Kathy Koshgarian, president and chief operating officer of Milwaukee-based Dohmen Company Foundation, was recently recognized as BizTimes Milwaukee’s 11th Woman Executive of the Year. At BizTimes’ Women in Business Symposium, Koshgarian discussed Dohmen’s philosophy of change, which has driven its evolution into a nonprofit-owned company focused on increasing community access to healthy foods and preventing chronic disease.
“Don’t change just to change. Ensure that it’s purposeful.”
“Describe the future in a clear and compelling way. … Second, identify what matters most. These are your make-its and break-its. Third, orient the entire organization’s perspective to always be forward looking.”
“(In 2020), we amped up our strategy, we fast-tracked it. In a year where we were faced with headwinds, we created tailwinds. Not only did we amp up our strategy, we amped up our resourcing.”
“It is part of (Dohmen’s) DNA, it is part of our culture. We change what we do without changing who we are.”
“It is possible to reignite the spirits of those who may have become complacent and to feed the fuel of those that are looking for what’s next. Instead of thinking about the one out of three (people) that are adverse (to change), let’s ignite those two out of three people.”
