On the finer things in travel...

Being back in the workforce has taught be a valuable lesson, staying in-shape is not easy. This lesson has been amplified in my past two weeks in Germany where I have lived on a diet of beer, beer, and meat (and trust me, nothing was consumed in moderation). I am sitting on a train heading to Berlin for two days of ride-a-longs with sales agents and two days of persona

l weekend schenanagans. First the work.

The people in the Germany office are great. They have been helping me out every step of the way, and have gone above and beyond their job descriptions to ensure my time here is pleasurable. Infact, the Company in general has been very supportive and caring when planning my schedule. This is a company that I can confidently say truly cares about their employees!

The past two weeks have been really interesting. I am finding the German market a much more complex place than I thought. The market is mature and fragmented, and like everything in life, branding and image is key. Germany is tough, because the quality for all products is high, so pricing strategy is very interesting. When you factor in that production for most players here is done in Germany and we have to transport from another country, pricing becomes very tricky. While I am not specifically looking at pricing strategy, it is something I am keen to keep in mind.

Normally, if you have a strong brand, you can get away with pricing your products a little too high. Take Apple for example. They have the most valuable brand in the world, so they get away with charging WAY to much for their products. But if you have an unknown product in a market that is mature, fragmented, and traditional, you better believe you have the right price.

I have also been starting to think about working full time for this Company, if I get the offer. It is enticing. It solves a lot of the original goals that I set when I thought about getting my MBA; live and work in Italy (check), move to industry (check), and get the hell out of finance and accounting (check), but it is still not a clear yes. I think I am a little worried about the role and the opportunities I will have to come back to the US. The role is interesting, Area Manager for a region in Italy, but involves constant domestic travel, and a lot of problem solving (read bitching clients). I am just worried there is less strategy and actual shaping of the company then I desire out of a future role.
As for the US thing, they have mentioned a move to the US in a couple years but that requires a lot of cards to fall into the right place. There is currently no US office, so I would build that from scratch and if they decide the east coast is the best location, I have no desire to live there (except maybe boston). But this was mentioned in passing and is not certain. This is something I would probably want stipulated in my contract if I signed. Maybe if we don’t go to the US, I get some sort of bonus as a consolation. I don’t know.

I am also looking elsewhere for full-time work, just so I don’t get stuck with one option. I starting the discussion with a couple companies, one very interesting to me, and I think this is a valuable step in making a decision. One option is not a choice, but if I can juxtapose a couple roles and companies, it might be very valuable to me in the long run. Anyway, that part was more for me to look back and reflect on…

NOW FOR THE FUN!

Well, I went to Munich this past weekend to visit the Germans. Woah, Munich, as always, is incredible. The Architecture there is some of my favorite in Europe and the whole city just seems clean, hospitable, and uber-fun (oh and the girls aren’t too bad to look at either ☺).

Visiting cities for the sake of seeing a city is something that I don’t really enjoy so much at this point in my life. I am more about experiences. I enjoy adventures and/or good times with friends. So this weekend was a perfect balance. I got to go to Munich University’s Sommer Party. It was held at the campus and they opened up all the buildings for the party. There were more bands than I can remember and all the classrooms held different alternative musicians.

One of the classrooms was particularly cool because there was a women singing some kind of Teegan and Sarah type thing while playing a harp. Never realized that harp was such a cool instrument, but damn, that was a good show.

The party was great and I got to share it with the Keiser, Paul, and the Wolf, so all in all it was a great experience. The next day I got to walk around the city with Keiser and visit some of the cooler places. The highlight of the day was sitting in front of the opera with a beer and people watching. It was here that I discovered the munichbeerbike.com (don’t fret, it apparently is in many cities as I just saw one here in Cologne!).

Anyway, the Saturday was spent doing that, eating breakfast with the Keisers family (which was fantastic by the way, so thank you for introducing me to the fam!), and then spending Sunday driving around the country side and visiting a lake. Munich was a blast, but it was time to go back to Aschaffenburg for work, too bad my Kia couldn’t take me any faster than 160km/h (yeah I got to drive the autobahn, but no story is necessary as my Kia C got a top speed of about 184 km/h downhill).

Until next time,

Justin