Two years into leading Havas across India, South East Asia and North Asia, Rana Barua has reached a conviction: many of the challenges facing brands today are not creative, technological or commercial, but cultural. From the rise of homegrown luxury labels to the democratisation of knowledge through AI, Barua argues that the most desirable brands are those that stay curious, remain grounded in local realities, and learn to read culture before attempting to shape it.

Rana Barua spends much of his time thinking about culture. Not culture in the way the communications industry often invokes the term, as shorthand for trends, social conversations or fleeting moments of relevance, but culture in its deeper sense: the beliefs, behaviours and value systems that shape how people live, consume, aspire and ultimately make decisions. Perhaps that comes with the territory.

As Group Chief Executive Officer of Havas India, South East Asia and North Asia, Barua oversees one of the world’s largest communications groups across some of the most dynamic and culturally diverse markets on the planet. Founded in Paris in 1835, Havas today operates in more than 100 countries, partnering with brands across sectors ranging from consumer goods and technology to finance, hospitality and luxury. Luxury forms a significant part of that portfolio. The group has worked with some of the world’s most influential luxury brands, including LVMH, Hermès, Aman and Dior Homme. Through its specialist luxury practice, Havas Media Lux, which counts Dolce & Gabbana and De Beers among its clients, the company has also invested heavily in understanding how influence, aspiration and cultural capital are evolving through proprietary research on affluent consumers.

For decades, Asia was discussed primarily through the language of potential. It was the future growth engine. The next frontier. The market that would one day come of age. Today, that framing feels increasingly outdated. Across luxury, culture and consumer behaviour, many of the forces shaping the future are already emerging from within the region itself. Homegrown brands are gaining confidence. Consumers are becoming more culturally self-assured. New centres of influence are taking shape.

During a recent visit to Singapore, Beyond the Boardroom sat down with Barua to explore the rise of cultural intelligence, the shifting centre of gravity in global influence and why curiosity may be one of the most underrated leadership traits of the modern era.

You oversee markets that are routinely grouped together under the convenient banner of “Asia”. Yet anyone who spends time in the region knows how misleading that can be. Has leading across India, South East Asia and North Asia changed the way you think about the region itself?

Absolutely. If anything, the role has reinforced how dangerous simplification can be.

From a distance, Asia is often presented as a singular growth narrative. It’s discussed as though it were one market moving in one direction. The reality is infinitely more nuanced. Japan and South Korea operate according to very different cultural rhythms than Southeast Asia. India is a universe unto itself. Even neighbouring countries that appear similar on paper can be shaped by entirely different social realities, value systems and consumer behaviours. What I’ve learnt over the past two years is that leadership across the region requires a tremendous amount of curiosity. You cannot arrive with a predetermined narrative and expect it to hold. The further you travel, the more you realise that local context matters. Every market has its own strengths, its own challenges and its own cultural logic.

The leaders who navigate Asia well are usually those who remain students of it. They spend time listening. They engage local teams. They seek perspectives beyond their own. The more exposure you have to the region, the less likely you are to view it through a single lens.

For decades, culture largely flowed from West to East. Today we’re seeing stronger homegrown brands emerge across India, China and Southeast Asia. How significant is that shift?

I think what we’re witnessing is a broader shift in cultural confidence.

As you said, for a long time, Asia was largely discussed through the language of growth and consumption. It was viewed as a market to be sold to, a region to expand into and a source of future demand. Increasingly however, it’s becoming clear that Asia is a source of influence. Culture is no longer flowing in a single direction. I was recently reviewing some data showing that 86% of Mainland Chinese consumers and 83% of consumers across Southeast Asia are interested in regional luxury brands. While those numbers relate to luxury, what they really point to is something much larger: a growing confidence in local creativity, local craftsmanship and local cultural identity.

You can see it across the region. Whether it’s India, China, Korea, Japan or Southeast Asia, there’s a greater willingness to celebrate ideas, brands and cultural expressions that emerge from within these markets rather than looking exclusively elsewhere for validation. I’m constantly being introduced to new brands, creators and businesses from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines that would barely have entered the global conversation a decade ago. To me, that’s the more significant story. What we’re witnessing is a shift from Asia as a consumer of global culture towards Asia as a contributor to it. The region is becoming increasingly comfortable defining influence on its own terms, and I think that has profound implications not only for business, but for culture itself.

CMOs have spent years obsessing over technology, platforms and performance. Why does culture feel as though it has returned to the centre of the conversation?

Because culture explains what data alone cannot. Technology can tell us what people are doing. Data can reveal patterns and behaviours, culture helps explain why those behaviours exist in the first place. The more fragmented the world becomes, the more important that understanding becomes. Consumers are exposed to an extraordinary amount of information. They also have more choices than ever before, and they’re increasingly sophisticated in how they engage with brands. Understanding what drives aspiration, trust, identity and belonging has become incredibly important.

I think there was a period where culture was sometimes viewed as a communications issue or a marketing issue. Increasingly, organisations are recognising that it is much bigger than that. Culture shapes behaviour, behaviour shapes consumption and consumption shapes business outcomes. That makes culture far more than a creative consideration, it becomes a strategic one.

Consumers are increasingly interested in stories that feel culturally proximate. They are interested in brands that reflect their realities, aesthetics and experiences. That doesn’t diminish the appeal of established global luxury houses. Rather, it expands the landscape.

Many brands talk about culture. Far fewer seem to understand it. What separates genuine cultural understanding from cultural opportunism?

To me, the distinction is depth. Many organisations encounter culture through trends, headlines and social conversations. They see something gaining momentum and immediately want to participate, and the assumption is that visibility creates relevance. In reality, consumers are remarkably effective at distinguishing between participation and understanding. Being rooted in culture requires understanding the behaviours beneath the surface. It means understanding families, communities, aspirations, anxieties and values and it also means understanding what matters to people before attempting to speak to them.

We often tell clients that a campaign developed for one market cannot simply be transplanted into another. A commercial that succeeds in India may fail entirely in Singapore or China. Not because the creative is poor, but because the cultural application is wrong. Consumers do not experience culture at the level of slogans. They experience it through lived reality. The brands that understand that tend to build much stronger relationships over time.

Social media has compressed the distance between trends, conversations and culture. Has it become harder for leaders to distinguish between what is genuinely shifting and what is simply capturing attention?

Without question. One of the consequences of living in a constantly connected world is that visibility and significance are often treated as the same thing. Something becomes highly visible, gains momentum online and suddenly acquires an outsized sense of importance. The challenge for leaders is recognising that attention does not always equate to cultural change.

Social media has accelerated the speed at which information moves, but culture does not necessarily move at the same speed. As I said, culture is still rooted in behaviour. It is rooted in values, aspirations and the way people live their lives. Those things tend to evolve more slowly than a news cycle or a platform algorithm. That’s why I often return to the importance of insight. The question isn’t simply what people are talking about. The more important question is why they are talking about it. What does that behaviour reveal? What does it tell us about changing attitudes, expectations or desires? Too many organisations stop at the conversation itself. The more valuable exercise is understanding what sits underneath it.

Luxury has always been deeply intertwined with culture. What do you think the category understands particularly well about human behaviour?

At its best, luxury has always understood aspiration. Luxury has never been solely about products, it’s always been about meaning. It’s about identity, belonging, achievement, self-expression and increasingly, experience. The strongest luxury brands understand that they are participating in culture rather than simply selling into it. What I find particularly interesting today is how the definition of luxury continues to evolve. Younger consumers often place greater value on authenticity, relevance and personal connection than previous generations. They’re asking different questions and evaluating brands through different lenses. That creates an opportunity for brands willing to evolve alongside their audiences. The most successful luxury brands are rarely static. They continue interpreting culture while remaining true to their core identity. That balance between evolution and consistency is incredibly powerful.

We’re also seeing a growing confidence in homegrown luxury brands across Asia. Is this a moment or a structural shift?

I believe it’s a structural shift. The numbers alone suggest something significant is taking place. When you see the level of interest consumers are expressing towards regional luxury labels, it becomes clear that this is not simply a passing phenomenon Consumers are increasingly interested in stories that feel culturally proximate. They are interested in brands that reflect their realities, aesthetics and experiences. That doesn’t diminish the appeal of established global luxury houses. Rather, it expands the landscape.

What excites me is the diversity of creativity emerging across the region. Whether it’s fashion, beauty, hospitality, design or lifestyle, there is an increasing willingness to celebrate local excellence. As those brands continue to mature, I think we will see even greater influence flowing from Asia into the global luxury conversation.

As a leader, you’ve often spoken about the importance of curiosity. In a business environment increasingly defined by certainty, expertise and rapid decision-making, why do you continue to place so much value on staying curious?

To me, curiosity has always been a competitive advantage. The difference today is that we’re perhaps recognising its value more clearly because the environment has become so much more complex.

One thing that has always stayed with me throughout my career is how often people present assumptions as facts. There are certain phrases I hear repeatedly—”I think so”, or “I’ve heard so”—and they immediately make me curious. Not because they’re necessarily wrong, but because they reveal how often we accept conventional wisdom without interrogating it. My instinct is always to ask why. Why do you think so? Where did that belief come from? What evidence supports it? What are we missing?

The strongest leaders I’ve encountered are rarely the ones who assume they already have the answers. More often, they are the ones who continue asking questions long after others have settled on conclusions. They read widely. They seek out different perspectives. They spend time with people whose experiences challenge their own assumptions. Most importantly, they remain open to the possibility that what they believed yesterday may no longer be true today. 

Every generation believes it’s leading through unprecedented change, yet some leadership principles seem to endure. Which ones matter most to you?

Everyone will probably groan when I say this, but authenticity remains one of the most important qualities a leader can possess. It sounds clichéd because it’s repeated so often, yet it endures for a reason. People have an extraordinary ability to recognise when someone is genuine and an equally sharp ability to recognise when leadership is being performed. Trust is rarely built through grand gestures. More often, it’s built through consistency, through the repeated alignment of words, actions and values over time. Equally important is the ability to connect seemingly disparate worlds. Business today sits at the intersection of technology, creativity, commerce and human behaviour, and leaders need to be comfortable navigating all of them rather than retreating into a single area of expertise.

And finally and maybe, most importantly, leadership still requires judgement. At some point, every leader is confronted with imperfect information, competing perspectives and genuine uncertainty. The responsibility is not to wait indefinitely for perfect clarity, it’s to make a decision, take ownership of it and move forward. Not every decision will prove correct, but conviction, accountability and a willingness to act remain fundamental to effective leadership.

Finally, if culture is becoming one of the most valuable forms of business intelligence available to leaders today, what are the best leaders paying attention to that others are missing?

The best leaders are paying attention to people. That sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly easy to lose sight of. We become fascinated by technology, platforms, trends and performance metrics. All of those things matter. But ultimately culture is about people. Business is about people. Brands are built for people.

The leaders who consistently make good decisions remain close to consumers, communities and cultural shifts. They continue reading. They continue listening. They continue seeking perspectives that challenge their own. That’s one of the reasons I find AI so fascinating. Not because it replaces human thinking, but because it expands access to knowledge. It gives leaders the opportunity to explore ideas, sharpen their thinking and build broader perspectives. The responsibility however, remains the same as it has always been. You still have to exercise judgement. You still have to remain curious. You still have to pay attention. Technology changes. Markets change. Culture changes. The habit of paying attention never goes out of fashion.