Carefully selected and motivated employees, adaptability and efficient systems are vital to ensure NORDEN is relevant and able to meet the customers’ many varying different needs. Meet Chartering Manager Rasmus Zerlang, for whom customer relations and a ‘glocal’ mindset has become his path in life.
The markets never sleep – and the same can be said for shipping and NORDEN. With offices spread out all over the world, NORDEN is able to cater to the needs of customers at all times, adding value and servicing our clients.
Local offices also mean proximity to customers and to the freight, allowing NORDEN to maintain good relationships and ensure new, lasting relationships can be built. The global reach with 9 offices also means ample opportunity for talented employees to travel the world, learn the trade, and help further build the global network.
Hands-on experience Down Under
25-year-old Rasmus Zerlang joined the Melbourne office 3 months ago, after coming to NORDEN 4 years ago as a shipping trainee. The new Chartering Manager in Australia initially sought out a shipping trainee position at NORDEN for this very reason – to travel the world with his job.
Life as a shipping trainee here is full of practical experience from day one, notes Rasmus, where the trainees are given responsibility immediately and social interactions and learning by doing are the way forward. Do this well, and the world is your oyster, as they say.
“I have truly enjoyed working at headquarters, but the added experience of working in one of our affiliates gives me even more experience and the ability to network with our customers,” says Rasmus. “Customer relations are vital and that becomes even more evident in our local offices, where we are much closer to the cargo base. Shipping – and chartering – is so much more than just an office-based job, which I appreciate, and becoming part of NORDEN’s global reach in real life is truly exciting,” says Rasmus, adding that the worldwide offices have so many great local Operators and Chartering Managers from whom he can learn the ropes.
Another aspect of life in an affiliate is the proximity to influence.
“Being here gives a new level of hands-on experience and means I have a larger say in the local, smaller team, with more customer interaction. Shipping is an international industry, a social workplace, where relations with other people are in focus, be it customers in Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, or other”.
Digitalisation in practice
With the use of still more digital tools, NORDEN’s business is fast becoming digitalised, which also becomes even more evident in the local offices, notes Rasmus.
“Our ongoing digitalisation initiatives are making processes much easier, which is vital when working in different time zones. It means that for someone like me, I do not have to wait for the other offices to wake up in order to get the information I need, but instead I have easy access through various systems we use, making a small office like the one here in Australia, less dependent on the other larger offices,” notes Rasmus.
Another upside, according to Rasmus, is that streamlined systems make transitions between the various offices easy, as the systems used are the same through the entire organisation, whether working out of Singapore or Copenhagen.
“As a young person, I am happy that NORDEN takes digitalisation seriously. I embrace all systems and tools that enable me to make better decisions and ultimately help us provide a better service to our many clients,” Rasmus concludes, as he heads off into the Melbourne evening for a customer event, in 25 degrees and sun.
