The Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to its knees. Its global impact is enormous: millions in deaths and cases, billions in lost revenues and jobs lost due to businesses and industries shutting down, an unparalleled spike in mental health issues, induced vulnerability because of mandatory social isolation, and academic deceleration are just some of the pandemic’s direct major consequences. 

Getting back on our feet called for a considerable recalibration in the way we think and act because, like it or not, life was never the same again. 

Business development strategist Susanne-Kikki Israelsson had a flourishing consultancy career for years before the pandemic. She incurred business losses. Inundated with a daily dose of doom-and-gloom news, she had to make sense of what was happening. The Swedish entrepreneur had to quickly reflect and dig deeper than usual into what the future would look like, starting with the consequences to her. What can she do? What does she need to do business-wise so she’s better prepared in case another crisis on a pandemic scale happens in the future? 

“Covid put us all in a situation where we understood how vulnerable we all were, and that everything could change quickly and without warning,” says Susanne. “It pushed me to rethink and reframe everything, professionally and personally. I am now more grateful and even more careful about the paths I choose in life.”

While many of us had to live with being cooped up in our concrete homes during the lockdown, residents of Sweden were allowed to go outdoors, which gave Susanne time to reimagine her life for a rebound. 

“We live near the sea. Every day, we took long walks. I became more aware of how important my home, family and nature were during those tough times even though they have always been important to me. I became more grateful for what I had around me than I had been before,” relishes Susanne. 

Her great passion is her family, consisting of husband, two children with their partners, four grandchildren, and Baoshi, the family dog, as well as her best friend of 53 years, Annika Månsson.  

Rethink. Reframe. Rebound. 

“Covid changed the entire playing field for all market players, including myself. It required rethinking business and business development. Sustainability became very apparent in different ways, such as nature reclaiming its spaces (like the turtles returning to the beaches), the rapid acceleration of digitalisation, and digital communication becoming a daily routine etc,” says the graduate of Digital Transformation at University of Maryland (US).

“I am a purpose-driven entrepreneur, which means I run businesses and operations with a higher purpose and societal engagement beyond pure profit maximisation (if you do it right the profit will develop). It is about creating value for society, the environment, or a certain group of people, often through social entrepreneurship or sustainable business models. There must always be a purpose and value in everything you do. I always want to create something better for people, animals, and nature. Longevity is also important to me, and I do not believe in quick money!”

Covid -19 was a game changer. It’s now increasingly challenging us to purposely modify how we think and respond to the new order because simply adapting is not enough. 

“It is like turning over every stone and finding something that needs to be redone to fit the future. Everything must be reassessed, from which products and services you offer to how they are produced, shipped, use digitalisation for improvement, employment forms (where the younger generation is much more into gig work), board compositions, competitors – basically everything,” reflects Susanne, who has travelled and worked in over 50 countries worldwide, including a stint  for 10 years in China and Japan, and experienced many business cultures.

Even during her pre-pandemic years at IKEA she already worked with purpose and value-creation. It’s not just making a lot of money for the company, but also creating positive change for people and nature. For example, she was involved in the development of LED lighting at IKEA, which benefits both people/nature and creates profit. 

“Whatever company I have worked for, I have always worked on projects that made a difference for both people and nature to create long-term change,” continues Susanne, who is also working on strategic projects in the furniture industry to create sustainable business models for the future. “Most countries I have been to need to become more long-term in their way of doing business, and they need to get better at creating value and purpose in everything they do.”

 It is the IKEA connection that ties Susanne to Women of the World (WOW), thanks to fellow alumni Agneta Olsson and Jocelyn Goh, who both worked at the global home furnishing company. WOW is an all-women global group coaching programme and network for women who want to make an impact and proactively shape the next stage of their lives or careers. 

“I have been a part of so many organisations focusing on women, but WOW is one of those that I really like very much because it’s about promoting and lifting women in different ways, not only in business,” she says.

New Norms. New Entrepreneurships. 

A surge in a new breed of young entrepreneurs has already emerged even before the pandemic. However, the lockdown practically uncaged a refreshing set of enterprising youths, a noticeable uptrend on social media. 

Susanne realised quite quickly during the pandemic that she possesses skills honed from years of immersive on-the-job experiences. Giving back to the younger generation, teaching them skills and coaching had become her next preoccupation. The choice to become a teacher at a university and to be an advisor to those who want to start their own business regardless of age and status came naturally. 

She believes education needs to change and be reformed to better fit the creation of sustainable people and ensure that different types of talents can grow within the school system. Strongly supporting youth entrepreneurship is very important in the post-pandemic era. Nurturing them to develop a solution-based entrepreneurial mindset will make them better equipped to face an ever-evolving changing world. Afterall, creating long-term improvement has always been her priority.

She estimates 500-1,000 individuals have so far benefitted from her upskilling efforts since 2022. Her students’ frequent feedback is about Susanne’s deep, broad knowledge of so many areas – how she can jump in any project, understand it and see how they can move forward. They also say Susanne is so curious about everything, an obvious term of endearment. 

Susanne continues: “Many great entrepreneurs did not go to university because they could not use their talents in the right way and felt limited by the school environment. I am part of a project where young people, already at the ages of 14-15, get to try entrepreneurship because, within entrepreneurship, there is the opportunity to go different ways and try things out in a completely different way than in school. Maybe we can find the next big talent by allowing them to try early on. So, more entrepreneurial spirit in schools! 

“In Sweden, we are very skilled at innovation processes, which also has to do with our leadership style. Organisations are very flat and not so hierarchical, which creates space for everyone's ideas and encourages trying different approaches. Innovations will save our world, so it is very important to have a high percentage of innovation work in all companies today,” says Susanne, CEO of her own consulting firm NEWaste (Swedish for newest thing) AB based in Sweden that focuses on business development in all its dimensions for companies, schools, and organisations.

Recalibrating is not new to Susanne, who once dreamt of becoming a photographer. But unknown to many she completed two years of pre-nursing course in Sweden. Her first job was working in a hospital intensive care unit and emergency room.

“Life took another path, and when I met my husband we moved to Älmhult for his job. I started working part-time at the IKEA store – and stayed on for 23 years. That’s where I found my home – it became my dream job,” she says. “I still do photography, but only for private use.”  Älmhult is a locality and the seat of Älmhult in Kronoberg County in Sweden, where the first IKEA store was built. 

Leaving no stone unturned, Susanne has decided that every year she would do something she has never tried before. This year, she was a volunteer for a week at the Eurovision Contest 2024 in Malmö (the largest city in Sweden), an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union. Moreover, she is also working on strategic projects in the furniture industry, including in Kosovo, to create sustainable business models for the future. 

Susanne has comfortably achieved a reframed life by pro-actively moving from post-pandemic response to a more sustainable future as value maker, purpose director, teacher and mentor. “These are the red threads to the things I do.” 

And she’s just getting started. If there’s one thing she hopes to be remembered for is her acumen in always understanding what we need to do to move into the future in different areas. 

Debbie | ws

Email: hej@susannekikki.se | website: https://susannekikki.se/ | Women of the World