News

IFW | July 14, 2010

When training isn't working

Dorothea Carvalho wants senior managers to regard staff training and development as a strategic issue

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 IFW | June 22, 2010

Who's hiring who?

Is the logistics industry emerging from its toughest economic period since the great depression?

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June 2010

EXPERTS FOR EXPERTS extends search for partners to the Americas

e4e has decided to increase its geographical footprint further to cover the Americas and has recently started negotiations with a US company which has the same market specialisation.

For further details please click here

 

eyefortransport | Issue May 13, 2010

Q1 M&A activity in transportation & logistics sector indicates recovery

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Rotterdam, March 31, 2010

New Consultants Join Experts for Experts Benelux Partner 

Rotterdam March 31st, 2010; Plimsoll, Experts for Experts (e4e) Partner in the Benelux is pleased to announce that two new Consultants have joined their ranks. Ferdinand Kranenburg has joined Plimsoll as an associate senior consultant focusing on executive search assignments for logistics and seafreight related positions with major shippers. Erik Kappelle has joined as an associate partner in Plimsoll Corporate Finance, reinforcing the company’s Mergers and Acquisitions practice.

Speaking following the announcement of the two new appointments Plimsoll Managing Director and President of e4e Dick H. Binkhorst said; “This is an important development for Plimsoll in that it reflects a growing optimism in the sector following the difficult market conditions experienced since the end of 2008. Plimsoll is now even better placed to meet our clients expanding needs and with the experience Ferdinand and Erik have brought to the company to offer a consolidated expertise.”

Biography - Ferdinand Kranenburg

After his education at the Port & Transport College Ferdinand Kranenburg studied Civil Law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Ferdinand’s early career focused on the shipping and port sector. He worked for ferry operator Norfolk Line in Scheveningen and the deepsea carrier Trans Freight Lines in Rotterdam and worked for the Dutch Shippers Council EVO since 1988

He acted as Secretary for the Liner Committee of the European Shippers Council ESC and is still active as Senior Policy Advisor Shipping & Ports for the Dutch Shippers Council. As a Policy Advisor he is responsible for the protection of the interests of shippers as far as they are users of maritime service providers and ports. This lobby function focuses not only on policymakers in national governments, but also more and more on European institutions such as the European Commission and the European Parliament.

On a global scale he participates in the “Global Shippers Forum”, a discussion platform for European, North American and Asian Shippers Councils.

Ferdinand is a member of various national and international maritime fora such as the Maritime Transport Committee of the European Shippers Council, the National Port Council and some of its committees, the Maritime Industries Forum, the Maritime Transport Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, the board of the Dutch Shortsea Promotion Bureau, the Advisory Committee of “Mainport” magazine, the Advisory Committee of “Maritime Economics and Logistics” at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Biography - Erik Kappelle

Erik Kappelle graduated from the University of Groningen as a business economist in 1984. He started his career at Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC) as auditor for international businesses. In this period he was regularly involved in transaction services such as Business Valuation and Due Diligence investigations.  From 1990 to 2005 he worked for several municipal authorities in the Netherlands, lastly as director of Economics, Urban development and Housing in a township of Amsterdam. 

Mr. Kappelle is experienced in all aspects of financial management and also has a broad experience in general and strategic management and business (culture) change processes.

Since 2005 Mr. Kappelle has been an established merger and acquisition consultant. He controls sale/purchase processes from A to Z and guides his clients with:  transaction preparation, business valuation, information memoranda, selection of candidate purchasers or target companies, deal structuring, deal negotiation, and transaction finance.

In the post acquisition phase Mr. Kappelle may help businesses with integration processes.

Mr Kappelle has sold businesses in the transportation, production industry, wholesale, IT, and human resource sectors. From 2007 to 2009 he was a partner at Adcorporate Corporate Finance.

For further information about Experts for Experts International AG please refer to the website: www.experts4experts.com

 

Harvard Business Review | Issue January-February 2010

Managing Yourself: Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change

by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

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Harvard Business Review | Issue January-February 2010

HBR Case Study: Overpromoted and Over His Head

by Eileen Roche

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Muttenz/Basel, February 1, 2010

New  e4e partner in Denmark

Basel, February 1, 2010. Bogetorp, a Danish consulting firm, has become partner for Denmark of Experts for Experts International and Preben Moeller Nielsen from Bogetorp has become shareholder in Experts for Experts International with immediate effect. This expansion marks a further increase in the geographical footprint of the network.

Bogetorp is a customer driven organization with focus on developing solutions to address business challenges in close cooperation with the clientele. The company’s areas of expertise are, among others, tailored to the logistics and transportation industry.

Bogetorp consultants works within three main areas: search & selection as well as strategy and leadership development. Within executive search and selection Bogetorp offers multi-channel access to pools of talent for their clients and helps to identify and attain qualified talent for the Danish and international supply chain sector. By combining Bogetorp’s proven concepts and processes with creative ideas and innovative solutions Bogetorp ensures high quality and success rates.

 “Bogetorp joining the e4e network will not only broaden the network of both organizations but also the knowledge base,” said a proud Preben Moeller Nielsen. He himself has more than 30 years of management experience in the international transport and logistics industry.

Urs B. Hug, Chairman of the Executive Board of Experts for Experts, welcomed the new member. “The additional shareholder and partner add weight and significance to the network. This combination – depth of industry knowledge and breadth of community – is unique in recruitment in the transport and logistics industry. We are here for the long run. And the new members will bring fresh impetus to the further development of the network. I am convinced that we can solve any strategic recruiting needs around the globe with the experience and excellence of our combined research and management staff.”  

 

Muttenz/Basel, January 25, 2010

New e4e partners in Germany & Austria

Basel, 25 January 2010. Elmar Hertzog und Partner Management Consultants GmbH, the leading management consulting and executive search company in the area of transportation and logistics in Germany and Austria, has joined the world leading specialised network of management consulting and executive search companies focused on the transportation and logistics sector, Experts for Experts (e4e), with immediate effect as partner and shareholder. Hertzog & Partner brings six offices as well as their affiliate company in Austria into the network. This development is a major step forward in enlarging the foot print of the eight year old network in terms of customer base, turnover and geographical spread.  

Hertzog & Partner have been creating value for their clients since 1978. With their specialisation in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management sector they have been assisting their customers in finding premium solutions in executive and specialist search, management consulting as well as mergers & acquisitions. Hertzog & Partner’s guiding principles of respect, confidentiality, understanding and commitment will be brought to their new relationship with the e4e partners.

Hertzog & Partner is headquartered in Hamburg and operates branch offices in Berlin, Essen, Frankfurt, Hanover, and Stuttgart (all in Germany). The Austrian affiliate, founded in 2008, is based in Vienna.

Urs B. Hug, Chairman of the Executive Board of Experts for Experts, welcomed the expansion of the network in Germany and Austria. “I am convinced that the new partners will significantly strengthen the value to our product offer. They add more than 30 years of combined experience and skilled resources to the network and make our pursuit of excellence even more convincing. This development certainly brings benefits to our clients and makes Experts for Experts the service network of choice more than ever.”

“We are very happy to join this successful network which is characterised by effectiveness and commitment,” added Frederik Zitz, Managing Director of Elmar Hertzog und Partner Management Consultants GmbH. “I am confident that we can make a very positive contribution to its further success.”

Mr Albert Klamert, Managing Partner of Hertzog & Partner Austria, said that “the expansion into Austria underlined the growing importance of this market, in particular for Central- and Eastern Europe.”

Muttenz/Basel, November 23, 2009

Generation Change in Central and Eastern Europe

Qualified returning emigrants required

“There is presently a very strong demand for “new generation managers” from companies actively engaged in the transport and logistics field in central and eastern Europe”, said Urs B. Hug, managing partner at Meneghin & Partner. “The management that was responsible for guiding and leading companies away from communism towards a free market economy after the fall of the Iron Curtain are now gradually being replaced.”

Naturally the global economic recession has also affected businesses in central and eastern Europe. They are living through a period where turnover is at best stagnating and in many cases actually falling. Margins are tighter, and the competition is now much fiercer. And this all after a long period of sustained and vigorous growth. “This change of circumstances frankly requires new and different management skills to the ones that were required initially, indeed many older generation managers struggle with the complexity of these new and constantly changing business models. It demands a different type of executive – people with greater creativity, professionalism, and the ability to optimize processes, to effect strategic business plans, basically to think outside the box. It is true to say that whereas technicians and engineers dominated the first “manager generation” of forwarding companies, firms now need qualified forwarders, logisticians, supply chain managers and managers that have specialist business skills”, added Urs B. Hug.

“The pressure on the bottom line has meant that western companies are scrutinizing far more closely their employees within the various country organizations in central and eastern Europe. For example many organizations have implemented personnel audits in part to find out how better the company can support staff and managers from headquarters, but also precisely what qualifications are actually required by the leadership teams. Naturally Meneghin and Partners are able to bring expert knowledge and experience to this process. As an “outsider” Meneghin and Partners will be seen as impartial and with their input being recognized as objective, this frequently adds enormous value and benefit to the whole process”, said Hug.

Meneghin & Partner offers a wide range of consultancy services in the Human Resources field. The company focuses particularly on cross border executive search. “In this specialist area our expertise and service is without parallel. We search for suitable candidates for management positions in central and eastern Europe for clients in Great Britain, Germany, Austria etc as well as for executives from central and eastern Europe for positions in the companies’ headquarters to oversee business developments in the new EU member states. This is not an easy task as these specialists have to have their feet in both cultures”, explained Hug. Particularly sought after, are executives born in central and eastern Europe that have spent some years abroad, climbed the ranks in western European companies and now wish to return home.

Due to the scarcity of such top candidates the salaries offered are as high and sometimes even higher than in western Europe. Country and regional managers can expect 200 000 EUR and more per annum. However, there is a big salary gap between top executives and those in second or third rank leadership positions.

According to Urs B. Hug it is particularly difficult to fill top positions in the CIS. Whilst the new EU countries have made big progress in the political, administrative and economic field in the last few years due to the financial support of the EU, conditions in the CIS remain difficult. Countries such as Ukraine, Tajikistan and Georgia, as well the Russian Federation have experienced a permanent economic crisis since the beginning of the transformation from Communism. This has meant large sections of the population remain impoverished and corruption is endemic, circumstances which do not entice émigrés to return. It is the more junior staff who see the attractions of working in these countries but not the senior managers. 

 

Urs B. Hug 

 

Muttenz/Basel, November 2, 2009

 HR FTSE bullish again

The demand for sales staff is booming again. The battle for talents has recommenced.

The European transport and forwarding industry is getting ready for an economic rebound. After months of reducing staff companies are investing once more in their sales organizations. Especially top sales executives for jobs at home and abroad are being sought. However, these are as rare as diamonds now as before the economic crisis.

“Many sales executives do not want to change jobs despite very attractive offers. In the continuing uncertain economic climate they are afraid that in any new restructuring round they could quickly lose their job again based on the principle of last in first out. In addition, strategically far sighted employers look well after their top performing personnel and try to keep them under any circumstances, even in this economic crisis,” explains Urs B. Hug, Managing Partner at Meneghin & Partner and Chairman of the network e4e - Experts for Experts.

“Wanted are personalities with a high sales competency, in-depth market and customer know-how as well as the ability to speak several languages. There is a varied field of activities with excellent career and earning prospects waiting for executives with dedication, talent and learning aptitude,” adds the head-hunter. “In the logistics industry the career to the top always leads via the sales department. Every successful CEO must know from her/his own experience what it means to win a new customer.”

Prof. Dr. Ing. Frank Straube from the Department of Logistics at the Technical University of Berlin forecasts that the battle for talents will soon be as intensive again as it had been in 2006/2007. Research for the latest edition of his “Trends and Strategies in Logistics” presented at the German Logistics Congress 2009 in Berlin showed an increasing focus on innovative partnerships between customers and service providers taking into consideration ecological efficiency and risk protection. The economic crises had furthered cooperation between the partners in the supply chain at all levels he concluded from the survey.

“This trend requires strategic intellectual abilities on the part of the sales executive. The perfect top salesman or woman has a wide spectrum of skills. They extend from a high self esteem, social skills, communication aptness and friendliness to strategic management skills, product, market and customer knowledge as well as fluency in several languages. An academic degree is not absolutely essential but surely helps to speed up further career development,” says Hug.

As top sales executives are very rare they are usually lured away from existing positions. “This requires tact and a head-hunter who knows where the gemstones can be found,” says Hug. Meneghin & Partner specialises in finding executives for positions with salaries from 100 000 Euro per year upwards. The head-hunter connects candidates from all corners of the world with companies all over the globe. “Approx. a quarter of our assignments concern markets in central and eastern Europe”, explains Hug. “Our executive search activities are supported by the international network of Experts for Experts (e4e). With the help of our partner companies we can find specialists and top executives who are not on file.”

 

 

Muttenz/Basel, September 7, 2009

New Partners and New Products

Meneghin & Partner (M&P), the Swiss consultancy firm focused on the international logistics industry and founding member of the e4e - Experts for Experts network, has gained two new partners.

Effective August 1, Sabine Wetzel has become a partner of the company. She has worked in Meneghin & Partner since 2005 as head of the Research Department. She has many years of international experience in forwarding, logistics and executive search.

On October 1, Ursula F. Schmeling will join the company as partner. She will lead the new business unit PR and Media Communications. Previously she has held the position of managing editor of the world leading trilingual logistics trade magazine ITJ/JTI/ITZ Logistics Worldwide for some ten years. Prior to this she was Director Marketing & PR with Port of Hamburg Marketing & Promotion (HHVW).

On July 31, the company founder Bruno Meneghin retired and relinquished his position as head of the supervisory board handing over to Urs B. Hug. Urs Hug became a partner in Meneghin & Partner in 1998 and has been managing partner since 2000.

Together with Andreas Obermeyer, senior partner since 2001, the M&P team now has four active partners as well as four staff in the back office and research department.