Barcelona, Spain/Buenos Aires, Argentina. Estudio Moken offers business consulting services centered around ecological and social sustainability as well as anthroposophical principles. An interview with founder Laura Bonora.
Where did the idea of Estudio Moken grow from?
Estudio Moken was born from an impulse I’ve had since I was a child: the desire to change the world. I let go of that idea during my teenage years because it felt too big. But after working in business roles for 11 years in corporate environments, I realized that impact can also happen in everyday interactions through how we work with others, how we make decisions, and how we show up.
Moken emerged while I was teaching business to entrepreneurs and noticed something essential: they didn’t only need inspiration, creativity, or motivation around their purpose.; they needed structure, grounding, and, above all, support—a sense that they are not alone and that it’s okay not to know everything about business. Each person, as in an orchestra, plays their own instrument. That’s when I understood that my knowledge in business, strategy, and structure could be placed at the service of those who really want to bring their purpose into the world, into action. I remembered a phrase: “Where the needs of the world and your talents meet, there lies your mission,” and it made more sense than ever.
Could you give concrete examples of how your work brings business and sustainability together?
After several trainings in ecological and social sustainability, I came to understand its complexity, especially in contexts like Argentina where I began and where ensuring economic profitability is often necessary in order to build anything further. What I observed in the business world is that sustainability is often presented as an alternative rather than an integration.
To address that we decided to always bring sustainability into our core offering, to make it visible, because what cannot be seen cannot be chosen. In many cases, sustainability is not absent, but invisible. Our role is to make the possibility of sustainability practical to realize, for example, working with NGOs for social impact, choosing local artisan production to promote slow consumption, as well as showing and communicating processes with honesty and transparency.
What challenges are you facing in your work?
One of the main challenges in my work is the culture of immediacy we live in today, where results are often expected with little time, effort, or dedication.
At the same time, we are working to bring the principles of social threefolding into our practice with as much depth as possible, and to share this approach with our clients and network, making it more visible. This is both a challenge and a source of enthusiasm—a way of staying true to our values and to the way we understand consulting. We believe that a healthier way of doing business is possible.
Another important challenge is working with projects that truly want to exist from a place of purpose, not merely from the pursuit of results or sales.
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Translation Paula Boslau
Image Estudio Moken
