About

So, what do you do for a living?

When asked that question, I typically tell people that I help smart folks make smart decisions and develop meaningful customer experiences that create value. What does that involve? Well, let me expand…

Tell compelling stories

Storytelling has always been an essential quality of my professional life. After earning my degree in American Studies and Media Studies, I started out as a journalist and film critic, trying to get my readers excited about, say, the latest Wong Kar-wai movie. (He’s still one of my favorite directors.) As a side project, I ran a small arthouse theater together with a friend to provide a home for those stories that didn’t find their way into the commercial multiplex.

Fast-forward twenty years. My academic and professional skills and experiences, coupled with a quantum of luck, landed me many amazing opportunities: I built and grew eBay’s international content strategy practice, developed StubHub’s localization framework for its international expansion, and created a vision for Kohl’s digital experiences, to name just a few.

In all my endeavors, the art and science of crafting clear and compelling narratives has not only been crucial for connecting and communicating with readers, users, and customers. It has also proved instrumental in providing a convincing point of view as well as direction to internal stakeholders.

Be a reliable team player

Having a team is great: Success comes if groups of people rise up together and support each other toward common goals. Working as a team allows us to cover more ground and get more things done. It also allows us to bounce ideas off of one another to come up with fresh approaches and innovative solutions. Above all, it allows us to empower one another to grow, both professionally and as people.

As a manager, I seek out or create development opportunities for my teammates. Sometimes such opportunities may seem daunting at first and push people out of their comfort zones, but I always make it clear that we’re in this as a team. I provide guidance and ongoing feedback. I also acknowledge, however, that we’ll most likely encounter ambiguity, and we won’t have all the answers right away. We’ll find them together as we go.

John F. Kennedy is attributed with saying that leadership and learning were indispensable to each other. It’s a maxim that I wholeheartedly subscribe to and that I try to pass on to my team.

Keep an open mind

I love to travel. Nothing gets me more excited than planning a trip and packing my bag at the prospect of exploring a place that I haven’t experienced yet.

Growing up in Germany in a time of radical political change—the fall of the Berlin Wall and its ripple effects—I had the opportunity to visit most European countries before I graduated from university. Extended trips to India, South East Asia, and North America, as well as work assignments in Shanghai and Chennai, further shaped my worldview and helped me grow as a person.

To me, traveling is more than just seeing the top sights and checking them off a list. It’s about spending time in an unknown place with an open mind, interacting with people to learn about their history, language, and culture, and getting an idea of the way they go about their daily lives.

Cultural immersion coupled with a healthy sense of curiosity builds empathy, ethnographic understanding, and diverse and integrative thinking, qualities that I also put to good use in my professional life. For example, it’s imperative that we understand the full context of a problem that wants to be solved and align on a strategic approach before we start exploring solutions. To do that, we need to identify and connect stakeholders from different disciplines, ensure that all voices are being heard, and confirm that all data are being considered. Empathic, considerate, culturally informed facilitation is then required to reconcile differing perspectives and align everyone on a shared vision.

But there’s more to developing an open, engaged mind than travel. As a believer in life-long learning, I think it’s important to seek out opportunities to gain new knowledge or deepen existing knowledge in many fields of interest. The topic, format, and context of those opportunities may vary, from attending a seminar on future thinking at Stanford University to reading up on architectural styles in the comfort of my home to experiencing a guided tea ceremony in Kyoto. The effect, however, is the same—each new insight expands my sense of self and frame of reference for critical thinking.

Résumé

I believe that you learn a lot about a person by looking beyond the résumé, but you can download it here.