Sofia Norén (born in 1992) from Borås is the winner of the 2017 Anders Wall scholarship for a one-year internship at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. The scholarship of SEK 150,000 will be awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 March.
Sofia has studied economics and social anthropology at Uppsala University and at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gotheburg . Her main interest is the rapid digitisation process underway in the world. She wants to help companies understand the digitisation and how it can develop the conditions in particular for the particular trade.
“Often, companies are hiring someone to ‘take care of those things online’, but it’s all about implementing the digital approach throughout the business, says Sofia. I want to work strategically with the development of the old organisations and transform the large, stiff dinosaurs. There is a paradigm shift we are experiencing with entirely new rules. The Internet is a window to the world!” says the Anders Wall scholarship winner.
In 2015 she founded the consulting firm Handelsforskarna i Borås AB (Trade Scientists in Borås) together with her mother Malin Sundström, who has solid scientific background in economics. The clientele consists mainly of companies and organisations are facing new challenges and opportunities due to changes in customer behavior as a result of digitisation. Sofia has worked with, among others Vasakronan, Cervera and Unionen. She also has a job as a Social Media Manager for Mat.se.
Sofia has always been fascinated by China and the extremely rapid development that is taking place there.
“There can one really speak of a boom! I look forward to within the Chamber of Commerce framework to assist Swedish companies operating in the Chinese market,” she says. 2015 Sofia was one of eight finalists among 4500 applicants to Adecco’s CEO campaign where university students underwent personality tests, logic tests and interviews for the role of deputy CEO. Her leadership profile was assessed as “cool head, warm heart and working hands”.
Sofia has also had a summer job as a test driver for Volvo Cars and been a Chairman for Unga Aktiesparare in Visby.
