It was a tremendous opportunity to meet young people HANS TEMPEL
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DAIMLER CHRYSLER JAPAN HOLDING, LTD.  Could you explain to what extent you think that ETP had an impact on your career?
At the time I was asked to be a candidate for ETP. Daimler Benz had decided to set up their own subsidiary in Japan and they were looking inside the company who could be involved in this operation. I held a junior management position in marketing at that time and to me Japan was totally unfamiliar, I hardly knew where it was located. But still they asked me to join.
Attending the programme was of course a wonderful preparation to work and live in Japan later on. It was also a tremendous opportunity to meet young people who were in the same situation. This helped me to set up a big circle of friends from day one. So in the end, Tokyo for me became a place where I went to college and where I established relationships you usually build in college.
When I finished ETP, the subsidiary in Japan had been set up and our president said to me: "Young man, you took the chance to join this programme without really knowing what would be the next steps, so now we will give you the opportunity to do something with it" and he gave me a chance to start as a Deputy General Manager for passenger car sales. Within 6 months, I was promoted to General Manager (1988) and from then on, my career was launched. Read More (PDF) |
