Source: BBC The Ideas Exchange
The Ideas Exchange is a series from the BBC exploring the minds shaping global business. It pairs up business leaders from around the world to discuss today's business landscape and their secrets to success. In this edition, Ethiopian entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu the founder and managing director of SoleRebels, which makes shoes out of recycled materials meets up with Jorgen Vig Knudstorp the CEO of Danish toymaker and major international brand, Lego. They discuss today's business landscape and their secrets to success.
- Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is founder and Managing Director of soleRebels, the world's fastest-growing African footwear brand and the only Fair Trade-certified footwear company in the world. Growing up in a poor suburb of Addis Ababa, Bethlehem decided that there was only one way to defeat poverty – use local craftsmanship to make products that can compete in the global marketplace. She decided on footwear and today 70,000 pairs of shoes leave her factory every year. soleRebels has been expanding rapidly and today exports to no fewer than 45 countries and is targeting 50 stand alone soleRebels retail stores across the United States by 2018 and 500 worldwide by 2022.