LEADERSHIP which operates multiple offices worldwide alongside its Sydney, Australia HQ – and prioritises empowerment and a‘ be a good human’ philosophy in the workplace. Even as Canva has grown across its eight global campuses, she has continued to personally lead onboarding sessions for every new intake of staff – walking each group through the company’ s history, the original investor deck and where she intends to take the business in the future. She also encourages employees to make key decisions, allowing teams to move forward on projects without requiring management approval for as much as 90 % of decisions.
The modern approach to leading also extends to how the company recognises its own progress. When Canva hit 100 million monthly active users, more than a hundred simultaneous picnics were held around the world to mark it. On another occasion, doves were released from the office rooftop. Under Perkins’ leadership, Canva has been consistently recognised as one of the best places to work, particularly in Australia.
A force for good Being a good human is inherent throughout Canva’ s work, an ethos driven by both Perkins’ and Obrecht’ s focus on philanthropic initiatives and using the success they have found to give back. Even in 2012 and Perkins’ earliest iterations of company pitch decks, Canva’ s mission was twofold: to build one of the world’ s most valuable companies and do the most good possible.“ We believed that design was something that should be accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few,” Perkins wrote in a Canva blog post, discussing how her twostep plan has seen the business develop into a force for good. The company is part of the 1 % pledge, a corporate philanthropy movement where companies pledge 1 % of equity, profit, product and employee time to community causes. In 2021, Perkins and Obrecht signed the Giving Pledge, committing to give away 80 % of their wealth. Perkins transferred 30 % of her Canva equity – then worth approximately US $ 12bn
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