Placement Report Kairos Future
James Mantell S3780554
MA International Relations: International Political Economy Placement Report
Kairos Future 09/09/19 – 19/12/19
B.L. Aardema 11/01/20
Contents
Introduction...3
Preparing for the placement...3
Introducing Kairos Future...4
My experience at Kairos...6
Connection with Masters degree...8
What I took from the internship...8
Conclusion...10
Notes/bibliography...10
Introduction
From September to December 2019, I was an intern at Kairos Future in Stockholm. I worked there as a part of the travel and tourism team but was involved in other projects too. This report will detail the lead up to the placement, give a brief overview of Kairos Future and discuss my experiences during this period. I will also quickly mention what this means for my career going forward.
Preparing for the placement
This title makes it sound as though there was a plan, which was very much not the case. I decided to look for a placement just before summer in 2019, and with no idea of what I wanted to do, let alone where, I started searching LinkedIn with terms like
‘consultant English’ in almost every major northern European city. As with many students, applying for internships is a demoralizing process, which we do not take to with much enthusiasm. I found the process different from how I imagined it, as, in New Zealand, we are used to receiving rejection letters, rather than simply no response at all. However, I was lucky and after applying to roughly ten or fifteen diverse roles, Kairos Future responded.
Kairos Future made the process very simple and was amazing with responding promptly. I did a case study with them, and then a quick interview, and then one week after sending the application to Kairos I had received an internship offer. The placement was to start in September, so I had July and August left to write my thesis and enjoy a summer holiday. Again at this point, my lack of experience with
European customs caught me by surprise. Hoping that I could focus on finishing my thesis, and enjoy a small summer holiday, I had to sort out the details of what I thought would have been an otherwise straight forward process. Adding to the complexity of this was, of course, other people enjoying their summer holidays.
Arranging things with Kairos Future was easy, and their idea of how the placement would work suited me extremely well. In the interview, my supervisor made it clear
that Kairos Future was still in the tender stage of many of the projects they hoped to be working on in the autumn, so while we could not make a detailed plan of what would happen before I arrived, they did promise that I would be involved in the projects, that there would be a diverse range of projects and I would gain an understanding of how their firm worked (all of which was delivered). This more laidback style suited me, and I was looking forward to adopting and adapting to the tasks given to me during the placement. This contrasted with how the placement was organized here at the University of Groningen, which, while everyone was pleasant to deal with, was a slow process.
I was lucky that I had a friend in Stockholm from years back and he helped me find a place to stay and get settled in Stockholm. I was lucky that I could get the Erasmas+
scholarship, and while Stockholm was nowhere near as expensive as people warned me it would be, it certainly made life much more comfortable than would have been the case otherwise. I spent the month of August in Montenegro writing my thesis and enjoying some sunshine before going to Stockholm, via Oslo to visit another friend.
I had about a week to get settled in Stockholm before my internship started, this was enough time to figure out how to navigate the public transport and get used to the odd quirks that every country has.
Introducing Kairos Future
Kairos Future is a reasonably small consultancy and research firm based in
Stockholm, Sweden with clients around the world. They specialize in future trends, strategy which is forward-looking and being a ‘thought leader’ within Sweden.
Founded in 1993, the company has expanded, and now has a strong reputation within Scandinavia, and particularly Sweden. They operate from Stockholm, Gothenburg and Shanghai, with representatives based in other cities around the world as well. Founder and CEO Mats Lindgren specializes in strategy consulting and his work has been the framework with which the company has worked with and expanded.
Kairos Future works with a wide range of clients and collaborates with a number of partners across many industries, and while I was part of the Travel and Tourism team I got to see how other parts of the company worked. The Travel and Tourism team works closely with local tourism boards in Sweden to help them plan and create strategies for the future of tourism. This involves looking for developing trends, identifying which ones are important for specific clients and looking at best practices across the world. This is similar to what other consulting teams at Kairos did as well.
The other side of Kairos is the primary data collection and data analysis team, which I was not involved with too much. The things that Kairos does very well is creating a team of experts from a diverse range of academic backgrounds and looking at industries in a very holistic way. Meaning that industries are viewed from as many angles as possible.
One thing that really stuck out to me, and struck me as different to my experience was the lack of hierarchy within this company. This is not to say that it did not exist, but that everyone’s point of view was valid, from the CEO to the interns, and that everyone was expected to be an integral part of the projects. Perhaps this is because I worked in a large multinational accounting firm before, which are known for their rather strict hierarchies. It is also possible of course that this is part of the
Scandinavian culture, in which there is a big emphasis on equality. Though I personally think it was a combination of these and the fact that Kairos Future was unique and this was a very conscious decision to make sure the company operated this way.
I think that it should be noted that this could be a rather vague explanation of what Kairos Future does and what they aim to do, however, for me, that was kind of the point of Kairos. They aim to be as flexible as possible and to be able to help
companies and institutions of all kind and do not seek to place limitations on what kind of work they will do.
My experience at Kairos
Starting at Kairos Future was daunting for the first couple of weeks, as there was little in the way of an onboarding process and I, along with the other intern, was thrown in the deep end. We were both given projects on day one, and on the second day I had a meeting with the COO, a junior consultant, and a client to start a new project. The project was for an international client, where we were tasked with mapping out the online travel agency market. We did this at a global level, looking at the main players, their business models, their growth and where they were looking to expand in the future. We also looked at a more regional level, particularly within Europe. This involved finding out which companies and groups owned others, and how they were positioned within these markets. This was not a traditional Kairos Future project, and I was told this repeatedly. The junior consultant I was working with had started a couple of weeks before me, and so he was also trying to find his feet in this project as well as the company. The project was fun, as this was a subject I did not have a lot of (read ‘any’) knowledge of. Clearly, the scope of this project was massive, and for two people in new roles it was a little overwhelming, however, one of many great things about working at Kairos Future was that other people were always interested in the projects that were happening around them, so we had plenty of support for this project. It was here that I felt completely out of my depth, as nothing I had done up to this point had prepared me to work on something like this. The junior consultant took a lead, and while he showed his gratitude for the work I completed, it felt very much like his project at the end.
After this, I was given a more ‘traditional’ Kairos project and was tasked with finding best practices of how other tourism destinations had expanded their peak season, and also had to find trends for another client who wanted to look at what trends were happening in arctic tourism. After the online travel agency project, these projects felt much more manageable, and I was able to complete these without too much
guidance.
By this point, I thought I had a better grasp of what I was doing at Kairos Future, and what was expected of me. The next big project I was given, was to help look at the
future of Nordic food. This was another large project, which involved looking at climate change, tourism, changing consumer trends, institutions’ roles and food production systems. All this was geared towards two different horizons; 2025 and 2040. I enjoyed this project a lot and again learned a lot about a subject that I did not know much about. My supervisor for this project had been at Kairos Futue for a year or so, and was very able to help me understand my precise role within the project, how that contributed to the overall project, and how it connected with the other pieces. Which, from a management point of view, is a big success for a reasonably junior person, and something I can draw on in my next role.
Kairos Future also had a podcast, and they invited me to speak on it. I got to talk about macroeconomics, and a framework for viewing and understanding populism in the Western world today. This is a subject I am extremely interested in, and it was a great experience to talk about this, and hopefully have helped Kairos Future
understand this particular subject a little bit better.
My final big project was to give a ‘learning lunch’ presentation on New Zealand’s Wellbeing Budget. I had mentioned to my supervisor that I did not feel confident giving presentations, and initially, the plan was to practice in front of maybe five people. However, an invitation was sent to the whole company, and I gave this presentation to around twenty people. I also enjoyed this the most, as I treated the presentation as an introduction to New Zealand as well, as I feel many people
(including myself) do not have a great understanding of New Zealand and view it as a kind of 2D place where the landscape is beautiful and the people are happy all the time. I spent a lot of time doing the research for this presentation, perhaps too long, but when I was speaking for the first time ever I did not need notes and I did not feel nervous during a presentation. There was an opportunity for discussion, and I was glad that I could answer most of the questions that were asked, and the feedback for the whole presentation was extremely positive.
In between these big projects, I did some more classic intern jobs, such as making coffee and sandwiches while the office administrator was away sick, and also did
some editing in English for people. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the opportunities that Kairos Future gave me.
Connection with the Master's program
This is a difficult part for me to write about. Mostly because I did not do this Master’s degree to further my career. I did the degree because I wanted to learn more about something I am interested in and learn how to think and look at data critically.
Therefore I see my studies and my internship as two very distinct things. I also do not think that universities have an obligation, or a role, to help integrate people into the workforce. This is, of course, my opinion, however, I have not been persuaded otherwise yet. One reason for believing this is that, to learn workplace skills internships are placed in course syllabi and then of course outsourced. By this, I mean that students have to find internships, and we are told this is a learning
experience though most of us have already had to do find jobs anyway. Then, mostly because universities are large slow-moving institutions, coordinating contracts between the parties is a difficult process, and one that is most certainly not
representative of finding a job (never have I had a three-party employment contract), which contradicts the claim that this is a learning experience representative of finding a job. In my view, none of this learning takes place within the university, and this responsibility is outsourced to an outside company or organization. To me, this is an admission that universities cannot teach workplace skills. Again this is my view, however, my experience in this internship has only confirmed this.
Of course, this is not to say that skills learned at university are not useful or are not used in the workplace. I have of course used the research skills and analytical thinking skills developed at university in my internship, but this would have been the case regardless of whether this internship was done through the university or not.
What I took from the internship
Using the skills learned at university during the internship, of course, made me feel more confident in my ability to work in the consulting industry. I think the most important thing for me was the confirmation of skills I had already gained. For example in a previous role in New Zealand, I spent a lot of time meeting with stakeholders (both internal and external), and this taught me how to interact with people within the workplace and how important it was to make sure that you have good workplace relationships, particularly when you rely on these people to help plan and execute deliverables. This is true in any workplace and certainly helped me at Kairos Future.
Also, in my previous role, because I was involved in a wide range of activities I learned how the business operated. This meant I could add value in more places, as I understood better how everything interacted. At Kairos Future, I wanted to get the best picture of how the company operated, and these skills came in handy again.
At the end of the internship, I sat down with my supervisor and had a frank discussion about my time at Kairos Future. I appreciated it because I could be honest, and they were honest too. The only thing I was disappointed with was how little contact I had with clients, as this was something I had been looking forward to doing. My supervisor had some criticism for me, which helped me look back over the time better. Firstly I did not speak my opinion enough, and secondly I lacked a bit of initiative. Both of these stem from me not wanting to be wrong, which made me a bit passive at times in the internship, however, I am aware of this and know that I can address this in my next role.
As for the next stage in my career, I know that I want to work for a small consultancy firm. I think this will give me the opportunity to learn a lot of skills, and see many sides of how businesses operate. As opposed to working in a large company where everything is very process-driven. However, I’m not sure exactly where I want to work. Likely in Europe, and I had always wanted to live in London, but continued uncertainty over Brexit makes a move there a tougher decision. I also, don’t know
what kind of consulting I want to do. Working with travel and tourism was fun, but it is not an area I am passionate about. Right now I am just applying for jobs in Europe and Australia that match my skill set and also seem interesting.
Conclusion
To conclude, overall this experience has been a positive one. I am grateful for the opportunities, challenges, and support that Kairos Future gave me. I’m also glad that I took the opportunity to work in another country, and experience a new city, although Stockholm is far too dark for me to live in. I want to state that I am concerned that my opinions of the Universities role in this internship come across as resoundingly
negative. However, I am grateful that I had this opportunity, and dealing with individuals at the university has been an overall enjoyable experience, but it is the large and slow-moving bureaucracy that I have not enjoyed dealing with. This can also be seen as something that I have learned; I want to work for small companies that are agile and able to adapt to change and circumstance easily. This is something that simply cannot be achieved with large organizations, as they need rules and procedures to operate effectively. This is my experience, and writing anything else would not be honest. As my supervisor said, speaking my opinion is important. If I am to take their criticism seriously, then I have to start now.
Lastly, I am proud of my achievements during this placement. I helped write a report on the online travel agency market, that provided a level of depth that likely did not exist before. I helped provide insights for the future of Nordic food, even though this was a subject that I did not have any experience with before. I also achieved this in a country that I was not at all familiar with and which provided challenges I was not used to.
Notes/bibliography
n/a
