IBS student Elmar Friedrich: Greetings from China!

Since March 2007 I am working as an intern in the National Sales Department for BMW China. First of all, BMW is a great company. Especially in China, an intern at BMW is treated as a regular foreign employee with all related responsibilities and challenges. In daily business this leads to a very interesting and tough job: I have to start early in the morning and come home earliest 7 pm., sometimes even later. But that is not a result of my job restrictions but of interesting and very challenging projects.

I assist an international team of Area Managers and, in addition, I have projects of my own. In my current project, I am planning a dealer incentive for the best sales consultant of each dealership in the whole of China. I am the project leader and responsible for everything: from deciding on a location to inviting the best dealer of every BMW dealership in China. This requires cultural tactfulness and a high degree of flexibility. On a more practical note, it means many business trips through China to get firsthand impressions of different event-locations and the expectations of highly qualified sales consultants.

In addition, I support my colleagues during their daily business, for example by arranging the re-allocation process of a specific car model from one dealership to another. Especially these tasks make my internship incredibly interesting. You never know what to expect today!

But of course working in China also brings along some difficulties. First of all, culture and language are a serious problem when living and working in Asia. Many Chinese, even general managers of companies, can not speak English. For my part, I don’t speak Mandarin very well but after studying one semester in Taiwan and thanks to my Chinese colleagues, I have always been able to understand the other side and express myself in a proper way.

From my point of view, working in a different culture is a great experience. Thanks to my university I was very well prepared for this year abroad. Not only the knowledge gained during two years at IBS but also working with and in international teams has provided me with the cultural sensitivity needed to be successful in Asia.
So if you want a challenge, Asia is the place to be!

Best wishes,

Elmar Friedrich
BMW China

IBS student Tom Willems says hello from Vietnam

Hi there!!

As a third year IBS student I was asked to write something about my experiences during my internship here in Vietnam. At the moment I’m doing an internship at Dutch Lady Vietnam Food and Beverages Co. Ltd, an affiliate from the Dutch company Friesland Foods. For a period of 5 months I’m working in the management accounting department of the company.

The office and factory are located just outside Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the city where I’m living at the moment. It is a very lively city, there is always something happening here, which makes it a great city to live in.

So far I’m really enjoying my internship, however sometimes it can hard be hard because of the cultural differences. For example: colleagues answer your questions in a very narrow way, information that is related to the topic you are asking about is often not communicated. Communication can also be difficult because some of my colleagues don’t speak English very well.

One of the most difficult parts of working in Vietnam is that people often say ‘yes’ when they actually don’t understand you. At first I thought this was just some nice theory you learn at school, but in fact it is true and can really be hard to deal with. Also difficult is that some of them seem to have a huge amount of respect for you just because you are European. Because of that it can be hard to establish a social relationship, let alone friendship. Luckily, over time the contact with most of them has become much better than in the beginning, this makes going to work a lot more fun.

Fortunately most of my colleagues are very friendly, they are always willing to help and have time for my questions. They are also interested in other ideas, languages, habits, etc just like me. During the first week they already invited me to a wedding and a karaoke party. Both were great to experience and helped to get to know my colleagues on a more personal level. During lunchtime they also try to teach me Vietnamese, but that has not been a big success so far because it’s a really difficult language.

Although I lunch with my Vietnamese colleagues most of the time it is also completely normal here that you, as a trainee, have lunch with the (Dutch) general manager and other MT members.

One of the best things about coming to Vietnam is that there is plenty to do in your free time. The country is beautiful and for a few dollars you travel through the whole country by bus. In Saigon, the city where I live, there are plenty of places to visit, during both day- and night-time

So far it has been a great experience to live and work in Vietnam and it is something I can definitely recommend other students to do as well.

Tam biet!

Tom Willems