1916) hammered at $236.4 million including fees, making it the second-most-expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Oliver Barker, the tuxedoed auctioneer, hardly had a chance to congratulate the anonymous phone-bidding buyer before the room burst into applause.
In London, a slew of new galleries are servicing this demand for older work. Mattias Vendelmans, a dealer who specialises in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, opened a permanent space in Bloomsbury this year. He says that his clients - including the philanthropist and museum owner Christian Levett, who recently purchased a 1945 Dora Maar painting from the gallery - collect for the right reasons: “more art-based and not so much five-year-return-on-the-investment-based.”
Collectors seem to be turning their backs on flashy, ultra-contemporary pieces and gravitating back to older, historical works - favouring the rare, the real, and the enduring.
So here’s the tip: if you’ve been sleeping on classic or early-20th-century artworks - or eyeballing them casually - now might be the moment to pay attention. The market is quietly shifting back toward pieces with provenance, history, and craftsmanship. It’s no longer about being “on-trend.” It’s about rediscovering what lasts..
📝 DEEP DIVE
The Rise of Female Operators (…you don’t always have to be a Founder)
In the start-up world, founders usually get the spotlight, the panel invitations, the headlines, the brand-building moments. But behind every great company, there’s an operator: the person who turns ambition into systems, ideas into roadmaps, and chaos into something that scales. Increasingly, those operators are women.
Across strategy, product, growth, partnerships, and customer experience, women are stepping into roles that quietly shape the success of the companies we rely on every day. While female founders still face funding gaps and structural barriers, female operators are becoming the backbone of high-growth businesses and rewriting what leadership looks like along the way.
Why Women Thrive in Operator Roles
Operators sit at the intersection of business, design, people, and process, a place where women already over-index. They excel in roles where context-switching isn’t a bug but a feature: running cross-functional teams, reading between the lines, understanding customers on a deeper level, communicating the vision back to stakeholders, and keeping delivery aligned with strategy.
And the industry is finally catching up to what we’ve always known: execution is a superpower. Research from McKinsey shows that companies with diverse operational leadership outperform financially and adapt faster to changing markets. Operators make decisions based on signals including customer behaviours, risk patterns, and early cultural shifts that founders are often too stretched to see. Women, who historically haven’t been encouraged to take centre stage, have become exceptional at influencing from the middle and ultimately a catalyser to the business’ overall success.
Operators Are the New Moat
The next wave of high-performing companies will be built on operational excellence not just charismatic founders or shiny tech. AI is automating tasks, markets are shifting, and products are becoming easier to copy. So, what can’t be copied? Operational culture. Systems. Customer trust. Relationship Skills. The ability to influence your people. Be someone your team aspires to be. The ability to execute consistently and at scale.
And that’s exactly where female operators are flourishing. They’re building teams that communicate better, designing operating models that actually work in practice, breaking down silos, spotting inefficiencies, and elevating customer experience beyond metrics into genuine loyalty. The companies with female operators at the core are the ones shipping faster, growing smarter, and staying closer to their customers.
From “Support” Roles to Center Stage
The shift happening right now is subtle but massive: women operators are no longer being cast as the “steady second.” They are stepping into Chief Operating Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Head of Product, and Chief Customer roles that define a company’s rhythm and direction. Investors are also beginning to back operator-led founders which are those individuals who’ve spent years learning how to run businesses, experiencing failure, fixing large and complex problem rather than just pitching them.
For ambitious young women, this is a roadmap worth paying attention to. The most influential roles of the next decade won’t just be CEOs, they’ll be the designers of systems, the shapers of teams, the people who understand how to make the engine run.
Operator Spotlight: Women Shaping the Beauty World
✨ Laura Ratner: The Product Whisperer Behind Rhode
Laura Ratner is the quiet engine powering Rhode’s rise as one of beauty’s most influential minimalist brands. As VP of Product Development, she blends science, sensorial design, and obsessive customer listening to create formulas that feel luxurious at an accessible price point. Every texture, finish, and active ingredient is intentional, turning Rhode from a “celebrity brand” into a category-defining skincare player.
✨ Diarrha N’Diaye: Skims Beauty’s Newest Breakout Star
Diarrha N’Diaye, founder of Ami Colé, a clean beauty brand, is bringing her signature “your skin but better” philosophy to Skims’ new beauty division. Known for formulas designed for melanin-rich skin and a fiercely loyal community, she’s shaping Skims Beauty into a modern, inclusive powerhouse. N’Diaye vision is simple but disruptive: everyday essentials that celebrate real skin, real tones, and real women, a perfect match for the Skims empire.
Takeaways for Mode Girls
Operator skills = superpower: Organisation, communication, and cross-functional leadership accelerate your career.
Influence doesn’t require the spotlight: Operators often shape strategy and culture more than founders alone.
Learn to execute before you lead: Operators become the best founders.
Your impact is systemic: Building the right systems and teams is how you scale influence and create longevity.
The future isn’t just founder-led; it’s operator-powered, and women are leading the shift, quietly building the companies, products, and experiences that define tomorrow. The biggest lesson for our Mode readers? You don’t have to be a founder or CEO to be successful. Success exists in many forms, and this week’s feature on the “Operator” shows just how critical other roles are.
👜 STYLE SESSION
This summer, keep it effortlessly chic with an off-the-shoulder cow-neck bodice top paired with high-waisted crossover white jeans. Add thong heels and a mini gold handbag to elevate the look, perfect for day drinking with the girls. It’s a playful, sun-ready outfit that’s equal parts polished and relaxed.
✨ MOOD BOARD
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See you next week,
Adrianna & Maddi x