Sandra Bourbon is the CEO of E-Drop, a podcast host, and the author of Swedish Innovation: The Secrets to Successful Disruptive and Sustaining Innovation. With over 15 years of experience scaling companies and improving profitability, she combines analytical thinking with entrepreneurship, and thrives in complex environments where innovation and execution have to move together.
1. Today is International Women’s Day, a moment when we highlight women with great ambition and purpose. As part of this, we would love to showcase your story. Can you share with us a specific ambition or goal you’re currently pursuing, and how you’re taking steps toward it?
Right now, my ambition is actually quite bold: our goal is to take E-drop to the world.
We are building infrastructure for temperature-controlled deliveries in cities, something that will become increasingly important as more food, medicine and e-commerce is delivered directly to people’s homes.
Leading a small company means constantly making strategic choices with limited resources. Instead of trying to predict the future perfectly, we focus on creating fast learning loops, testing new markets, new partnerships and new ways of solving real problems.
For me, ambition isn’t only about growth. It’s about driving transformation: building organizations that can experiment, learn quickly and move forward even when the path isn’t obvious. That combination of strategy, innovation and execution is what excites me the most.
2. We talk about “Carry Your Ambition” as a play on words. It is both a literal bag and a symbol of the weight of ambition. In your life, have you ever felt that ambition as a burden, something that drives you but also puts a lot of pressure on you, weighing you down and sometimes making you doubt yourself? If so, how do you navigate that tension?
Interestingly, I’ve never experienced ambition itself as a burden.
What has been more challenging is something very Scandinavian: the influence of the Jantelagen, the cultural idea that you shouldn’t think too highly of yourself or openly talk about big ambitions.
For a long time, when people asked about my goals, I would say something safe like “I just want to have fun at work.” But the truth was that I had much bigger ambitions. For example, I have always said to myself that one day I want to be CEO of Volvo.
At some point I realized that if you never dare to say what you want, it becomes much harder to move toward it.
So I started being clearer about my ambitions. And interestingly, once I did that, opportunities started to align. Today I’m a CEO and I don’t think that would have happened if I hadn’t allowed myself to be open about what I wanted.
3. We’ve seen how icons like Margaret Thatcher used color in their outfits to stand out and project power, making a strong statement. In a similar way, how do you use color in your outfits to elevate your confidence, assert your presence, and help you rise above self-doubt as you pursue your ambitions?
I have actually been quite strategic about this for a long time.
About 15 years ago I dyed my hair from blonde to brunette because I wanted to be taken more seriously in professional settings. I’m still a brunette today.
And when it comes to clothing, I often wear orange or pink blazers in photos or on stage. It has become a small part of my personal brand.
For me, it serves two purposes: First, it helps me stand out and be memorable in rooms where many people dress quite similarly. Second, it’s a reminder to myself to dare to show up fully and take space.
Ambition requires visibility. Sometimes color is simply a way of signaling that you’re ready to step forward.
