Executives from Tunisia participated in the virtual manager training programme in spring. The 18 entrepreneurs from various industries and representing various company sizes had a positive experience.
The main objective of the group was to establish business contacts to German companies and to maintain and expand existing relationships by participating in the programme, despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the participants – many from them from the IT and energy industries, but also representing the textile industry, furniture manufacturing, robotics and apparatus engineering – confirmed achieving good preliminary results.
Up close and personal with the German economy
Omar Ben Messaoud from the company Masmoudi Pastry, which produces e.g. pastry products and sweets, attended the programme with specific expectations: “We are currently planning to introduce a new production line of cookies with using a traditional recipe both for the Tunisian market and the international market. We already have experience collaborating with German partners, and we hope that we can establish new contacts through the MP,” says the production manager. Achmed Kammoun was already able to acquire experience with companies from China and Italy while working as the director of the company Spectra. Now he is interested in working with German companies to instal and equip solar power systems. He was able to lay the necessary foundations during the training modules and company visits. “The presentation training gave me important ideas about how to target your audience. Overall, I was able to improve my negotiating skills,” explains Kammoun. He can now count his first successes and is working with two German companies on realizing his programme objectives.
During virtual visits, the German companies discussed numerous issues of practical management with the Tunisian executives. “In light of our own activities related to internationalisation, we value the exchange with the company delegations from the manager training programme. The questions and chat comments from the Tunisian group reflect the great interest in our business model”, noted Reinhold Umminger, Director Global Business at Technology Academy GmbH from Hannover, afterwards. Richard Trontsch, Manager of the Marketing Robotics Division at Yaskawa Europe GmbH, was also convinced by the meeting with the MP participants: “It’s a valuable opportunity for our company to establish contacts to international business groups and to present our products and strategies. Specific requests and inquiries in the wake of these virtual meetings show how much interest there is in our technologies.”
Through a combination of virtual trainings sessions, company visits and targeted individual business contacts, the participants attained a comprehensive overview of what is fundamental for creating and strengthening German-Tunisian business relationships.