10X Your Business: Trust Your Team to Solve Problems

Episode #101

10X Your Business: Trust Your Team To Solve Problems

How do you scale a business to 250 employees in under 10 years without any outside investment?

Kidzink founder Charlotte Borghesi shares her unconventional approach to building a high-growth team through people-first leadership. From hiring fresh graduates to championing critical thinking over micromanagement, learn Charlotte's counterintuitive secrets to developing talent and fostering an innovative culture that drives success.

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Episode Takeaways

Hire for mindset, not skills - Charlotte shares how she brought on young talent and developed strengths over rigid roles
Fast feedback beats empowerment myths - Daily dialogue and transparency unlock potential more effectively than fear-based management
Scale through people, not cash - How Charlotte invested in nurturing talent rather than seeking outside investment
Let teams solve problems - Why critical thinking, encouraged by autonomy and accountability, trumps adhering to the status quo
Future-proof hiring with proactive scouting - How preemptively sourcing top candidates drives growth
Attitude over experience - Why Charlotte values adaptability and passion over credentials

Big Ideas

Through our interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs, we highlight bold and ambitious ideas that have the potential to revolutionise the future. These ideas might seem impossible now, but if not us, then who? Together, we can shape a more equitable and fair world for everyone.

Charlotte's unconventional and highly successful approach to scaling her business challenges long-held beliefs around people management. Through her lens, we see a work culture that values potential over pedigree. By encouraging innovation through critical thinking rather than limitations, she creates an environment where teams thrive on responsibility rather than directives. Her leadership highlights the untapped value in proactively nurturing talent based on mindset rather than credentials alone. By investing in people over financial gain, she demonstrates how to build an organically collaborative ecosystem primed for continuous learning and growth.

About Charlotte Borghesi:

Charlotte Borghesi is the Founder & Managing Director of Kidzink, an award-winning global educational design and manufacturing firm dedicated to building a bright future through fostering potential, sparking creativity and inspiring minds. Kidzink, through its group of companies including Koda, a comprehensive architectural design practice, achieves this by envisioning and building spaces and communities where knowledge flourishes and the dreams of young people take flight.

An innovative and purpose-driven business-person and world champion sailor, Charlotte founded Kidzink in 2017 in Dubai and has since grown the company from a team of seven to over 200 employees across three global offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Spain. Kidzink footprint extends across the globe with clients and projects spanning 23 countries, touching the lives of nearly half a million children and young people.

An innovative and purpose-driven business-person, Charlotte founded Kidzink after a long and illustrious career within the FMCG sector, holding senior leadership positions across the United Kingdom, France, India and the Middle East.

In addition to her business endeavours, she recently made history as the helm and driver of Team Kidzink, securing a historic victory in the SB20 World Championships, the first UAE-flagged and women-helmed team to hold the world championship title. Her passion for sailing mirrors her entrepreneurial spirit, embodying the values of teamwork, creativity, and determination that define her success both on and off the water.

Kidzink is family-owned and managed, with Charlotte working alongside her husband Paolo, and two of her seven children within the growing company. She has revolutionised the educational landscape through innovative 360-degree solutions and in late 2023, the company was honoured as a Fast Company Most Innovative Company - Education, at an award ceremony in Dubai. Through her dedication to excellence and commitment to innovation, Charlotte actively fosters a workplace that embraces innovation and entrepreneurship, inspiring her team to reach new heights, proving that with vision, perseverance, and a collaborative spirit, anything is possible.

Connect with Charlotte on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-borghesi-5bb4731/
Connect with Charlotte on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kidzinkdesign/
Find out more about Kidzink at https://kidzinkdesign.com/

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Thank you to Poddster Dubai for filming and editing this episode. We're grateful for their ongoing support of Female Fusion and our members.

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