Member of the Board of Management, Human Relations (Director of Labor Relations / CHRO), Mercedes-Benz Group AG
She’s Mercedes: Powerful Women (Part 1) | Britta Seeger & Christina Mallon
Britta Seeger, Member of the Daimler AG Board of Management, responsible for Sales and Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars, talks ...
Transcript (11 segments)
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Guest0:12
Is it stopping or is it getting better? It has progressed over eight years and has only been in my arms, so I crossed my fingers. No pun intended, it won't go to my legs, but at the end of the day, technology is moving so fast, so I have so much faith to fix this if it does go to my leg. In my everyday life, I use technology from using Siri to speak into my phone to having a robot that feeds me. It is quite amazing and one of a kind.
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Britta Seeger0:53
Open Style Lab, this is your baby, right? Share with us a little bit.
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Guest0:53
Yes. I needed a winter coat that I could put on without the use of my arms, and I was introduced to Grace, one of the founders of Open Style Lab at Parsons. She and a team of students created a coat that I can put on without using my arms. They put together an occupational therapist, a product designer, and a fashion designer to make something functional and fashionable. It is a beautiful coat and it allows me to live alone. The one thing I couldn't hack was clothing. My whole life is trying to make the world less disabled. At the end of the day, it is the world that makes me disabled because products aren't made for me. One-fifth of the world identifies as having a disability, but brands aren't focusing on that. Getting those statistics out there is what I try to do every day.
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Britta Seeger1:45
We were just talking about you as a role model for young girls and boys. How do you do this?
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Guest1:53
I really thought I need to be out there, get my word out there, and show that you can be smart, cute, fun, and disabled. Get that message out there for correct media representation. I get my message out through a lot of media so that kids can look on Instagram and see a person that is right driving with a disability, and it changes the mentality of everyone else.
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Britta Seeger2:22
I'm curious, so you are living in New York? We are very much interested in the further development, the future of mobility. Anything you would like to share with us as a young customer, potential interested person into our brand? What we can do, should do, and offer for the future?
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Guest2:40
I think that autonomous cars, as you are working on now, you have some of the best autonomous cars. It would be amazing to have voice activation for all of the features in the car. I know you have it for calling and radio, but it would be amazing to be able to open the doors using your voice. As technology gets better with Alexa and other things, can we put that into cars? Maybe that is a little bit selfish because that would help me, but I think...
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Britta Seeger3:09
I think that is really very interesting. This is absolutely one way we will pursue. As of now, we just launched it in Las Vegas. Yes, it is a first big step. Not yet by speech we can open the door, but absolutely something we will look into. Equality is one very important point for me. It is very important that we have diverse teams – men and women, young and old, local people with international people. It is all about this diversity because we are talking about how to unlock creativity. Women play a very important role in that because we haven't unlocked our potential enough up to now. We need to unlock that.
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Guest4:01
I think it is really funny that when I talk about disability and representation, no one ever realizes that the typewriter was created for someone with a disability. Siri was created for someone with a disability. But these things can be used for everyone. So you should always have someone with a disability on a team, always have a woman, always have someone with a global lifestyle on a team, because it just makes the products so much better. I truly believe in that.
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Britta Seeger4:23
So will you continue your so-called dual career in Open Style Lab and in your agency? Is there any future?
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Guest4:33
I definitely think this is the happiest I have ever been in my life. People are shocked when I say that. Why are they shocked? Because they think with disability I should be sad and sitting at home, but really I am just so happy to have an impact and a purpose in my life. Maybe until I start my own family, I know that would be hard to have these two jobs, but right now I will spend every waking moment trying to change the world and their perspective on disability.