A unique picture: together with Joe Sutter, the B-747 designer!

The Corporate University spring season was crowned with another successful training session held on May 23-24 in Seattle. The training was conducted within the CU School of Global VD employee.    

The training program was initiated in March 2014 in Moscow; the second session was held in Hong Kong in July the same year; the third was in Ulyanovsk in February 2015; the forth was conducted in Stensted in September 2015.

The fifth training session avenue was not selected by accident. Seattle is the home city of the Boeing Company, which aircraft comprise the AirBridgeCargo fleet. The training was possible due to close cooperation with the Boeing and GE, which representatives participated in live discussion on collaborative services promotion.

The company president Alexey Isaykin made the opening speech.

Then the floor was turned over to the GE representative Scott Barney who specified interaction terms from a customer’s viewpoint, described a new approach to cooperation, spoke about requirements to logistics service providers.         

The subject matter was supported by the Boeing representative Shawn Wattles.

Presentations of our customers – Boeing и GE- were most valuable

The speech of Sergey Kravchenko, the Boeing president in Russia, was also memorable. He spoke about modern tendencies in global companies management, and about high priorities in the rapidly changing world. He stressed the importance of every employee contribution to the desired result. The excursion to the Museum of Aviation which impressed all the participants made it a lively closing of the first training day. The museum guides made the impression even more valuable as being the Boeing veterans they disclosed a lot of interesting facts from the history of the Boeing and aviation.

The session group work was devoted to the questions re customer service and changes to be made to perfectly meet customers’ expectations and needs.

The second day started with the visit of the world famous fish market. The participants were delighted to see a vibrant show the salesmen made out of the ordinary process of selling fish. Such approach should be practised in any business, – that was the conclusion made there.

«The Global VD Employee School strengthens the team spirit between all our offices!»

The market tour was complemented with interesting stories told by Axel Kaldschmidt, VD UAC commercial director, who was born and grew up in Seattle.

The training program also covered the issues of Boeing and Volga-Dnepr collaborative service promotions. Then the Boeing representatives shared their experience in LEAN-technology implementation. Another excursion to the Boeing manufacturing plant let the participants see it for themselves. This was where William Boeing established the corporation a hundred years ago.

This is what the training participants shared:

Anton Khodakovsky, Volga-Dnepr vice president in Japan and South Korea:

– This was the most useful session I’d participated. The GE presentation was remarkable, I also enjoyed the excursion to the plant. I got a lot of new information about mutual plans for meetings with the Boeing in Japan and South Korea. Networking made here will be beneficial for the future. Communication with our partners and cooperation development was of great interest to me!

Michael Smirnykh, general director, Volga-Dnepr Airlines:

Guided tours to the Boeing manufacturing plant, the Aviation Museum, and the fish market made the training session unforgettable.

– I really liked our live dialogue with the GE and the Boeing representatives. I like the way the training was scheduled. The excursions to the museum and the plant really energized the training program. 

Andrey Putilin, senior technologist, VDTM:

– I was so positively impressed and really appreciated the chance to communicate with the executives and colleagues I hadn’t seen for a long time. I am sure that the company great perspective directly depends on professionalism and motivation of the executives and the key specialists. I was pleased to again make sure that we were on a par with our foreign colleagues, and that many of our executives exceeded them in applied knowledge, experience and skills.    

Despite the fact, that the first training day was devoted to cargo transportation and logistics (which was not my field), I enjoyed the presentations. The GE informative and practical presentation was especially remarkable. It was evident that they were positively tuned to mutually beneficial cooperation.   

It’s also worth mentioning a high level of the training organization, the training avenue, and content.

Robert Van De Weg, senior vice president on sales and marketing, AFL:

– Excellent session! Main point: good for all participants to hear on customer requirements and in particular to see the differences in customer types e,g, GE buying direct and Boeing via forwarder.

Andrey Kolesnikov, senior vice president on Asian and pacific region, ABC subsidiary, Hong Kong:

– This was probably the first training session where communication both with our customers and within the VD team was aimed at discussing practical questions. This is a big advantage!

Ekaterina Chuychenko, head of the fleet development department, ABC:

– I am positively impressed:

• Working teambuilding atmosphere where I was capable of working on some current issues, including strategic ones;

• I got acquainted with our colleagues from Volga-Dnepr and our partners from GE and Boeing, who I’d been in touch with by correspondence;

• I got a clear picture of our business specifics and complexity – logistics, and also something what could be required by our providers;

• It was a nice work & fun proportion, where fun was meant both for teambuilding and for gaining new knowledge and understanding the industry (the Aviation Museum really impressed me with the rate of aviation development at the beginning of the 20^th century);

• It was extremely interesting to see a well-organized manufacturing process of B-737, the Boeing line production. (I got a clear picture of something I’d been reading a lot and mentioning in reports).

• In general, I am thankful and happy to take part in the training session – it has already expedited the realization of my tasks.  

Georges Biwer, vice president EMEA, AFL:

– I found it a good session, and very interactive, but based on real fact and GE as well as Boeing presentations, meaning real facts, and industry feedback, which is always fruitful information one can get out of it. Feel that is more and more a team building growing up between the various entities.

Simson Demmer, Chief Strategy Officer, CLM:

–   I enjoyed the program, and I thought very helpful group discussions. Most useful was ability to align with customer (GE, in particular), and colleagues whom you normally don’t get to see in person.

More details and photos on the Seattle event you can find in Global VD Employee community on my.volga-dnepr.com.