Company & manager presentation
Frigorexpress
Frigorexpress nv is a company based in Peruwelz, Belgium. It is just a few minutes away from the border of France.
They are specialised in international transport of chilled and frozen food. They also have some subsidiaries in France (Perpignan, Moissac, Cavaillon) and The Netherlands (Breda).
The subsidiary in Breda is brand new. It is a succesfol company and the company already exist for 18 years. They are getting bigger and bigger, the relocation from Ronse to Peruwelz is an example of this. They have clients in the whole of Europe.
Mister Freddy De Smet is the manager, CEO of the company. He is a very experienced manager and Frigorexpress is not his first transport company. During this work observation have I noticed that he is very aware of every step he takes. He lives for his job, his company.
Organogram
This is the organogram of the headquarters in Peruwelz.
Log of activities of the day
Interview with the manager
I have done the interview around noon and I must admit, I was suprised afterwards. The manager was very open during this conversation and he answered each and every question.
We have talked about the problems, challenges, the ideas he got, the future of the company and such on.
After each answer you could notice that he already has a lot of experience and that he knows what he is talking about.
You can click on the button next to this text and a word file will open.
The manager started with checking up the planning of all the trucks of the company. To be more specific, he looks up every truck and the route of it that day.
After that, he followed the trucks with a special program and if there would occur any kind of problem, he can immediately see it and react.
The next thing he did was the meeting with the accountant. They have worked together to solve some financial problems, like clients that didn't paid on time.
After that we have done the interview and it was already lunch time after it. Half of the day was already gone.
The manager had a meeting with a new possible client in France after the lunch. Luckily it was not that far from Peruwelz.
I was the spectator during this meeting, this was the most useful part of the day for me. I have seen some sales tricks and some bluffing, the manager told me afterwards that it is just a part of the game.
The moment we were back at the office in Peruwelz, he followed the trucks again to see if everything was going fine.
Reflection
I am really glad that I have done my work observation at this company because it was a totally new experience for me. I liked the greetings of the manager, he immediately introduced me to his employees.
I have learned a lot on this one day due to the manager, he learned me several important things like for example, he told me that it is very important to be a manager in the sector that you like because you are way more motivated in that situation.
Another thing that I have learned is that communication is also very important for a manager. During this day, the manager has talked with every single one of his employees. he said to me that it is very imporant to create a good atmosphere between the employees and the employer.
these are a couple of competences that are very important for the manager of Frigorexpress:
-
International cooperation
-
Customer orientation
-
Enthusiasm and decisiveness
-
People management & leadership
-
Communication, multimedia and IT
-
Problem-solving and strategic ability
-
Communication channels and flows
-
Distribution, transport and logistics
I believe that the competences "enthusiasm and decisiveness", "problem-solving and strategic ability" and "customer orientation" are strenghts of me.
I dare to take a stand and I take my responsibility for it. Even after a bad, hard moment I will stay enthusiastic. Like I alredy mentioned I am a good "problem solver", I always find a way. I can create a solution in the most stressful situations.
Of course I also have some work to do on comptences like"international cooperation", "people management & leadership" and "communication channals and flows".
It is a problem because I have not exercised, experienced it enough. I grew up in Ghent and I have not lived anywhere else. But I am working on it like for example, I will work in Greece this summer for a period of six weeks and it is a great start to understand some other cultures more, and such on. My communication skills will also increase because of this job, I will have to sell tickets. I have challenged myself so that I can improve.
The competence "people management & leadership" is a tough one because I am a leader figure but only with the people I know, trust. I have noticed that if I have to be a leader for people that I don't know, I am just to soft for it so that is definitely a thing that has to improve.
Expectations
I do believe that the IBM programme will prepare us for a job like I observed.
I have learned during this work observation that communication is very important in this job and that is exactly one of the things that are also important in the IBM programme. We exercise a lot on it. Of course you have some differences in each sector.
But the experencie we will get out of the course and the foreign internship will be very useful in the future.
Motivation letter
As you can see, this was my motivation letter that I send to the company.
Because the company is runned in Dutch/French, I have send the email in Dutch, I thought it would be easier for the company.
You can click on the button under this text and a word file will open. this is the translation of the Dutch motivation letter.
