The Spheres, Pike Place Market, Space Needle - Once again this year, the winners of Female Entrepreneurs of the Future 2019 went on a trip to Seattle for a week. For the first time they traveled together with the winners of the Amazon Small Business Spotlight Awards.
On top of doing city sightseeing, Anastasiya Koshcheeva from MOYA Birch Bark, Anette Haverkamp-Peiß from EMMA Eventing, Christiane Hübner from renna deluxe and Susanne Richter from Sanni Shoo also got an insight into the Amazon Headquarters and participated in exciting workshops with Amazon Leadership. They particularly enjoyed the panel discussion on "Female Leadership @Amazon" with Lena Bryant, Head of Worldwide Dangerous Goods Compliance and the Global Compliance Operations Team, and Nuala Murphy, AWS Global Customer Service Leader, emphasizing the importance of women in the digital economy. "Employee diversity brings a wide range of perspectives into daily work. These different perspectives are super important as we strive to continually identify new ways to delight our diverse customer base," says Lena Bryant.
These different perspectives are also reflected in the Amazon Leadership Principles. For Nuala Murphy, as a leader it is also important to stay close to work reality "Leaders are only as good as the questions they ask. It is important to understand processes in detail and daily challenges through regular conversations with all employees".
Kick-starting the businesses of young entrepreneurs
The winners also met Nick Love, Worldwide Director of Amazon Launchpad on their journey. Nick joined Amazon in 2008 and has held various leadership positions across more than 15 product categories and 2 locales, which positioned him well to take on the Amazon Launchpad role in 2019. In his current position, he helps make it easy for brands to launch and distribute their products to hundreds of millions of Amazon customers across the globe. Because the best idea or the greatest product does not automatically lead to success, with Launchpad, startups and entrepreneurs can sell their products quickly and easily across Europe or even worldwide and get feedback directly from customers. When asked by Susanne Richter how companies can fuel their success on Launchpad, Nick Love's answer is short and concise: "Keep pushing!”, because it takes effort from both the Amazon Launchpad program and the selling partners to help drive brand awareness and growth.
In a workshop on Amazon Global Logistics, Ilse Debruin, Director Global Logistics, and Bo Yang, Senior Product Manager Sellers, explain how sales partners can use Amazon's infrastructure to sell their products globally. "Our goal is to get your products available across the globe, at the right place and at the right time," emphasizes Ilse Debruin. Christiane Hübner is enthusiastic: "I am convinced that the program is simple and convenient!". With her handmade home accessories and lifestyle products, she intends to reach customers all over the world.
With the trip to Seattle, coaching the winners has been a great opportunity to grow their business, overcome obstacles together and make new contacts - They now are ready to face the future!
With the joint initiative Female Entrepreneurs of the Future, the German Association of Female Entrepreneurs, Global Digital Women, BRIGITTE Academy and Amazon supported for the second time owners and managers of companies who want to expand their business with online trading or expand their existing online presence. The core of the program was the individual support of all participants by expert coaches - all of them experienced company founders, e-commerce experts, Amazon retailers or bloggers. For further information on the program please visit: www.unternehmerinnenderzukunft.de.
