Our MBA and MSc students had the opportunity to interact with management consultant Michiel Brenninkmeijer of STRAIGHTMARK.
Michiel is also part of the Brenninkmeijer family that owns European retailer C&A. He drove the retail giant’s various arms in sourcing and sustainability investment and remains heavily involved in the leadership teams in these areas.
The C&A brand is present in 21 countries worldwide and has some 70 stores across 23 cities in China.
Across two sharing sessions with MBA and MSc students, Michiel shared his experience driving his family business’ supply chain operations in Asia and its overall sustainability strategy. He also talked about his managerial approach to managing local in-country teams and his managerial approach.
Marie Nakano and Ishita Singh, MBA and MSc candidates respectively, share what they learnt.
Marie
Michiel’s approach to develop local management talent in regional offices is truly inspired. My former company found it a challenge to develop local management talent in the regional offices and often send out management teams from its Japan headquarters run the businesses there. I now know this may have been the wrong approach due to a mismatch in leadership cultures.
Michiel said C&A’s way is to grant autonomy to the local management and develop them with performance and reward metrics, leading to a sustainable global management model.
I also learnt about the complexities behind sustainable investment. This is an area where I have limited understanding, thus Michiel’s insights and experiences helped me get a better grasp of the topic.
He highlighted the importance of a risk-based approach – the management team needs to consider the project’s direct impact and evaluate other matters, including possible indirect implications. Otherwise, the organisation could lose sight of the investment’s targets and even the firm’s own purpose.
Ishita
Michiel was very open about his life journey. He started by talking about failure and how we should cope by not letting it hinder our path.
His point was that failure is not a bad thing. It is up to us to acknowledge it and turn it into a blessing by learning from failure. Learning is the key to growth in the workplace.
Michiel also talked about the importance of perspective – one needs to put on a different pair of glasses. He said everyone has different opinions and thinking, but we often don’t value them. We should instead be inspired by the people we meet and even inspire them.
As a budding entrepreneur who is eager to explore new domains of AI-based solutions in marketing, I asked Michiel for advice and this is what he said:
– Never give up
– Keep educating yourself
– Find your inner strength and allies
– Be far-sighted
On the last two points, Michiel explained allies are important as we cannot do things alone, and we should always to ask ourselves how we want to make money today and ten years from now.
With such extensive experience in business, Michiel’s advice was insightful and exciting. His journey so far has not been anything less than inspiring.
Up Close and Personal is a mentorship-themed series for our students to engage experienced business leaders and be inspired by their experiences.
