AIESEC Life Business Community: Feature of the Month - Karina Jensen
The AIESEC Life Business Community (ABC) is a new community supporting AIESEC alums and their businesses. This initiative is all about fostering connections among our alumni and providing valuable resources and networking opportunities.
For this month’s alumnus interview, we’ll hear from Karina R. Jensen who’s enjoyed an inspirational and insightful journey in evolving the vision and solutions at Global Minds Network. The inspiration started with her leadership experience at AIESEC-San Jose and traineeship in Europe which fueled an international career that shifted from corporate to consulting to research and education. She’s led international initiatives in industry, education, and non-profit sectors with the purpose of facilitating collaborative innovation for global impact.
(AL) How did you get started with your own business?
(KJ) Starting my own business had always been a career goal, especially after completing my MBA. After enjoying several years in launching global initiatives for multinational firms in Silicon Valley, I witnessed firsthand the challenge of facilitating cross-cultural collaboration during the project innovation process, from concept to market. The inability to optimize knowledge-sharing and learning during the concept creation and planning phases often led to ineffective execution and poor team performance, resulting in solutions that were not aligned with local market needs. After conducting a benchmark study with several tech companies, I found there was an opportunity to develop an international consulting firm focused on global launch solutions. The timing to start this firm arrived earlier than expected since my employer at the time was challenged during the 2001 recession with several layoffs including our division. I realized this was the opportunity to take the leap and launch Global Minds Network.
(AL) What were the biggest challenges you faced along the way?
(KJ) The biggest challenge was starting from ground zero with a new consulting firm that did not have brand recognition, lacked clients, and had a shoe-string budget – basically everything you should try to avoid when you launch a new business! Based in California, I optimized my professional network, conducted email campaigns, made cold calls, and proposed many speaking events in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area to increase visibility and awareness of the solutions offered by Global Minds Network. After a long period of communicating and networking, I finally captured a multinational client which involved a key global launch initiative – it was a successful project and valuable case reference which then resulted in more client projects!
(AL) What are some of the most important lessons you've learned?
(KJ) Over the years, I’ve learned the importance of listening to clients and markets, being responsive to change, creating new solutions, and empowering the network. Global Minds Network has become a fascinating learning journey in developing a vision, team, and solutions for a complex and changing world. Listening to clients and stakeholder teams in asking questions that invite them in a co-creation process has helped keep the focus on their interests and needs, especially when collaborating across cultures and understanding local markets.
The second lesson on responding to change is to constantly be aware and scan the environment for issues and potential solutions. During my corporate and consulting experiences, I focused on operational needs in developing a global launch process for products and services. Yet I discovered there were additional needs for global leadership development and a cross-cultural collaboration process. When the 2007-08 global economic crisis hit Silicon Valley, most client projects were placed on hold. I seized the opportunity to use the slowdown as a sabbatical to create new solutions that could improve leadership and collaboration for global initiatives. I took an unusual yet very rewarding path to explore these challenges: I left for Paris to enroll in a PhD program on International Management and spent the next few years pursuing research with leaders responsible for global initiatives and cross-cultural teams in the US, Europe, and Asia. This work allowed me to manage Global Minds Network on a part-time basis while I created new frameworks and potential solutions from my PhD thesis and research. It resulted in an improved positioning for our services and inspired continued research and publications on new insights and practices for global innovation, leadership, and multicultural collaboration.
The third lesson in creating new solutions is the ability to design a unique framework that allows for custom application and integration. It’s important to simplify complex issues for clients (especially for international initiatives!) with engaging visual frameworks that can be adapted to their business and cultural contexts. Over the years, I’ve become more of a ‘designer’ and ‘facilitator’ in designing new frameworks and developing visual facilitation methods for strategic planning and leadership development workshops.
The fourth lesson is all about empowering your global network. Although I was the sole founder of Global Minds Network, the name and the strategic intent of the firm involved the development of a network of international advisors, consultants, educators, and researchers around the world. Our International Advisory members have extensive international experience and bring expertise along our four global readiness pillars: Global Leadership, Innovation, Cross-cultural Collaboration, and Organizational Transformation. We collaborate through a shared Global Readiness framework with valuable insights and diverse perspectives offered by our advisors and thought leaders in creating international solutions.
(AL) What advice would you give to others who might be interested in starting their own business?
(KJ) Align your passion with your business vision. Starting a new business requires a lot of persistence and patience to overcome initial struggles with outreach, growth, and performance. Being passionate about your purpose and reason for being will help you transform challenges into opportunities. Enlist your personal and professional network to provide you with support, resources, and collaboration possibilities to accelerate results. Think global and local, how to make connections and share knowledge that will empower others. In addition, I would refer to my lessons learned in listening to clients, responding to change, creating new solutions, and empowering your global network.
(AL) Anything else you’d like to share with our alumni about your business?
(KJ) I’m excited about the future since we live in a time with great challenges that require the collective intelligence of a global network and local ecosystems. I hope that our Global Readiness solutions will provide more opportunities for leaders to create a shared vision, align international teams, facilitate cross-cultural collaboration and inspire a global innovation culture. Our social action focus is of special importance as the world needs to accelerate and deliver solutions with greater impact for the UN SDGs. One of our initiatives has now transformed into a non-profit organization, micollaboratory.org, with a mission to accelerate youth entrepreneurship for social impact in marginalized communities and developing economies.
The greatest opportunity to create new solutions for international impact is to accelerate cross-cultural collaboration with the AIESEC global alumni network. I would welcome connecting with those who share the same vision and bring international experience in joining our global network.
If you think your international initiative or company could benefit from our solutions, send an email to karina@globalmindsnetwork for a free 30 minute global readiness review which includes our score card and compass map tools. You can also send a request to sign up for our quarterly newsletter or follow us here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-minds-network
Enjoy a quick world tour with Global Minds Network through a sneak preview of our new explainer video: https://youtu.be/p4u4uDgkI6E
If you would like to know more about serving as a mentor or partner at the non-profit organization MICollaboratory, send an email to [email protected]
We're constantly expanding our ABC program, and you can look forward to alumni profiles on our website, newsletter features, and virtual talks and discussions. Keep an eye out for updates, and get ready to engage with a vibrant community of AIESEC alumni in the business world!