Praktikum - Henkel

Gesamtfazit

I would definitely join Henkel Ibérica for another internship as working abroad is always an enriching experience. I do not know what I would change because you can not learn the structure within three months. Changing an organization is kind of organic process which is quite hard to achieve but possible. But be aware, that especially in Latin speaking countries the cooperative work is more important than in North of Europe

Beschreibung der Arbeit

Working and living in Barcelona is one of the best things one could do. Well, let me just give you a short overview of what I have done in the Purchasing Department of Henkel Ibérica. I got to know how the Henkel world is organized, that means that this company has a business unit driven organizational structure. Throughout all departments there exist people responsible for cosmetics, detergents, adhesives and surface technologies. I had not only the chance to take part in negotiations with suppliers, but also got my own assignments where I had to talk to suppliers on my own. Besides that I have been responsible for building up a Knowledge Management Database where purchasers from the whole Henkel Organization had to put at least one \"knowledge pieces\". Another project I had to take care was called \"efficient replenishment\" and delt with implementing all known means of communication in order to optimize the flow of goods through a better information flow. The great challenge was the Spanish language as 95% of my conversation was held in Castellano and the rest in German. Another interesting fact was getting to know that the Spanish do work a lot.

Diese Persönlichkeit passt ins Unternehmen

team player important to be patient let everybody speak and listen to everything don´t be rude and interupt the speaking person try to speak Spanish to the people and do not think you are someone better though you might know some details better

Beschreibung der Atmosphäre

Regarding the working environment in Henkel Ibérica I was really lucky. Though Henkel is such a big company all the departments themselves manage to create an atmosphere in which the work itself is quite "inspiring". All the people are very kind and friendly to you though you are an intern. In addition as coming from Germany I was not used to a working life being so team oriented within the Purchasing group. I really enjoyed the possibility to get in touch with all the different hierachy levels and taking advantage of the benefits an employee could get. Though the social standards are not that high in Spain than in Germany, Switzerland or Scandinavia Henkel Iberica offers its employees pretty good conditions compared to other domestic companies....