What three months in the UK can change: Mats’ time at Jungheinrich in Milton Keynes
Mats Schütze spent three months working at Jungheinrich in the UK. In Milton Keynes, he not only broadened his professional horizons, but also gained an insight into a new working culture, different perspectives on the business and the country beyond the office.
Key insights
A new perspective on the business: In Milton Keynes, Mats complemented his technical expertise with a deeper understanding of customer needs, market mechanisms and sales processes.
Openness builds connections: The warm welcome from the British team and cross-departmental collaboration were defining features of his three months in the UK.
More than just work: Walks through Cornwall and the Lake District, as well as typical British everyday experiences, made the stay particularly special on a personal level too.
As part of the Jungheinrich International Graduate Programme (JIG), Mats Schütze spent the final stage of his two-year programme in the UK. He lived and worked in Milton Keynes for three months – a city that he remembers for one thing above all else: its functionality. Planned in the 1960s, the city lies between major cities and university towns such as London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge. For a sales unit that works closely with its customers, the location is ideal.
However, upon his arrival, Mats first noticed something else: a cityscape with a strict grid layout, numerous roundabouts and a surprisingly smooth flow of traffic. Historic old-town alleys and British pub charm? Not really.
Yet it was precisely this functional environment that became the starting point for three months full of new professional and personal experiences.
A warm welcome
From day one, the team in Milton Keynes made it easy for him to settle in. The open, friendly and helpful nature of his colleagues ensured that Mats quickly became part of the daily working routine.
The newly designed office also played its part: the open-plan layout creates space for spontaneous encounters and makes communication across teams and departments straightforward. This gave Mats the opportunity to make contacts quickly and get to know different areas of the British sales organisation.
Learning beyond the usual perspective
Mats found the regular client meetings particularly formative. Instead of viewing products primarily from a technical perspective, he now experienced them in the very places where they are used and sold on a daily basis.
These meetings took him to a wide variety of settings – from logistics centres and production facilities to London Heathrow Airport and the film set of a national television broadcaster. In the process, he learnt just how varied requirements can be and which factors, apart from technical specifications, influence a purchasing decision.
“These insights have broadened my perspective from purely technical specifications to a more comprehensive understanding of what matters to customers when making a purchasing decision.”
For Mats, it was precisely this shift in perspective that was one of the most important lessons he learnt during his time in the UK: combining technical product knowledge with an understanding of the market, sales and customers.
A sandwich instead of canteen food
However, it wasn’t just client meetings that offered new perspectives. British lunchtime culture also required a bit of an adjustment.
From his previous JIG postings, Mats was used to hot meals in the canteen. In Milton Keynes, on the other hand, sandwiches and crisps dominated the menu. Whilst Mats was initially rather cautious about getting used to this, his JIG colleague Ozkan was quicker to take to it – and regularly enjoyed the typical British “Tesco Meal Deals”.
For Mats, even these small differences were part and parcel of his assignment abroad: questioning habits, trying new things and experiencing how day-to-day working life and corporate culture differ from country to country.
The UK beyond the office
Mats realised at the weekends that the UK has much more to offer in terms of scenery than the functional urban landscape of Milton Keynes. He used his free time to explore the country – including walks along the cliffs of Cornwall and through the Lake District.
“The UK’s stunning natural beauty more than made up for the rather uninspiring city life in Milton Keynes.”
Stays in family-run bed and breakfasts, evenings in cosy pubs and, of course, fish and chips rounded off the Britain experience.
What remains from the JIG programme
Mats’s two-year Jungheinrich International Graduate Programme came to an end with his placement in Milton Keynes. The various assignments enabled him to get to know the company from different perspectives and to deepen his understanding of the interplay between development, production, product management and sales.
It was his time in the UK in particular that brought many of these experiences together: Technical knowledge met the customer’s perspective, product understanding met market requirements, and professional development met new personal experiences.
What has Mats taken away from these two years? In-depth product knowledge, a broader understanding of business processes and an international network – and with that, a strong foundation for his future career at Jungheinrich.
“Building on this foundation, I look forward to making a significant contribution in my future role at Jungheinrich.”
