ExpatWomen's Interview with Kristin

ExpatWomen:   Kristin, let’s start from the beginning of the W.I.N. journey. You created W.I.N. in 1998 when you were in Milan, Italy. Why had you moved to Milan, how long had you been in Milan, and what were you working on in Milan before W.I.N.?

Kristin:   I came to Milan to pursue an MBA at the prestigious SDA Bocconi, of Bocconi University, after which I started to work in marketing and services of global banking services for JP Morgan and Citibank. I started as a trainee. After a few years I had the choice of going to London or staying on in what for me had become a pretty dull job.

I decided instead to jump on an opportunity to consult and teach Marketing in Eastern Europe. I worked for a number of years as a consultant and trainer all over Europe and especially in Eastern Europe. My focus was strategy, marketing and cross/cultural management and adaptation projects. I had projects for a number of different consulting firms and the University of Bocconi. I was an independent, but was always based in Milan. Parallel to this I started W.I.N.




ExpatWomen:  What gave you the idea to start W.I.N. and at the time, what were you hoping to achieve, in terms of outcomes, numbers and achievements?

Kristin:  When I started I simply was hoping to inspire women to play a strong role in the future. I hoped to connect women and motivate them to do more. I didn’t think of numbers necessarily, though I could see a big group of women joining. It has not been easy and when you are pioneering something it is also impossible to plan too carefully. You have to go creatively about it.

I had joined a local women’s network in Italy for internationally working professional women. I became the president and learned an incredible lot about running meetings, structuring an organization, finding speakers, motivating and inspiring a team and holding presentations. When my two year term was over I was not finished with it.

Likewise, before my MBA, I had studied business administration with a MS in Marketing and Communication. Various small jobs working on trends for an advertising agency and PR in Japan.  I have a strong sense somehow of the future and what is about to emerge and I had a strong vision to create a better world that was fair and more sustainable.

Trends and triggers that I identified at the time:

1. From having studied business and economics for a number of years, and obviously globalization of markets, and with a strong global marketing background, I could just see the process of globalization and digitalization speeding up. It has of course, and I am talking now about 10-12 years ago.



2. Women higher educated… speaking languages… companies competing for talent, when competing for global markets,,, why not hire women, but then, traditionally more women than men had traveled abroad.



3. Travelling a lot as a business woman abroad I could see how difficult it was sometimes arriving alone to places… what if I knew someone??
   
   
   
   • So focus on globalization on how women can prepare to be part of shaping the new ways due to the rapid change happening anyway with internet etc.
   
   
   
   
   • Knowledge and inspiration – W.I.N. speakers.
   
   
   
   
   • Skills – W.I.N. workshops, and
   
   
   
   
   • Network – W.I.N. networking and partner groups.
   
   
   
   
4. Changing social patterns: More young men also wishing to be part of spending time with children, women all wanting to work etc. etc. but not at all hours and all times and no longer sacrificing womanhood. 



• Focus on sustainable career strategies.




• Focus on communication and collaboration between women and men.



5. Changing patterns in women:



• Confused needs amongst many women… need to be women, want balance, authenticity leading with values, being ourselves and contributing as ourselves;



• The journey has seen this and there is more clarity, more women want to bring their uniqueness to work etc.; and



• For me this became a motivation again as I could just see the big picture of things and how the entire world is in imbalance and as long as we continue to ape men it still will be etc.
  
  

Kristin:   W.I.N. is really a platform – an experience where participants meet and come up with ideas and go home and implement them. Thousands of projects have started at W.I.N. and it is not our responsibility to bring them all to life. About 4,000 women from more than 70 countries have come to W.I.N. Forums – many of whom claim their lives changed.

Some of the outcomes that I’m most proud of include: that we’ve been sponsored by world-class corporations; I’ve had press interviews and met many incredible people; plus, every year on the third day, I see people change, they become different.




ExpatWomen:   How did you manage to get the word out and attract an audience at the beginning, and what is your strategy for continuing to do this now?

Kristin:   I work as an artist and create themes that I feel is a representation of our time. I never copy. I am very conscious about the attraction of things and ATTRACT people based on the programme. We do not do much sales, people spread the word. We send out emails and invitation brochures, that is about it.

Strategy for the future? Two possibilities: Continue the same way; and/or set up a Center for future leadership. We will see. Taking the next step and being fearless, graceful and together applies to me just as much as to all the people joining us this year.




ExpatWomen:  Why do you think you have been so successful in gaining so many corporate sponsors of the W.I.N. Forums?

ExpatWomen:    As a “Social Entrepreneur”, can you share with us some of your 5 Top Tips for success in this field?
      
Kristin’s Top 5 Tips to Entrepreneurs: I think that the challenge for people motivated by changing the world is that one may forget oneself. Selfless is great in a monastery but I realize that one must learn to put a value on their own work.

1. Be professional and work like any other entrepreneur.
   
   
2. It is about people, learn about people, what makes people tick.
   
   
3. As with all entrepreneurship, hang in there, ups and downs, money problems will come and go and come again.
    
4. Never give up and never give up, and
   
   
5. When you serve people, people feel it.

Kristin:   I was a workaholic and have run activities and W.I.N. in a very masculine, strong-willed way. With my son, I have to cut things down – I can’t work all the time. He has helped me gain balance. Children are magic and staying with them makes one sane. It is also educational for a person. We grow up with them somehow. Being a single mother is hard work. I can handle work and him, but have small time for me. I go to yoga at lunch or swimming and try to do something social one night a week. More is impossible and I have never really liked to hang around doing nothing anyway. Would love to have more time to art … puh… but it will come back.




ExpatWomen:   Thank you very much Kristin. We wish you a phenomenal WIN Conference in September!

Kristin: Yes, come be part of it!  Developing, Empowering and Connecting