Every week I want to learn something new

Ernst

"If you're interested in other people and things that are new, you always end up in places where you grow." Ernst is curious by nature, but how does he translate this into his work as Finance Manager Asia-Pacific?

Always keep exploring

Ernst has always been curious about other cultures and liked exploring different countries. This started when he moved from the Netherlands to New York during his studies and grew, even more, when he moved to Moscow for a job. His first role at FrieslandCampina was at our headquarters in the Netherlands, where he worked in the Control & Risk department. "I always wanted to go abroad again and to experience a role closer to the business." And off he went, together with his family, to Singapore where he works as Finance Manager Asia-Pacific.

Ernst and colleagues

Curious nature

When asking Ernst how his curious nature shows in his work, he shares: "I ask a lot of questions. When I don't understand something, I will always ask for clarification and challenge the status quo. That we always have done something in a certain way is not a good reason. I’m asking questions to get to the core of things and see where we can improve.

I also very much believe in continuous learning

You should always keep challenging yourself and trying out new things. What I always remember is something my first manager said to me: "If you have a week where you didn't learn anything new, you should flag this with me." If that happens, I will start thinking about whether I'm still in the right place. This keeps me sharp. I get very energised from learning new things and getting to know new people."

Opportunity management

"A project I'm very proud of is the development of a dashboard for sales opportunity management, which we can use to track the status of potential new sales projects within Asia-Pacific. Based on this dashboard, we can look forward and make fact-based decisions to realise our strategic long-term goals. The use of dashboards to track opportunities on the long- and short-term provides clarity and focus and enables us to deliver sustainable growth. This also means that we may decide not to continue with certain projects, to free up time to deliver on what we call our 'big rocks'."

Ernst

Trying out new things

What was Ernst his role in this project? He provided insights from a business perspective and implemented the dashboard in Asia, to ensure it would be embraced by the entire sales team. "I'm always interested in trying out new techniques, and this one turned out to be a great asset for FrieslandCampina."

I'm happy that FrieslandCampina gives the freedom to keep on learning and to try out new techniques like our dashboard.

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