Continuing an intense programme for the past two weeks, the 22 executives from Chile participated in various training courses and company visits facilitated by IMAP:
On Monday, 27th of May, the group had the opportunity to get to know a so-called German hidden champion. Wilo SE in Dortmund, supplier for pipelines in global infrastructure projects and the industrial sector, provided an overview of the company’s activities with their focus on Chile and the challenges arising from international business.
A visit from Institut Kurz GmbH, provider of laboratory analyses in Cologne, illustrated standards and steps of the certification process for exports from Chile to Germany. Marcela Zuñiga Alegria, export manager of NUTRAPHARM S.A. in Santiago, recognized a lot of similarities with the institute: “The exchange was very interesting for me as I’m from a comparable field exporting food supplements. There are plenty of regulations and processes to follow and the visit gave me a lot more orientation.”
On the following day, the visit to Wilnsdorf demonstrated two success stories of the Mittelstand in a rural area with little infrastructure: Krückemeyer GmbH, a family-run company in Wilnsdorf, stood as an example of a hidden champion of the German economy while explaining the relevance of innovation as central element in the development of a business plan. Similarly, at GAYKO, a producer for high quality windows and doors, the group discussed innovation management for the expansion of a company and could prove their own skills while testing the quality of the products.
On Wednesday, the participants met further company representatives: KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH, a traditional company both active in the Ruhr region and several other countries, among others in Chile, gave valuable insights to global business management. Priscilla Alvarado Perez, engineer at CHK-ING in Santiago remarked: “Interesting for me was the standards of safety in the company and how those standards are being enforced in branches across the world. At the end of the day, people are the most important resource of a company. A safe work environment is the basis for efficient results.”
The visit to Garlock in Neuss addressed the internationalisation of businesses, especially entering the German market and identifying potential business partners.
For the remaining week, Thomas Ufer, consultant and trainer at IMAP GmbH, offered a participatory multi-day training on leadership skills and change management as well as international project management. While introducing several approaches and models, Mr. Ufer invited the group to work on individual projects and to deduct key learnings from experiences of other participants: “When you talk about, for example leadership personality, I think it’s easier to dive deeper when you reflect on personal aspects and your own stories. That’s how you can support the transfer of knowledge from theory into practice.” Referring to his own background, he added: “I enjoyed the training and it was nice to work with a Latin-American group again. It reminded me of my home country Brazil and the culture there.”
During the last week of the programme, the delegation completed their training and had the opportunity to gain further practical insights at MatchInn GmbH, ifm electronic GmbH and IMAP GmbH. The last visit at IMAP GmbH featured a discussion on the company’s Human Resource Management focusing on culture-based management and self-organisation.
The programme was rounded off on Thursday together with the GIZ. The participants had the opportunity to present their individual cooperation projects. They shared their observations and learnings with GIZ and provided a comprehensive evaluation before receiving their certificates.
Initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, IMAP is supporting the Manager Training Programme as a training centre for international delegations.