Sophia Bristow, the CEO of Eurotech Design, was born in China and emigrated to NZ with her parents when she was 15 “because her parents wanted the best for me”.
They settled in Hamilton (NZ’s 4th largest city) on the North Island where a friend of theirs resided.
She attended the local High School. There was only a small Chinese community in Hamilton, and although Sophia had learnt basic English in China - and her mother was an English teacher - it took Sophia about 6 months to fully integrate into the general community.
Following completion of High School, Sophia attended Waikato University where she obtained a Business Degree (Bachelor of Management Studies with Honours).
She then went to the UK for 2 years on a working holiday: she lived in Notting Hill Gate - during her 2 years in the UK Sophia says “I came out of my shell, learnt a lot about the world”.
Upon her return to NZ, she was walking along Queen Street in Auckland when she came to a Westpac branch and thought that would be a good place to work. She started as a teller and over 5 years moved onwards and upwards finally becoming a Relationship Officer with Westpac Institutional Bank and credit analyst.
Subsequently, she moved to the NZ Superannuation Fund in risk management and portfolio intelligence where she spent 8 years, which she describes as “probably the best 8 years of my life”.
After a few other positions, upon browsing online she came across Eurotech Design, which had been set up in 1996 with a focus on bringing world leading brands and their appliances to the NZ marketplace. Sophia purchased the business, restructured it, and has been running the business under her current structure for the last 6 years. Eurotech is a specialist in the importing and distributing of whiteware, with more than 200 authorised dealers around NZ. It is a Kiwi family-owned company that aims to deliver exceptional value whilst minimising its carbon footprint. In addition to environmental concerns, a major focus of the Eurotech team is establishing and maintaining long-term relationships with customers as well as suppliers. International brands distributed by Eurotech include Sub-Zero & Wolf, an American manufacturer of premium kitchen appliances. Eurotech’s products include: freestanding cookers; built-in ovens; cooktops; rangehoods; refrigeration; dishwashers; laundry accessories; outdoor kitchens and BBQs.
Now That's A BBQ!
(With apologies to Crocodile Dundee)
“We are a proud talented team of people working together to achieve the Eurotech Design mission of delivering world class customer experience and exceptional value through our brands to all customers.
We want to be a socially responsible company, aiming to deliver exceptional value while minimising our carbon footprint on earth. We engage with our suppliers on the use of more environmentally friendly chemicals, while encouraging them to meet higher standards for their workers’ social welfare.
Most of our products are being packaged in cardboard boxes, which are bio-degradable and recyclable”.
Sophia and Eurotech are big on Inspiration:
“Design inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes. It doesn’t matter if you’re an interior designer, building developer, or if you’re simply renovating your own home. The right kind of inspiration will always help you come up with creative and unique ideas for your projects. But sometimes you need some help getting inspired - and that’s something we love to do!”
The first challenge that Sophia had to overcome with Eurotech Design revolved around identifying the old enterprise system as a weakness. She changed to MYOB Advanced Business accounting software which after 3 years has proved a godsend. She also installed HubSpot (a customer relationship management tool) which has been a huge success.
“Our aspiration is to double in size over the next 2 years and having a good system with good processes allows us to focus on our growth strategy and customer care. We now have an accurate audit trail for every order and implementing user permissions will give us even more control over our inventory. I’m really happy with where the business is and where we’re heading. We’ve got some good people in our business, and now a great system with MYOB Advanced Business”.
Eurotech Design has now been launched in Australia on appliances.com.au.
The next challenge Sophia faced was dealing with the COVID pandemic - of course, like everyone else, Sophia found operating around COVID proved a challenge with new means of communication required, and keeping staff and customers motivated.
As far as learnings are concerned, Sophia sees learning as an ever continuous process.
She says “One thing I’ve learned from successful people is you’ve actually got to be present. Don’t worry about yesterday or what happened in the past, and also don’t fret about tomorrow, or what’s going to happen in the future. Make sure you enjoy the moment and live in the present tense. I think I’ve been guilty of not doing that. Sitting in the lounge sometimes when the sun is pouring in during the morning, and just being present - I think it’s so good”.
Sophia was a big fan of Steve Jobs as a presenter, and of his book 'The Presentation - Secrets of Steve Jobs'. She says “This particular book talks about why that is. It talks about how you need to tell people your 'why'. Once people get on board with your why, then the whole what, when and where will just fall into place. But first you’ve got to actually talk about the why. Our sales team all have to read this book before they start working for our company, because we are all about promoting a lifestyle and experience”.
In her role as a leader, Sophia exemplifies the ability of migrant women to break down barriers and promote representation in the business community.
Sophia was introduced to The CEO Institute by word of mouth and has found it tremendous in terms of support and networking, chatting through various things. She says “though the members are from different industries, they face similar challenges and share on ways of dealing with them”.
When she is not working, Sophia enjoys reading - financial journals (her favourite author is Michael Lewis who wrote 'Liar’s Poker'), and legal thrillers (her favourite author in this genre is John Grisham). She also learns piano in concert with her 2 children. Reading and piano are where she seeks refuge from "the stresses and strains of this world".
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