It’s been quite a while since I finished university and, to be honest, I had almost forgotten what it feels like to sit in an auditorium with fellow students and listen to a lecture. Therefore, I was really excited to accompany Jan Brecht, CIO of the adidas Group, to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg only a few days ago. Together with two of his senior managers, Ingo Winterhoff and Christian Martin, Jan held an exceptional lecture, providing insights into “New Retail Technologies”.
In the course of this series I am meeting various successful women at the adidas Group who have successfully tackled hurdles and advanced their careers. This time I spoke to Beate Stoll, Director End User Computing at the adidas Group. I can tell you: Beate impressed me! She didn’t only impress me because she is in her current role instrumental in the creation of the Vision for the IT Workplace of the future and strategy for the adidas Group. She didn’t only do so because she has a team of 28 people located in three regions, overseeing the IT Workplace for 30,000+ employees worldwide. What impressed me even more is that Beate seems to be always open to change and brave enough to embrace it. Her motto is “change the things that you are able to change and accept the things that you can’t change but try to make the best out of it”. I find this approach very inspiring and interviewed her on various facets of change to understand what this mindset is all about.
Last Wednesday was a very special day for me and my team. We, the adidas Group IT Service Desk Team in Herzogenaurach, received the “Service Globe 2013” at the Service Desk World Conference in Cologne, Germany. This prize might be described as the Oscar for IT Help- and Service Desk organisations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, awarding innovative concepts and implementations.
Last week, the FIBO, the world’s leading international trade show for fitness, wellness and health, took place in Cologne, Germany. Reebok used the opportunity to present its fitness strength at this well-known platform. Yoga Rebel and Reebok testimonial Tara Stiles from NYC, USA, and Annie Thorisdottir, two-time Reebok CrossFit Games Champion, attended to bring the Reebok “Live With Fire” campaign to life. As a PR trainee, I’m currently working in the Reebok Marketing team for Germany, Austria and Switzerland and had the chance to lead the PR work regarding FIBO and Tara Stiles’ visit. What an incredible experience!
Find out more about the various activations that took place in Cologne and how yoga and CrossFit came together under the umbrella of fitness…
Following my blog post on the international women´s day I want to introduce you today to Sanae Parra, Senior Manager, Policy & Planning at the adidas Group. She is a married mum of two kids and with her team of eight at adidas she creates and governs policies & procedures, tools and systems for retail store operations, affecting about 2,500 stores and 20,000 store employees worldwide. She is the first women I spoke to during my little research on what makes women in leadership positions successful.
Check out the video below where she explains amongst other things how she managed to continue with her job with a new born at home and which recommendations she has for working mums. For her it is for example all about conscious decisions, happiness and about being authentic and true to yourself.
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