Archive for the ‘Experiencing Leadership’ Category

Bridgestone

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

 

As Bridgestone is optimising European operations, there is a need for new ways of approaching issues and new levels of thinking. With this reality in mind, Bridgestone has established a partnership with AIESEC.

According to the management of Bridgestone, people in AIESEC are used to seeing the bigger picture - what the
organisation is striving for and what that has to do with work. Young people who have been active in AIESEC have
gained extremely important experiences; working with people from different cultures, managing teams, proactively taking responsibility. Yves Bataille, Senior Manager, IT says, “We are a truly international minded company with our different manufacturing and sales companies all around Europe. Our challenge is to help all these people to work together. Through AIESEC interns we help our company to develop the habit of working with different cultures. ”

Jörg Lüdemann, AIESEC intern is currently a part of the SAP support team of Bridgestone. He says “Beside working
in the multinational environment in the headquarters and the possibility of being retained afterwards, the
position that was offered by Bridgestone was exactly matching my own expectations towards the scope of the first job in my career. ”

As Patrick Woitrain, Director, HR Europe puts it “We believe young people who have been active in AIESEC have
gained extremely important experiences; working with people from different cultures, managing teams, proactively taking responsibility. These people often have the potential we are looking for… they can support us in facing the situations and environments we find ourselves as a company. ”

This being the first year of co-operation, both AIESEC and Bridgestone are looking forward to continue a successful partnership.

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Daniel Troxler

Saturday, February 21st, 2009
 

Daniel was a third year finance student at the University of Zurich when he found a great way to put his finance studies into practice - AIESEC.
As leader of a national finance team for AIESEC in Switzerland, he gained practical experience in auditing and planning, as well as training other AIESEC members in financial management.

“For me, being active in AIESEC  has been a great opportunity to put theoretical knowledge gained at university into action. My learning hasn’t just been about finance though - I’ve gained skills in leading meetings, public-speaking and project management, and also improved my English,” he said.

In the past few months Daniel has had the opportunity to work with several multinational finance companies, learning the how they work from the inside. He later transferred this knowledge into practice and developed a national financial management strategy for AIESEC in Switzerland.
The experience Daniel has gained working for AIESEC has helped him to define more clearly what he wants to do in his future career, and the experience in financial auditing and controlling that he learned in AIESEC is invaluable.

Besides the opportunity to develop his professional skills, Daniel also benefited from the vast international network in AIESEC. Attending international conferences has given Daniel the chance to meet young people from all over the world.
Interacting with so many other cultures has allowed Daniel to learn more about his own culture, something that he hopes to share next year while taking advantage of the opportunity to go on an internship with AIESEC’s Global Internship Program.

  

 

 

 

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Hans Maerki

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

 
Today Mr. Maerki is the Chairman of the board of IBM in Europe, Middle East and Africa, thereby heading a USD $28 billion business with more than 106, 000 employees in 124 countries around the globe.

His long road to success includes three years spent with AIESEC, first in Switzerland and then one year with AIESEC International. While Mr. Maerki was Exchange Coordinator on AI, AIESEC reached its highest Exchange numbers recorded thus far.
After he had finished his studies, Mr Maerki supported AIESEC through chairing several international conferences. Mr. Maerki attraction to international organisations took root while he spent one year on an exchange in the United States. He regards this year as his most outstanding experience which has shaped his life and subsequent choices.

Mr. Maerki recounts traveling from office to office of CEO’s in the US, looking for funds to keep this youth organization going. It also gave him the self-confidence to sit opposite high ranking executives, and feel on par while discussing partnerships between AIESEC and large multi-nationals. “AIESEC gives young people practical experience in organisational management and inter-cultural communication,” Mr. Maerki explains. “In today’s business world, a lot of management takes place virtually, and as AIESEC is mainly run using web-based communication, AIESECers also walk away with this vital skill.”

After his University and AIESEC terms, Mr. Maerki joined IBM. Some of his significant achievements with IBM include doubling the revenue ($12 Billion), between 1996 and 2002, as well as raising the number of employed colleagues from 32,000 to 68,000, thereby making IBM Global Services the largest employer of Management and IT consultants, not only in Europe, but worldwide. In addition to this, Mr. Maerki is a member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Advisory Board, which represents around 50 large European Corporations.

Through his intercultural experiences and with those within the international environment of IBM, Mr. Maerki felt that IBM’s extensive employee selection criterion was lacking two crucial aspects. In addition to a drive to achieve, a personal dedication to excellence and other stringent characteristics, Mr. Maerki added inter-cultural experience. He feels that language skills, international work-experience and respect for cultural divergence are all essential in today’s borderless world. And this is where an organization like AIESEC plays an important role.

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Posted in English, Experiencing Leadership, International Experiences, Stories of Alumni, Switzerland, United States | No Comments »

Joan Wilson

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Joan Wilson is an important woman in AIESEC’s history, as she became the first woman from a non European member country to be AIESEC International’s Secretary General in 1980. Among the highlights of her term were trips to Eastern Europe and South Africa, two regions where the political situation was very different from what they are today. Joan helped to rebuild the National Committee of AIESEC in Poland after the team members died in a plane crash returning from the 1980 International Congress in Chicago. In 1981, AIESEC in South Africa’s membership was under review because of the government’s apartheid policy, Joan visited and met with students in the then-segregated universities. AIESEC was one of the few programs available for non-white students to travel abroad and for that reason she recommended to the global network that South Africa remain in AIESEC’s international member network.


Joan was President of the local committee at the University of Toronto in her graduating year, and went on to become President of AIESEC in Canada, where she helped to secure AIESEC’s first grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). AIESEC gave Joan the opportunity to enhance her communication skills especially when dealing with business people and gain an international perspective and ability to function in different culture situations.

After her involvement with AIESEC International and a traineeship in Switzerland, she returned to study and work in Canada. Today Joan is Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Sun Life Financial, a leading international financial services organization headquartered in Canada. She still supports AIESEC in Canada as an advisor and expects to attend AIESEC Canada’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, which falls in the same year as AIESEC International’s 60th Anniversary.

Posted in Canada, English, Experiencing Leadership, International Experiences, Stories of Alumni | No Comments »

Michaela Neubert

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

If Michaela would use one word to describe her current experience in AIESEC it would be proud. Rightfully so, as she is one of seven people currently overseeing a national organization of over 2000 members from across Germany at just 26 years old.


Michaela holds the position of Vice President Communications, and one of her main responsibilities is to create a strategic communication plan for AIESEC in her country. A large task, but she is also managing a team to help her meet this goal, comprised of students studying in this field and with previous experience in the area. In her role she has the opportunity to learn how to design and implement marketing materials and campaigns across the country, design and maintain a national website and coordinate media requests, all to enable more people to know about AIESEC’s activities in Germany.


Although Michaela did not study Communications, it has always been an interest of hers, and the practical things she is learning in her role she sees as great value for her future career. She sees the value in having a broad background and experience in various fields, which for her have spanned sales, HR and now communications.


This experience so far has given Michaela more self-confidence and a more focused picture of what her future goals are. She has a clearer picture of herself and how others perceive her, which enabled her to be more flexible to changes, different environments and people.

Working in the international environment that AIESEC provides has made managing diversity a daily topic for Michaela, and a skill she finds quite valuable for her future in any career she decides to pursue.

Posted in English, Experiencing Leadership, Germany, Stories of youth experiences | No Comments »

From Colombia to Germany: Living an Impactful experience

Friday, February 20th, 2009

 

Pertenecer a AIESEC ha sido una de las oportunidades más importantes  y enriquecedoras de mi vida.
 
Después de una intensa e integral experiencia AIESECa, desempeñando una gran variedad de roles estratégicos de liderazgo a nivel local, regional y nacional, me trace la meta de finalizar mi ciclo de aprendizaje personal y profesional aprovechando una de las mas grandes herramientas que nos ofrece la organización para lograrlo: Una practica laboral e internacional con uno de los mas importantes aliados globales.

Siempre había sido uno de mis sueños y grandes objetivos llegar a ser parte de un equipo de trabajo en una empresa mundial, líder en su campo, una empresa administrada por los mas altos estándares de calidad y efectividad, con un alto nivel de excelencia en sus resultados, una empresa que tuviera una fuerte cultura organizacional internacional y sus valores claramente definidos, una compañía que estuviera en la capacidad de reconocer mis conocimientos, talentos, experiencia previa y que pudiera convertirse en mi mejor soporte para crecer  tanto a nivel personal como profesional y fue en la primera compañía mundial, líder en logística, Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN-DHL), donde encontré todo esto y mucho mas. 

Ahora, me encuentro trabajando en el área de “Procurement  Europe, Middle East & Africa countries, EMEA“. Un departamento bastante dinámico, en el cual estoy logrando poner en practica todo el aprendizaje que obtuve como recién graduada en Ingeniería Industrial de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, así como, participar activamente en equipos integrados por directivos de los cargos mas importantes a nivel global de la compañía , en la dirección de relevantes proyectos.

No me cabe duda que esta valiosa experiencia , es la mejor oportunidad que tengo en este momento de contribuir con mis capacidades profesionales y de liderazgo y al mismo tiempo continuar ganando mas conocimientos y experiencia en la administración de negocios, logística, recursos humanos, entre otros, en un nivel corporativo internacional y en un ambiente completamente dinámico y competitivo.

Durante todo mi tiempo de pertenencia a AIESEC he estado convencida de la gran importancia de tomar una experiencia internacional de aprendizaje o un intercambio  para  perfeccionar nuestras carreras en la organización. Sin embargo, ahora que la estoy viviendo  no solo estoy convencida sino que estoy totalmente segura de que es la mejor forma de lograrlo.

Deutsche Post World Net, hasta el momento ha cumplido perfectamente mis expectativas  y las esta excediendo. Ser parte de uno de los grupos de entrenados mas grandes en el mundo en una ciudad y un país  con una amplia riqueza cultural e histórica como lo son Bonn y  Alemania respectivamente, son dos razones más que suficientes para estar muy orgullosa y feliz de haber sido  miembro activa de AIESEC en Colombia, capitulo Pereira  y de seguir conformando esta maravillosa familia mundial AIESECa.

Una ve mas reitero y comparto con ustedes que:

“Ser AIESECo es más que una palabra y más que un título, es algo que se lleva en el corazón.”

Bonn, Alemania. Enero 17 de 2009.

Posted in Colombia, DHL, Experiencing Leadership, Germany, International Experiences, Spanish, Stories of youth experiences | No Comments »