Sense of culture

The finale of our young professionals initiative #30u30 will take place on a big stage: The PR Report Camp in Berlin on November 13th. The Class of 2018 will compete for the title, “Young Professional of the Year.” At the start is Saskia Praetorius from Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Saskia has a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology and a master’s in cultural management. She has interned at the cultural office of her hometown in Frankfurt, spent a semester abroad at the Goethe-Institut in Stockholm and volunteered at the Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung. It is clear, Saskia has a passion for culture. Nonetheless, she got a taste of work life at Burson-Marsteller and Gauly Dittrich van de Weyer. She realized the slow-paced culture was not for her. She needed “something bigger, broader, more international”. This is how the 28-year-old ended up at Hill+Knowlton Frankfurt. 

In addition to traditional media relations, she also works in transition and employee engagement. In times of transformation for consulting companies, she is often confronted with cultural issues. Saskia primarily works with internationally-active industrial clients, such as the chemical and agricultural sectors. Together with her team, she won the “Most Innovative” award twice at the PR hackathon.

I am proud of… my little sister, a strong woman who has always been self-confident in her own way and has a clear vision for her education.

In the year 2030 I will… hopefully have not lost any of my enthusiasm and be shaping the future of communication and cooperating together with inspiring people.

The most important trend in the communications industry is…  the discovery of employees as relevant communication target groups and influential communicators. Demographic change and the fusion of internal and external communication make this indispensable.

Completely overvalue is… to want to design a separate app for every possible occasion with the expectation that it will then be installed and used. With an oversupply of apps and limited time, the added value an app offers must be quite high now.

Career means to me… nothing, so long as the culture is not fun and health suffers from it. I want to work with people who enrich my everyday life, make me laugh, spur me on to peak performance and are interested in my future development.

A top employer must… present a consistent image both internally and externally, be sincerely interested in the well-being and growth of his or her employees and, above all, be courageous to try something new in times of digitization.

I expect a good mentor to… he or she gives honest feedback, can listen well, motivate and give me strength to tackle even uncomfortable things.

Good advice was… leave your comfort zone and the unofficial motto of my university “don’t complain, do it yourself”. On one hand, I am convinced that personal and professional development can only take place by looking beyond one’s nose and trying out new, unknown things. On the other hand, I find it a refreshing and relevant approach, especially in today’s world, to become active in design.

A role model in communication is… Lena Rogl from Microsoft, because she sets precedents in the area of corporate communications, successfully and sympathetically united family and career, and makes herself strong for women in the corporate world.

This interview was translated by Saskia. View the original article here. 

by PR Report Germany | 30 Under 30 List | November 9, 2018 | @ http://www.hkstrategies.com/global/en/pr-report-interview-hk-germanys-saskia-praetorius/

Please contact Eleni Constantinidi for more information.