Getting to know our leadership team. Meet…

Lindie Kramers

Chief Marketing Officer, Istoria Group

1. Where were you born - and brought up?

I was born in Cape Town and spent my formative years in the wine regions of Stellenbosch and Paarl in Western Cape Province, South Africa.

2. What did you want to be when you grew up?

It depended on the day. Some aspirations were high-minded, like being an ambassador or a philanthropist. My dad was a great believer in giving something back and sponsored local school transport and sports teams, so it was a word I heard a lot growing up. Other ambitions were more typical – a vet or an astronaut!

3. Tell us about the career journey that brought you to Istoria Group?

As a teenager, I began to think about a career in advertising. South African agencies were having a real golden period at the time. I came to England for a gap year when I was 18 – little did I know I’d never go back – and stayed on to do a degree in marketing and design here. I thought then as I do now that you can’t market design unless you know how things are made and you can’t design unless you understand how something will sell and to whom.

In the third year of my degree, I worked for an ad agency on an internship and quickly realised it wasn’t for me. Branding design was much more in line with my interests and I went on to work in that field, before expanding into other types of design. I always knew I wanted to work for independent agencies, where you can be agile and make the biggest difference as you’re not effectively bound by shareholder reporting. Helping each agency I worked for find its niche was very rewarding and my work took me from opening international offices to doing some very satisfying pro bono work (that philanthropic urge again!) to working right across the client spectrum from corporate behemoths to start-ups.

In 2016, I left London for Bath and thought it was high time to readdress the work-life balance. A great recruitment agent helped me investigate agencies in Bath and Bristol. He happened to know Sam, our CEO, and thought we’d be a good fit. The rest is history!

4. What do you most enjoy about your current role?

Working with transformative ideas and being given the freedom to execute them. It’s a brave company and my role has already involved some great changes, from the re-branding of the group to the development of our internal EPIC (entrepreneurial, personable, intelligent, collaborative) ethos and helping win The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development.

5. What does a typical day look like for you?

I’m an early riser and love being active before the world wakes up. I do a 15-minute language lesson – I’m learning Portuguese – and take some exercise, often going for a walk in nearby woods to immerse myself in nature.

When the working day starts, I always make sure to have some focus time to get ideas in motion that will underpin our activities. After that, I wear many hats and have a wide remit, making sure all our talented UK and US team are focused and supported and driving the agenda for our marketing, social media, business development and PR activities across the group.

6. Which part(s) of Istoria Group’s ethos are you most passionate about and why?

Actually, all of it. It’s so balanced and interlinked. You can’t succeed at being entrepreneurial without being personable for example, whilst intelligent design is vital for everyone’s success and collaboration gets the very best out of everybody.

It’s the only company I’ve worked at where everyone knows what the values are and actively embraces them.

7. What have been the biggest lessons of your career to date?

I’m a natural optimist. I’ve learnt to be optimistic and realistic, never pessimistic. Never take a role only for the money or work for a company that doesn’t value you. Finally, respect is something that has to be both earnt and maintained.

8. What drives and motivates you?

Being able to have and act on transformative ideas, as well as understanding complex challenges – that great moment when you first see a way of solving a problem.

9. Do you have any tips for being a successful company leader?

To me, a good leader is somebody with vision, who stays true to their vision and has the tenacity to see it through to completion. A good leader is also a principled and humble one, aware of both their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, a good leader has to be a good listener – someone who can prioritise, delegate, manage risk, say ‘no’, be an excellent communicator - and be able to inspire a team to get the best out of them.

10. What kind of people do you most enjoy working with – both as colleagues and as clients?

People with a can-do attitude. Radiators not drains, as the saying goes. I value intelligence, ethics, ambition and passion and I really don’t care for manipulative people or divas!

11. Do you have any mantras or quotes that inspire you in your work?

No - I’m just not the kind of person who looks for mantras to guide me. Inspiration comes from all sorts of places – the mundane, the weird, uncanny or unexpected. I like to go out and look for inspiration every day and I always find it – in nature or in people.

12. Who do you personally admire in the wider world?

I often imagine one of those fantasy dinner parties. My guests would include Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, The Queen, Iris Apfel, Yayoi Kusama, Stephen Fry and David Attenborough. I admire each guest for a different reason, but all of them raised themselves up to face adversity, became successful and created something for the greater good. It would be a great night I think!

13. Where would we find you at weekends?

Growing up in South Africa, I was used to lots of sunshine and being outside all the time – in the mountains, the vineyards and the ocean. In the UK, I am the same, though minus the same quantities of sunshine of course! I like to hike, cycle and dine outside. We enjoy cooking outdoors on an open fire and have barbeques up to four times a week in the summer. I like dinner parties and going out to the theatre or to see comedy. I’ve also begun to paint, transforming a spare room in the house into a studio. I have no talent but it makes me happy!

14. Name a book everyone should read?

I recently re-read Arthur Golden’s ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. It’s a really enjoyable read, mixing historical fact with fairytale fiction and a Dickensian romance. What’s not to like?

15. What future ambitions still burn for you?

The first would be a complete dream – to buy land in Southern Africa and run a wildlife sanctuary, providing employment and preserving wildlife.

The second would be to create the perfect product that makes a difference, influences people’s lives, is run on a completely fair trade and fair pay basis and is completely sustainable and circular - and can be transformed into something else when its life cycle or relevance expires. I’m still figuring out what that may be!

Thank you for reading!