On my first few days at Benner & Partner, I was introduced to all employees and each one of them told me about their career path and their current work at the agency. I wanted to find out more about the specific jobs of people that work in my department since these jobs relate more closely to what I am studying and I intend working later in life.
Thus, I asked Ms. Theresa Hechtl if she would be so kind to answer some questions for me and she immediately agreed.
I also asked Mr. Ernst M. Benner for an appointment to meet up with him so that I could interview him. However, Mr. Benner is always very busy and often has outside appointments. Thus, it was impossible to meet him in person. Nevertheless, his personal secretary promised me that she would hand him my questions and he will answer them in written form.
Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to ask someone else due to the fact that the whole department I worked for was so incredibly busy trying to work and finish the fan catalog for the FC Bayern Munich.
Interview with Ms. Theresa Hechtl,
Manager of Merchandising and Licensing in the Marketing Department
Career Path
Hechtl initially studied and did her bachelor’s in Media Management in Munich, then did two internships at dialogue and advertising agencies, among others Benner & Partner, for a total of eight months, and then continued with her master’s degree abroad in London in International Business. After finishing her master’s she started working for Benner & Partner where she had stayed for about three years and worked in the FCB department as a Junior Account Manager and later as a “normal” Account Manager. Following the employment at Benner & Partner, she joined the Marketing Department for Merchandising and Licensing at the FC Bayern Munich.
Current Position and Duties
For her, it was fairly easy since she has been working at Benner & Partner before who works closely with the FCB. For them, it is important that they have previous contact and experience with potential employees so that they can estimate the workers potential and abilities. She also thinks that it seems less important which educational background one has, who is selected for the job is the person that is most qualified for the position. The team she is working for deals with merchandising, particularly print advertising, notices, catalogs, plan of concepts, writing of article texts, and the cooperation with the e-commerce team of the FCB and the many fan-shops.
Likes and Dislikes about the Job
She really likes about her job that it is very diverse, challenging and brings a lot of responsibility. She also enjoys the contact with clients and customers. The only thing that she does not enjoy too much is writing article texts about new products that came out recently. These will be added to the catalog and serve as additional information for the customer, depicting a closer description of the product including size, material, and price.
Professional Goal for the Future
To her, it is important to continuously receive further education in the field of business she is working in. This is also important for the FCB, and they offer these opportunities to their employees. Another goal is to take over a leading position at the FCB at some point in her career.
Interview with Mr. Ernst M. Benner,
Owner of the Benner & Partner GmbH
Introduction
Ernst M. Benner is an independent consultant, who is in charge of one of the largest owner-managed marketing agencies in the German-speaking area, the so called Benner & Partner GmbH.
In addition, he is in charge of the subsidiary and associate companies such as:
- Peerevents
- Eat Fine Catering
- IfW
- Webmania
- Cashtron
- and four other companies.
The focus of the company is set on the areas of multi-channel marketing and sports marketing.
The firm is making approximately 50,000,000 Euro billing revenues each year.
The group is also socially active and engaged in a non-profit organization that fights age loneliness.
Moreover, he is engaged as/in…
…Chairman of the Advisory Board for sports marketing at the Bavarian Academy of Advertising and Marketing,
…Chairman of the Advisory Board dialogue marketing at the Bavarian Academy of Advertising and Marketing,
…Lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich,
…The German Dialogue Marketing Association,
…Jury member in various national and international juries,
…Keynote speaker and author.
The references in addition to the top customers, both nationally and internationally, are reflected in annual awards, including the German Innovation Award.
His biggest references are his wife, his two children, and his loyal and skilled employees!
Job Requirements
- Visionary,
- Motivator and leader,
- Strategic and creative authority,
- Controller,
- Account Manager and,
- Troubleshooter.
Claims for Employees
- Emphaty, motivation, enthusiasm,
- Customer orientation,
- Willingness for continuous training,
- Loyalty and flexibility and,
- Honesty and criticism/suggestions for improvements.
Likes and Dislikes about the Job
Likes:
- The incredible variety of different industries and customers.
- The daily joy of seeing his staff and admiring their absolute commitment and diligence.
- The recurring sense of achievement and helping customers succeed.
Dislikes:
- Controller on the customer side, who only operates financial controlling without understanding strategic controlling.
- If employees do not take every detail of our customer work seriously.
- Failures.
- Too much respect and thereby little openness towards him.
- Any kind of lies.
"Would you again strive for a job in the field of marketing?"
Over and over again. This job keeps you young and alert and changes from day to day.
Goals and expectations for the future
- To show the employees that there are social structures in which communion and joy prevails, rather than a hire and fire principle.
- State of the art - partner and innovator for his customers.
- Being an employer of choice.
- To be committed to high-quality and challenging jobs and not to be known as a cheaper provider.
- At the same time, he expects further increasing price pressure and growing security policies of each client, rather than courage and visionary thinking and acting.
18.8.2015/Ernst M. Benner
Mr. Benner was so kind to answer these questions for me. However, the original answers were in German and I translated those into English.
Interview with Mr. Michael Karbacher,
Owner of Karbacher & Friends, and Promotion Manager at BABOLAT
BABOLAT VS S.A. provides various products for tennis and badminton players. The company offers various racquets, strings, footwear, balls, grips, over-grips, luggage products, apparel, accessories, and stringing machines. It offers its products through a network of sporting goods stores, partner clubs, dealers, and distributors to customers in France, the United States, Japan, Spain, Italy, and internationally. The company was founded in 1875 by Pierre BABOLAT and is based in Lyon, France. The company is now lead by Chairperson Eric BABOLAT in the fifth generation.
I first contacted Mr. Karbacher via E-mail if it was possible to Skype and ask him a few questions about himself, his professional career, and his current job at BABOLAT. Since Mr. Karbacher is fluent in English, we had our conversation in English, and while we were talking, I was writing down the answers he gave me.
1983 Abitur Kaethe-Kollwitz-Gymnasium Munich (graduation from high school)
1983-1984 “Sports soldier” of the German Armed Forces
1986-1988 Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet;
Focus on sales, production, and marketing
1985-1992 Tennis Bundesliga (MTTC Iphitos)
1989 Best ATP single ranking 648
1988-1994 Coach of the Davis Cup Team together with Niki Pilic
(Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Carl Uwe Steeb, ...)
1994-1997 B-Squad Coach of the German Tennis Federation
1999-2000 Promotion Manager at Reebok (Tennis)
2006-2010 Event Consultant of the Stadtsparkasse Munich
since 1998 Promotion Manager BABOLAT VS S.A.
since 1999 Owner of the Event Agency Karbacher & Friends
Requirements for Current Occupation
He signed a player contract (VS strings & accessories) with BABOLAT 1989. When he turned DTB Coach (Coach of the German Tennis Federation) they renewed the cooperation. After finishing his job as a Tour Coach and turning to sports business, working for Reebok, the BABOLAT company had asked him to help them explain the German Tennis market - the structure: federation, local federations, clubs, coaches, players, etc. - and ultimately enter the German Tennis market.
After their second meeting, he was asked if he could imagine launching a new product together with BABOLAT’s sales reps. The product at the time was the first ever BABOLAT Tennis racket. The launch was successful and was in workable business competition with Reebok, producing tennis apparel and shoes. In 2001, BABOLAT launched its first tennis ball in the European market. His task was to work on the distribution to the local tennis federations. In 2003, the joint venture of BABOLAT and Michelin took place and as a result, the first tennis shoe of BABOLAT was presented on the market. This time, he focused on the product placement of their tennis shoes, worked on increasing our distribution channel, and finding “local heroes.” In 2008, they launched their first apparel products. Ever since BABOLAT’s major goal was to cover the whole tennis product range, from hardware to apparel. The big plus in the industry: apparel endorsement guarantees a higher brand visibility.
- To be a tennis player himself which allows him to have a better insight.
- He needed a high school degree.
- Different language skills: German, English, and French, particularly because BABOLAT is a French company.
- Knowledge of Marketing, Sales and Distribution.
- Broad network due to his former job - tennis federation, players, and coaches.
Likes and Dislikes about the Job
Working in the sports business and working for a small and efficient family company with about 250 employees worldwide. He also like promoting and placing new products for their customers and using sales tools to increase the demand. He enjoys being in touch with people from the world of sports, with young talents, and ambitious coaches and academies. What he dislikes the most is that the company is sometimes too slow in regards to decision making. But in turn, our slogan is: increase not too fast but steadily.
Hiring
It is difficult to get hired because the job recruiting is done in France and French language is appreciated. But at BABOLAT U.S., which is based in Bolder, Colorado, it is different.
Internship Possibility
I am not sure.
Professional Goals
To be the number 1 of the tennis hardware market by the end of 2016.
Potential Improvement for BABOLAT?
We do have a small, efficient worldwide working group of employees, and we opened a new full automatic storehouse near Lyon in order to accelerate our shipments. But there is always room for improvement - customer loyalty management, pushing innovations, complaint processing, and strengthening our sales force.
Interview/Jobshadowing with Mrs. Kappes,
Head of Marketing at the Raiffeisenbank Essenbach eG
In 2016, I completed an internship at the Raiffeisenbank Essenbach eG, which includes nine branches in the area of Essenbach. The Raiffeisenbank Essenbach eG, as any Volks- and Raiffeisenbank is a “Genossenschaftsbank,” which means that customers can be proprietors of the bank by owning a certain percentage of the bank depending on the money invested. This guarantees that the bank treats the money of its proprietors with respect and does not engage in risky or even illegal business methods.
While having a conversation with Mrs. Kappes she told me about herself and her experience which I wrote down later.
Mrs. Kappes has undergone a very successful career with an early rise to become the Head of Marketing at the largest electronic store in Germany, called Media Markt, which is comparable to Best Buy. There she was in charge of 350 employees. Throughout her career, she worked for many well-known companies, including Media Markt, HSE24, and Otto Versand, where she was in charge of the marketing departments. She was also a partner and owner of a media agency, as well as a dialogue marketing agency. When her son was born, she decided to economize and made a step back in regards to her professional career to spend more time with her son and her live-in lover.
Likes
Variable job with different tasks, good work environment and friendly colleagues, as well as flexible working hours.
Major Struggle/Dislike
At a bank, the security standards are very high and thus there are many different limitations, which makes working more difficult for Mrs. Kappes because marketing requires a lot of research on the Internet.
Internship opportunities: Yes
Future job opportunities: Yes
Thanks to Ms. Hechtl, Mr. Benner, Mr. Karbacher, and Mrs. Kappes for answering my questions and your time commitment. I really appreciate it.
Thus, I asked Ms. Theresa Hechtl if she would be so kind to answer some questions for me and she immediately agreed.
I also asked Mr. Ernst M. Benner for an appointment to meet up with him so that I could interview him. However, Mr. Benner is always very busy and often has outside appointments. Thus, it was impossible to meet him in person. Nevertheless, his personal secretary promised me that she would hand him my questions and he will answer them in written form.
Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to ask someone else due to the fact that the whole department I worked for was so incredibly busy trying to work and finish the fan catalog for the FC Bayern Munich.
Interview with Ms. Theresa Hechtl,
Manager of Merchandising and Licensing in the Marketing Department
Career Path
Hechtl initially studied and did her bachelor’s in Media Management in Munich, then did two internships at dialogue and advertising agencies, among others Benner & Partner, for a total of eight months, and then continued with her master’s degree abroad in London in International Business. After finishing her master’s she started working for Benner & Partner where she had stayed for about three years and worked in the FCB department as a Junior Account Manager and later as a “normal” Account Manager. Following the employment at Benner & Partner, she joined the Marketing Department for Merchandising and Licensing at the FC Bayern Munich.
Current Position and Duties
For her, it was fairly easy since she has been working at Benner & Partner before who works closely with the FCB. For them, it is important that they have previous contact and experience with potential employees so that they can estimate the workers potential and abilities. She also thinks that it seems less important which educational background one has, who is selected for the job is the person that is most qualified for the position. The team she is working for deals with merchandising, particularly print advertising, notices, catalogs, plan of concepts, writing of article texts, and the cooperation with the e-commerce team of the FCB and the many fan-shops.
Likes and Dislikes about the Job
She really likes about her job that it is very diverse, challenging and brings a lot of responsibility. She also enjoys the contact with clients and customers. The only thing that she does not enjoy too much is writing article texts about new products that came out recently. These will be added to the catalog and serve as additional information for the customer, depicting a closer description of the product including size, material, and price.
Professional Goal for the Future
To her, it is important to continuously receive further education in the field of business she is working in. This is also important for the FCB, and they offer these opportunities to their employees. Another goal is to take over a leading position at the FCB at some point in her career.
Interview with Mr. Ernst M. Benner,
Owner of the Benner & Partner GmbH
Introduction
Ernst M. Benner is an independent consultant, who is in charge of one of the largest owner-managed marketing agencies in the German-speaking area, the so called Benner & Partner GmbH.
In addition, he is in charge of the subsidiary and associate companies such as:
- Peerevents
- Eat Fine Catering
- IfW
- Webmania
- Cashtron
- and four other companies.
The focus of the company is set on the areas of multi-channel marketing and sports marketing.
The firm is making approximately 50,000,000 Euro billing revenues each year.
The group is also socially active and engaged in a non-profit organization that fights age loneliness.
Moreover, he is engaged as/in…
…Chairman of the Advisory Board for sports marketing at the Bavarian Academy of Advertising and Marketing,
…Chairman of the Advisory Board dialogue marketing at the Bavarian Academy of Advertising and Marketing,
…Lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich,
…The German Dialogue Marketing Association,
…Jury member in various national and international juries,
…Keynote speaker and author.
The references in addition to the top customers, both nationally and internationally, are reflected in annual awards, including the German Innovation Award.
His biggest references are his wife, his two children, and his loyal and skilled employees!
Job Requirements
- Visionary,
- Motivator and leader,
- Strategic and creative authority,
- Controller,
- Account Manager and,
- Troubleshooter.
Claims for Employees
- Emphaty, motivation, enthusiasm,
- Customer orientation,
- Willingness for continuous training,
- Loyalty and flexibility and,
- Honesty and criticism/suggestions for improvements.
Likes and Dislikes about the Job
Likes:
- The incredible variety of different industries and customers.
- The daily joy of seeing his staff and admiring their absolute commitment and diligence.
- The recurring sense of achievement and helping customers succeed.
Dislikes:
- Controller on the customer side, who only operates financial controlling without understanding strategic controlling.
- If employees do not take every detail of our customer work seriously.
- Failures.
- Too much respect and thereby little openness towards him.
- Any kind of lies.
"Would you again strive for a job in the field of marketing?"
Over and over again. This job keeps you young and alert and changes from day to day.
Goals and expectations for the future
- To show the employees that there are social structures in which communion and joy prevails, rather than a hire and fire principle.
- State of the art - partner and innovator for his customers.
- Being an employer of choice.
- To be committed to high-quality and challenging jobs and not to be known as a cheaper provider.
- At the same time, he expects further increasing price pressure and growing security policies of each client, rather than courage and visionary thinking and acting.
18.8.2015/Ernst M. Benner
Mr. Benner was so kind to answer these questions for me. However, the original answers were in German and I translated those into English.
Interview with Mr. Michael Karbacher,
Owner of Karbacher & Friends, and Promotion Manager at BABOLAT
BABOLAT VS S.A. provides various products for tennis and badminton players. The company offers various racquets, strings, footwear, balls, grips, over-grips, luggage products, apparel, accessories, and stringing machines. It offers its products through a network of sporting goods stores, partner clubs, dealers, and distributors to customers in France, the United States, Japan, Spain, Italy, and internationally. The company was founded in 1875 by Pierre BABOLAT and is based in Lyon, France. The company is now lead by Chairperson Eric BABOLAT in the fifth generation.
I first contacted Mr. Karbacher via E-mail if it was possible to Skype and ask him a few questions about himself, his professional career, and his current job at BABOLAT. Since Mr. Karbacher is fluent in English, we had our conversation in English, and while we were talking, I was writing down the answers he gave me.
1983 Abitur Kaethe-Kollwitz-Gymnasium Munich (graduation from high school)
1983-1984 “Sports soldier” of the German Armed Forces
1986-1988 Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet;
Focus on sales, production, and marketing
1985-1992 Tennis Bundesliga (MTTC Iphitos)
1989 Best ATP single ranking 648
1988-1994 Coach of the Davis Cup Team together with Niki Pilic
(Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Carl Uwe Steeb, ...)
1994-1997 B-Squad Coach of the German Tennis Federation
1999-2000 Promotion Manager at Reebok (Tennis)
2006-2010 Event Consultant of the Stadtsparkasse Munich
since 1998 Promotion Manager BABOLAT VS S.A.
since 1999 Owner of the Event Agency Karbacher & Friends
Requirements for Current Occupation
He signed a player contract (VS strings & accessories) with BABOLAT 1989. When he turned DTB Coach (Coach of the German Tennis Federation) they renewed the cooperation. After finishing his job as a Tour Coach and turning to sports business, working for Reebok, the BABOLAT company had asked him to help them explain the German Tennis market - the structure: federation, local federations, clubs, coaches, players, etc. - and ultimately enter the German Tennis market.
After their second meeting, he was asked if he could imagine launching a new product together with BABOLAT’s sales reps. The product at the time was the first ever BABOLAT Tennis racket. The launch was successful and was in workable business competition with Reebok, producing tennis apparel and shoes. In 2001, BABOLAT launched its first tennis ball in the European market. His task was to work on the distribution to the local tennis federations. In 2003, the joint venture of BABOLAT and Michelin took place and as a result, the first tennis shoe of BABOLAT was presented on the market. This time, he focused on the product placement of their tennis shoes, worked on increasing our distribution channel, and finding “local heroes.” In 2008, they launched their first apparel products. Ever since BABOLAT’s major goal was to cover the whole tennis product range, from hardware to apparel. The big plus in the industry: apparel endorsement guarantees a higher brand visibility.
- To be a tennis player himself which allows him to have a better insight.
- He needed a high school degree.
- Different language skills: German, English, and French, particularly because BABOLAT is a French company.
- Knowledge of Marketing, Sales and Distribution.
- Broad network due to his former job - tennis federation, players, and coaches.
Likes and Dislikes about the Job
Working in the sports business and working for a small and efficient family company with about 250 employees worldwide. He also like promoting and placing new products for their customers and using sales tools to increase the demand. He enjoys being in touch with people from the world of sports, with young talents, and ambitious coaches and academies. What he dislikes the most is that the company is sometimes too slow in regards to decision making. But in turn, our slogan is: increase not too fast but steadily.
Hiring
It is difficult to get hired because the job recruiting is done in France and French language is appreciated. But at BABOLAT U.S., which is based in Bolder, Colorado, it is different.
Internship Possibility
I am not sure.
Professional Goals
To be the number 1 of the tennis hardware market by the end of 2016.
Potential Improvement for BABOLAT?
We do have a small, efficient worldwide working group of employees, and we opened a new full automatic storehouse near Lyon in order to accelerate our shipments. But there is always room for improvement - customer loyalty management, pushing innovations, complaint processing, and strengthening our sales force.
Interview/Jobshadowing with Mrs. Kappes,
Head of Marketing at the Raiffeisenbank Essenbach eG
In 2016, I completed an internship at the Raiffeisenbank Essenbach eG, which includes nine branches in the area of Essenbach. The Raiffeisenbank Essenbach eG, as any Volks- and Raiffeisenbank is a “Genossenschaftsbank,” which means that customers can be proprietors of the bank by owning a certain percentage of the bank depending on the money invested. This guarantees that the bank treats the money of its proprietors with respect and does not engage in risky or even illegal business methods.
While having a conversation with Mrs. Kappes she told me about herself and her experience which I wrote down later.
Mrs. Kappes has undergone a very successful career with an early rise to become the Head of Marketing at the largest electronic store in Germany, called Media Markt, which is comparable to Best Buy. There she was in charge of 350 employees. Throughout her career, she worked for many well-known companies, including Media Markt, HSE24, and Otto Versand, where she was in charge of the marketing departments. She was also a partner and owner of a media agency, as well as a dialogue marketing agency. When her son was born, she decided to economize and made a step back in regards to her professional career to spend more time with her son and her live-in lover.
Likes
Variable job with different tasks, good work environment and friendly colleagues, as well as flexible working hours.
Major Struggle/Dislike
At a bank, the security standards are very high and thus there are many different limitations, which makes working more difficult for Mrs. Kappes because marketing requires a lot of research on the Internet.
Internship opportunities: Yes
Future job opportunities: Yes
Thanks to Ms. Hechtl, Mr. Benner, Mr. Karbacher, and Mrs. Kappes for answering my questions and your time commitment. I really appreciate it.