"My life in AIESEC

I joined AIESEC in 1981, within four weeks of starting my business studies at St. Gall University in Switzerland. After some work on projects, my first management challenge was to revitalize the local committee as its LCP. We succeeded in doubling the number of traineeships and the budget.

I also became active in reactivating local committees at other Swiss universities where AIESEC had problems. A year later, I was elected NCP of AIESEC Switzerland. We succeeded in saving and fortifying all Swiss local committees during that year, and in significantly increasing traineeships again. I could convince our sponsor group to double the national sponsorship budget so that the NCP could be a paid full time position from then onwards.

During the last years of my university life, I was a trainer and/or chairman at more than 40 international AIESEC conferences. I also contributed to the first FORUM at University St. Gall, a very lucrative career day project which makes St. Gall one of the best financed local committees in the world to this day.

After having completed my Masters Degree, I took on the challenge to go to Guatemala as an executive envoy in order to help the newly founded AIESEC organization there to get on its feet. I trained the team, helped them raise traineeships, built contacts to local businesses and started local committees at more universities. It was a great life-changing experience for me that gave me the confidence that I could always go into a country and build a business or organization from scratch again.

AIESEC has possibly been the most decisive influence on my student life. I have learned to function in a multi-national environment, getting things done in a pragmatic way, driven forward by the forces of enthusiasm and commitment. One of the greatest characteristics of AIESEC is that it is a highly decentralized structure with a value-based mission. While the members, hierarchies and structures come and go, the values and the enthusiasm stay the same and are propelling AIESEC forward on a unbroken growth path since its foundation. It is probably no coincidence that the companies I have worked for later such as McKinsey or DHL share some of the same characteristics.

Life after university

After coming back from Latin America, I joined McKinsey and company in Amsterdam as a consultant. I felt that I had proven to myself at AIESEC that I would be a good general manager; therefore, I wanted to get a quick overview of different business situations from a staff perspective before returning to line management later. This job also allowed me to add Dutch to my language portfolio.

Due to my language and trans-cultural knowledge, I developed into a project leader for large global strategy studies in the logistics and transportation field, which is something like a national industry in Holland. In only five years, I had seen airlines, shipping lines, airports, ports, road transportation and logistics providers and the logistics departments of many manufacturers from the inside.

In many ways, the McKinsey experience blended nicely with what I had learned at AIESEC: relatively weak organizational structures, a very strong set of values, a global approach to the work and large multi-national teams of eager young people committed to achieving a lot in a short time. Also, the team environment in a consulting company changes on a quarterly or at most yearly basis, quite like the turnover rate that an organization like AIESEC has for its members. It was helpful that I had experience in working with people from many nationalities and in getting things done in other countries.

In my fifth year, I was asked to lead a study for Deutsche Post, the German postal service, which had been earmarked for privatization and needed to go through a major restructuring effort first. In the course of that study, the management of the company invited me to take on the international division, a large but under-managed business unit in their portfolio. I accepted and became the leader of the international expansion of the company during the next 10 years.

During the first 3 years, I had to build a new international production infrastructure and re-develop the product portfolio to make the business unit more profitable. I also negotiated an innovative joint venture of 5 postal operators with the express company TNT. After 1994, I concentrated more on creating an international business outside German borders. Starting with a small team of 10 well-selected young executives, we embarked on creating the world’s leading cross-border mail service, then acquired more than 30 companies in more than 20 countries to create Europe’s leading parcel network, and laid the foundation for further acquisitions which have today made Deutsche Post World Net the world’s largest transportation and logistics group by revenue. By 1998, we had sold our participation in TNT and become a partner in DHL instead. In 1999, I was appointed Executive Board Member of Deutsche Post, participating in the company’s stock market floatation in 2000. During that time, the involvement of Deutsche Post World Net in DHL grew through more cooperation and the purchasing of the majority of the shares.

My professional life at DHL

In 2000, I was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DHL, the leading global cross-border express company. With a presence in more than 220 countries and territories, DHL has often been called the most global company of the world. Indeed, no other corporation or organization comes to mind with such a broad presence; not even the United Nations, the Catholic church or Coca-Cola. DHL is owned by Deutsche Post, Lufthansa, Japan Airlines and some investment funds.

DHL having grown into a large multi-national business approaching US$ 7 billion annual revenue, my task is to gently introduce some global disciplines and central functions, without losing the drive and enthusiasm of our bubbling global company culture.

DHL is in many ways similar to AIESEC: very dynamic (founded in 1969), and used a highly decentralized management model to cover the globe in only 30 years. With an average employee age of about 28 years, DHL is a very young company.

This may help you appreciate why some leadership techniques and styles which I learned at AIESEC are still very useful to me today: speaking in front of crowds of enthusiastic young people, motivating people from many different cultures and nationalities, forging cross-cultural teams. I also find that holding people together across the globe requires a strong focus on values. Moral and human values give us a guideline on which to base our decisions, in particular during times of crisis. My leadership style is to communicate those values clearly, to brief my top team on the general strategic direction of the company, and to let them get on with their jobs as independently as possible. I discuss with them about objectives and if they need help to achieve them, not about how they are supposed to do their jobs. The key to success is to select good managers, to give them a general direction and a lot of support, and to reward them for their success.

In the DHL environment, intercultural experience is of major importance. We hire with preference people with cross-cultural backgrounds, international working experience and foreign language capability. Sensitivity to cultural issues is a pre-requisite.

Two recent moments of crisis have crystallized these principles for me: September 11, 2001 and the recent loss of one of our cargo-planes in a tragic midair collision over the Lake of Constance. As owners of one of the world’s top ten airlines, we have very well defined security procedures which kicked in right after the incidents. In moments like these, everything has to happen very fast, reliably and responsibly. DHL performed admirably during the crisis, safeguarding the interests of our customers, employees and the public at large.

These dramatic events have reinforced my belief that the best management style is to prepare a common base through a clear set of values and to let people get on with their jobs independently by giving the necessary freedom.

Sustainable development on a small planet

As a young man in the 1970’s, I was very impressed by the predictions of the Club of Rome according to which some people believed that we would end up in a major environmental catastrophe and shortage of resources after the year 2000. The past decades have shown that those fears were exaggerated; nevertheless, such progress does not come automatically, but has to be fought for continuously. I am a believer in the possibility of sustainable development while simultaneously increasing the quality of life for all people on this planet. Significant efforts will have to be made to achieve that goal, not least in the transportation and logistics industries.

That is why DHL is very actively pursuing and supporting the worldwide agenda for sustainable growth. We contribute to forums and initiatives, and we try to be model corporate citizens in all countries where we operate. We also play a role in many spontaneous disaster relief efforts after earthquakes or other natural catastrophes, often by providing our planes for relief efforts. We are also known as the company that is always the first into a market and the last, if ever, to leave it in times of crisis. We continued to serve the entire Middle East region during the Gulf war, and we re-opened our business in Afghanistan earlier this year, only months after the war had ended. In this way, we establish means of communications and distribution to the most difficult spots in the world; on the list of the 40 most dangerous country of the world, we serve every single one.

I personally believe that the best long-term strategy to make this world a better place is to educate young people and in particular young leaders about the moral values of humanity and the values of sustainable development. Therefore, I have always enjoyed educational meetings with pupils or students, and I have served on the advisory committee of AIESEC International for many years after I finished my studies.

I believe that AIESEC has a major role to play to prepare the world’s future leaders for an agenda of human values and sustainable development. The centers of power are becoming increasingly cross-cultural and multi-national. National governments see themselves delegating more and more powers to international political bodies and MGOs. Multi-national companies form other centers of power and are increasingly engaging in shaping the political and social fabric around them over and above their more narrowly defined business goals. The world needs cross-cultural leaders who can navigate these changing structures, guided by a clear map of values.

You AIESECers can and will make your contribution to improve our world."

Alumni Stories, 2002

Mr. Uwe Doerken is in the AIESEC Alumni Hall of Fame