**For current students and recent graduates: Bridge Strategy is currently accepting applicants for Consultants and Outreach Organizers! Message Kathryn through LinkedIn for more information.
This week’s Women in Business Spotlight features Kathryn Cross, Founder of Bridge Strategy and Co-Host of “Statement Piece.” A recent Wellesley alumna, Kathryn is an Economics and Media Arts and Sciences graduate who has an interest in fashion, social justice, and entrepreneurship. With an eye toward law school and a passion for social activism, she has professional experience with legal work at Goldman Sachs and Harvard Law School, design at the MIT Media Lab, and consulting at a long-short equity fund, start-up, and the Oxford Strategy Group. Kathryn has been quite productive in quarantine, founding her own pro bono consulting firm, Bridge Strategy, which aims to bridge the gap between Gen Z and other kinds of consumers. She also finds time to explore her love for fashion, and co-hosts “Statement Piece,” a podcast that analyzes the fashion industry through a business and social justice lens.
Read more about our conversation on the challenges in entrepreneurship, how COVID-19 has influenced the fashion industry, and building your company brand.
July 9 2020, 11 am EDT
Written by Sarah Chu
The Challenges in Entrepreneurship
SC: Starting your own consultancy right out of undergrad seems daunting. What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve faced in starting Bridge Strategy?
KC: Client outreach is tough. Many small businesses are open to having undergraduate students; however, it is difficult to bring awareness to a new consultancy. What is going to make someone interested in the firm? Who is my target client? What is Bridge Strategy’s value-added? These are questions that I’ve been thinking about when acquiring clients.
SC: Your point directly aligns with a course I took at LSE! What are other challenges can you think of?
KC: Organizational design is also difficult to identify dysfunctional aspects of work flow, procedures, and structures within the firm. As a founder, there are many decisions that need to be made, but I always keep Bridge Strategy’s mission of ‘bridging the gap between Gen Z and clients’ in mind with every decision.
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Fashion Industry
SC: With COVID-19 blending home-life with work-life, the remote lifestyle has certainly changed everything, especially our wardrobe. It feels like wearing business attire is in the distant past. How do you think business clothing will change post-quarantine?
KC: Business clothing will change, especially if people are WFH. Consumers are looking to change into more comfortable pants. For tops, I think people will resort to a blazer or a plain shirt. Once the world enters this ‘new normal,’ consumers will yearn for comfortability in work attire, so the dress code may be more lenient. Overall, I believe the industry will revert to normal standards of business attire.
SC: I’m wondering if some companies are adopting more casual dress codes altogether. Have you noticed a shift in the fashion industry toward long-term leisure wear?
KC: I don’t recall any companies permanently embracing leisure attire. I noticed some companies, like Twitter, inherently adopted more casual wear by allowing their employees to WFH indefinitely. In the future, I think that as Gen Z becomes a greater part of the workforce, there will be a greater demand for leisurewear.
SC: Why do you think that Gen Z will advocate for more casual work attire?
KC: In the same way that Gen Z are divesting in companies that don’t align with their values on climate change, Gen Z workers may not work for companies that don’t align with values, which can be as trivial as business dress code.
Building Your Company Brand
SC: Speaking on personal experience with this blog, building your company brand is extremely difficult. What are some strategies that helped you brand “Statement Piece”?
KC: Building your company brand is tough. For “Statement Piece,” Sita (co-host) and I aimed to analyze the fashion industry through a business and social justice lens. This interdisciplinary approach differentiates us from existing podcasts most discuss current events without critically analyzing them.
SC: I can empathize with you – building your brand requires a lot of deep thinking, especially with such a saturated blogging market!
KC: I agree. Wellesley helped me solidify my passion for helping people. Whether it’s through this podcast or Bridge Strategy, I hope to make a positive impact on the livelihoods of those around me.
SC: You will. We’ve come a long way since our biology lab together! I am so proud of the work you’ve done, and I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish.