Name: Carl Emil Zacho Böye
Age: 29
University/Educational background: Bachelors and Masters in Dramaturgy from Aarhus University.
Relevant Work Experience: 7 years in Joe & The Juice, managing bars and later as Social Ambassador, mapping social calendar and driving the sense of belonging. Former board member and communications and public affairs secretary for the student union, Danske Skoleelever. And a decade in amateur- and professional theater- and performance production.
About Carl:
My father is an actor, so the scenography of my childhood was to a large extent the turning wheels behind the stage. I used to roam around the nooks, crannies and corridors of Aarhus Theatre, chasing old ghost stories and witnessing how great stories were built through staging, actors, lights and smoke. From here on, my interest in the aesthetics of storytelling led me to embark on my academic studies of Dramaturgy.
I have a passion for turning ideas, strategies and concepts into tangible action and results. Through my seven years at Joe & The Juice, I saw a possibility to combine my aesthetic eye and flair for creative processes with the growing world of experience economy and the need for organizational training through learning by doing. This has led me to my professional journey as a management consultant.
In my hours outside my role in Voluntas, I drink a lot of natural wine with friends, watch a lot of theatre and expand my bodily embedded collection of tattoos. Through my work in Voluntas, I have discovered an interest for travelling and I also love to put on a chunky pair of boots and head into the Norwegian wilderness.
My biggest purpose in life is to move and to be moved, emotionally. I very much fuel up through my relationships with friends, family and colleagues. The most meaningful experiences for me are the ones, where I feel, that I have touched other people’s lives and when people do the same for me.
I started as an Analyst in August 2020, doing my internship with Voluntās and was then hired as student associate, writing my thesis. Afterwards, I got employed as a full-time junior associate. I moved from Copenhagen to Oslo this May to open our Norwegian office. We have now hired Oscar, a national intern, and the team is soon growing further. I am currently both driving the daily business development here in Norway and driving our global MarCom team. Furthermore, I am providing creative assistance to our Founder and CEO, in developing presentations and briefs for keynotes and lectures, and I facilitate client workshops, heavily influenced by drama pedagogics and creative facilitation from my toolbox as a Dramaturg.
➔ Hiring! Voluntas are looking for talented intern consultants right now. Click here for more details.
Describe what Voluntās is and what makes you special?
The way that Voluntās truly realizes human potential is unique. Being a scale-up with more than 60 employees around the world, it is amazing to experience the interdisciplinary ecosystem that works together every day – from economics and psychology to philosophy and anthropology, and to myself as a dramaturg. Our wide range of professional as well as cultural backgrounds contribute to creative problem-solving and a very diverse pool of knowledge. To have that diversity as an advisory firm – or as we call it, a “philosophical laboratory” – is super interesting and it makes a wonderful collective brain throughout projects.
How would you describe your culture?
Housing more than 16 different nationalities in the shape of atheists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and spiritual human beings, we have a vastly broad list of cultural backgrounds.
At Voluntās, philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists, economists, dramaturgs, sociologists, political scientists, and people of yet other academic backgrounds are all management consultants by profession and philosophers by heart.
We believe that a strong culture rejects more than it attracts. Voluntās’s or any other strong organizational culture should not invite anyone and everyone. That is why, Voluntās and our multifaceted family of human beings is connected through a shared set of virtues and philosophical cornerstones.
Our virtues:
We believe in professional intimacy. We don’t believe in work-life balance. We only live one life, in one time, as one human being. That is why we have individual human potential development plans, a yearly meaningfulness day, weekly physical inspiration, an internal well-being lead, philosophy sessions, and a lot of walk ‘n’ talks. And why we encourage our clients to cultivate workspaces with the same meaningful focus.
What kind of clients do you work with?
For the past 7 years, we have worked with clients within more than 16 industries and with projects across more than 50 countries.
We specialize in advising and working with companies, directorates, boards, investors, foundations, investors, owners, leaders, and governments on how to create, adapt and drive a meaningful culture, brand, society, and planet.
We believe that this approach significantly increases the quality of living, while we know that it sustainably accelerates the productivity and profitability of doing business.
We pursue advisory and analytics to realize human potential and make more lives more meaningful for the colleagues in organizations, the consumers of brands, the citizens in societies and for all us children of our blue planet.
The common denominator is, that there needs to be a philosophical alignment on the purpose of realizing human potential and an ambition to make more lives more meaningful.
What sets Voluntās apart from other consulting companies?
In Voluntās, we don’t have values but virtues. The concept of value originates from the language of economics, whereas the concept of virtues originates from the language of morality – and Voluntās is not about economics, but all about morality.
For the exact same reason, we don’t believe in the concept of Human Resource Management. Humans are humans and should be treated as humans. Resources are, as bricks, coins, and oil, just something to exploit and then toss away when it it burns out. In Voluntās, we believe that every human being has a potential that is just waiting to be realized. That is why we, instead of having Human Resource Management, have Human Potential Development.
And all these words may sound pretty and all, but in Voluntās we stress the fact that we are a laboratory of applied philosophy.
Applied because, we have developed and applied the world’s first tool, digitally measuring meaningfulness and the extent to which employees can find meaning in their workplace and realize their human potential. Another testament to this is our annual Global Meaningfulness Survey, measuring the global pulse of how and to which extend, human beings experience meaning. Not only in their work but in all capillaries of our pulsating lives.
Laboratory because everything we do is already developed and done from within our own organization amongst ourselves. All employees in Voluntās have an annual Meaningfulness Day to spend in the pursuit of meaning and meaningfulness conversations with our nearest leader discussing about how we can find even more meaning in the work that we do and in the one life that we all live.
Be prepared to be very honest and expect honesty from your surroundings. Approach the company with curiosity and show your uniqueness.
What’s the most important thing to succeed at Voluntās?
Honesty. Our culture is based upon honesty to realize self-respect and self-awareness and only from this, we can realize our own human potential and help clients to do the same.
Is it hard to progress through the company?
I interned at Voluntās in August 2020 alongside my Masters in Dramaturgy. Now, more than two years later as an Associate, I feel that I have been met with trust and acknowledgement from leadership all the way, from developing client workshops rooted in drama pedagogics and working on storytelling projects in my very first months, and now as the first boots on the ground in a new marked, setting up shop in Oslo and taking part in molding our Norwegian branch.
Of course, progression never comes without hardship. But Voluntās grants a space for learning as long as you are willing to work hard and voice your needs in order to develop as a human being as well as your needs to fulfill the job that you are expected to do.
In Voluntās, we both have a classical progression upwards through leadership levels and a specialist track if you really want to immerge yourself in a specific area of expertise. So, whether you want to become a team leader or are curious about expanding a specific skill set, there is room.
Any advice for students and graduates looking to apply for a role at Voluntās?
Be prepared to be very honest and expect honesty from your surroundings. Approach the company with curiosity and show your uniqueness. Voluntās is not a grey-haired nor squared advisory firm. If you are bright, curious and willing to learn, and if this interview has fueled your interest, please reach out!
➔ Hiring! Voluntās are looking for talented intern consultants right now. Click here for more details.
