"A fantastic opportunity" - Alexandra Nögel is supporting our Sales Team in Singapore
As a leading international plastics processor, close collaboration between our global locations plays a vital role in our success. Our employees in particular occupations and positions frequently spend periods living and working at other locations, with the objective of promoting mutual exchange. In March Alexandra Nögel said temporary goodbye to her colleagues in Haren, Germany before going to support our Sales Team at Röchling Engineering Plastics in Singapore for a year. In this edition of our Newsletter, the Sales Manager for Composites tells us about her first experiences in Singapore, her role during her time there, and what she is doing to support collaboration between Röchling Industrial's international locations.
At the beginning of March I made the move from the rural surroundings of Emsland to the multicultural city of Singapore, in order to help further expand our South East Asian market in my new position as Regional Sales Manager Composite South East Asia. In order to make the use of this fantastic opportunity, in the months prior to my departure I underwent intensive preparation in the form of specialist and intercultural seminars. In the course of these, I participated in training sessions at our Composites Production Site in Haren, as well as at Röchling Permali Composites in Nancy, France and at Röchling Glastic Composites in Cleveland, USA.
Discovering additional sales potential
Röchling Engineering Plastics in Singapore is responsible for sales throughout South East Asia, and imports 100 percent of all composite materials produced in Haren, Nancy, and Cleveland into the region. The goal of my mission is to support and train the local team in Singapore in the complex and detailed knowledge involved in the nature and applications of composite materials, and in the special challenges that these pose for sales.
The mediation of both systemic and cultural differences that exist between three different continents is just as much a part of the focus here as the examination and assessment of the local sales strategy and the discovery of additional sales potential in this vibrant region.
Comprehensive safety precautions
With the arrival of the coronavirus crisis, Singapore as an international hub was strongly affected. Following an initially low number of new infections, the growth rate in coronavirus cases increased sharply, resulting in the introduction of a nationwide lockdown between 7 April and 31 May. All non-essential workplaces, schools, tourist attractions, and shopping centres were closed during this time. Singapore's possession of some of the highest medical standards worldwide and adoption of comprehensive safety measures enabled it to bring the spread of the virus back under control relatively successfully, and since the beginning of June, Singapore's urban and economic life have been back on the road to normality.
In the meantime, it's been possible to use the lockdown to address tasks that are often neglected in everyday working life. In addition to virtual customer contact and our ongoing sales objectives, we also focused on reorienting sales strategies and options, and on market analysis. With the recently increasing relaxations in safety precautions, our key goal is now to secure new market shares in South East Asia.
I see the chance to work in Singapore as an excellent opportunity to continue my personal and professional development. I'm extremely glad as I do this to continue to promote collaboration between Röchling's international locations, and am confident that Röchling, as a family company, will emerge from the present changes stronger than ever before.
Alexandra Nögel
