Female Entrepreneurship Series: Working Between Cultures

Working Between Cultures, founded in 2012, is a business that aims to increase diversity in companies, universities, research institutions, and NGOs. It offers seminars and personnel training to improve dialogue among people and to support their personal development. Both founders, Maria Prahl and Eliza Skowron, are trained coaches for seminars and personnel development and previously worked as employed trainers and coaches in this field.

I talked to Maria about her personal and professional background and the founding story of Working Between Cultures.

The Founders

Maria Prahl: Maria’s studied Culture Studies as an undergraduate. She went on working for the Robert Bosch Foundation in Berlin. After meeting her husband and moving to Munich, she assumed responsibility for various projects in personnel training at the Technical University of Munich. Maria continued her education by taking part in training at the Robert Bosch Foundation to become an international seminar leader. This was when she realized her passion for leading seminars in order to help and improve other’s personal and professional development. While pursuing her professional roles, Maria also studied Communication Studies and East-European History in her Master’s degree. After concluding her Master’s degree, she studied Personnel Development alongside work. Her focus lies on Diversity Management and Train-the-Trainer.

Eliza Skowron: Eliza studied German Philology, Cultures Studies and Migratory Movements. She received a Master’s degree in Philology and a Master’s degree in Political Studies. As did Maria, Eliza was trained to be an international seminar leader. She worked as a lecturer for the German language and culture at integration courses for migrants and refugees. Her focus lies on intercultural communication for Germany, India, and East and Southeast Europe. Eliza primarily works with multi-cultural groups and in international teams.

The Story

When Maria and Eliza met in 2003 at a Seminar of the Robert Bosch Foundation, they knew instantly that they shared the same values and work ethic. Both already were passionate personnel trainers at the time, but they felt they needed to break free of the bureaucratic confines of a university setting. Because they were both very much aware of the risks – especially financially – of founding an own business and being self-employed, the two young women decided to continue working in their day jobs for another year while developing their business plan and acquiring customers at the same time. Once they were sure to have gathered enough contracts for their intercultural personnel training, Maria and Eliza quit their jobs and were then fully self-employed. Maria recalled: “That was such a liberating moment.”

The Struggles

Maria said: “Initially, I had an issue with lacking self-confidence. And I think that is a topic specific to women.” She stated the core problem is that women often do not believe that their abilities are anything special. That is, until they realize that others are doing the same thing and making a living of it. It sometimes happened that she didn’t voice an idea or opinion – and then somebody else did and collected the reward. Maria also told me that in the early stages of founding Working Between Cultures, she had doubts if she was actually good at what she was doing and if she was professional enough. Women tend to be much more self-critical than men in their self-assessment.

The Success

The more positive feedback Maria received from her clients, the more her self-esteem and belief in her unique capabilities and talents grew. Maria said now she knows that clients value the founder’s continual self-assessment and subsequent advancement. Because of Working Between Culture’s high quality work, the business has regular customers that keep coming back to benefit from their excellent services.  

Annamarie