A chance conversation during this May’s bauma Germany, resulted in Jannik Rossner embarking on a six-month internship with Manitowoc in Sydney.
Working for a leading crane manufacturer was new to Jannik, but he quickly slotted into the team and has proved to be a valuable member of the team. Jannik, along with Manitowoc’s John Stewart and Garry Barker explain how the internship works.
Jannik works for Franz Bracht, one of Germany’s leading crane hire businesses, where he reports directly to the Owner and General Manager Dirk Bracht and Commercial Director, Martin Fischer.
“My desk is situated in their offices, and I’m involved in the day to day running of the business including dealing with contracts, with HR, with the marketing, basically it’s an all-around role,” said Jannik. “I started three and a half years ago with an internship which was part of my university degree. Since my childhood, I have been fascinated by large machines and I know my passion is for the crane industry. My view is, together we are designing the future of the world.”
Jannik’s internship with Manitowoc Sydney resulted from a conversation with Andreas Cremer, Manitowoc’s Vice President Product Management Mobile Cranes during a meeting in bauma.
“I was on the Grove stand with Mr Fischer and we’re talking with Andreas and also Kran Agentur Werner, who is our Grove dealer in Germany. I mentioned I’m young and I want to see the world, but I also want to stay in the industry, maybe we could arrange something? They said, ‘Yeah! There’s a great opportunity here, let’s make it happen.’ Before I know it, I’m in a Teams meeting with John Stewart and he’s inviting me to start a six-month internship in Sydney,” he said.
Jannik explains the purpose of the internship, what he is hoping to learn and what he is bringing to the local Manitowoc business.
“Working for a large German crane hire business I understand the crane business from an end users perspective. I understand the day-to-day challenges we face, the problems we encounter and what it takes to thrive in what is a very competitive market,” he said.
“I’m here to help share my experiences with Manitowoc, share what we expect from our suppliers and help them in any way I can to improve their business processes and to help them be even more responsive to customer demands.
“I’m also learning from them about the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis, and I will take all of this back to the Franz Bracht business. My time here will help us be better prepared in terms of managing our fleet and help manage our expectations of the various suppliers we work with.
I think we are agreed the internship is a ‘win win’ for both businesses.”
Jannik has been working with Garry on the used crane sales side of the Manitowoc business.
“When it comes to used crane sales, Jannik has worked on several projects focused on our business processes and our approach to the required documentation,” Garry said. “His end-user knowledge has helped us develop a more robust strategy for our used cranes sales and support.
“Manitowoc is growing our used cranes business in earnest and Jannik’s experience with Franz Bracht has given us a different perspective on how customers might be viewing major inspections and the impact this might have on the business. Do you hold onto older cranes and go through the major inspection process with the costs involved, or do you off load them earlier?
“We’re an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), so we know what’s wrong with the crane and we know how to fix it, but coming from the crane hire background, Jannik brings a completely different perspective. He’s been sharing with us his experience of what it takes to be a crane hire business that wants to be operating ‘class leading’ used equipment.
“Most of our people haven’t worked for a crane rental business. Having Jannik here provides our team with the opportunity to quiz him, and his colleagues back in Germany, about customer expectations. His responses have been very specific and are providing the team with a deeper understanding of our business and where we can make improvements.”
On joining the Manitowoc team, Jannik was tasked with managing their presence at the Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA) National Conference and Exhibition. Not an easy task because it involved an open day at TRT Australia’s yard, followed by a river cruise for 40 plus customers, as well as organising the stand at the exhibition and everything that goes with that.
“The open day at TRT followed by the river cruise were excellent. We had 40 plus customers attend both and although they are competitors, I was surprised to see how respectful they were, communicating on equal terms and how open they are with about their businesses. In no way is it comparable to Germany,” Jannik said.
“Our stand at the CICA Conference and Exhibition took some planning and attention to detail, which is one of my strengths. The stand worked well, we saw a lot of customers and many of the conversations were positive. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of business as a result of the conversations we had.”
From John Stewart’s perspective, Jannik’s internship has worked extremely well.
“When the guys in Germany came to me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this young guy that’s working for Franz Bracht and he wants a six-month internship in Sydney,’ I was thinking that sounds great but I’m really not sure where he’ll fit in,” John said. “But from the first phone call it was obvious that his English is excellent so there’s not going to be a drama with meeting and greeting. Once you meet and work with Jannik you see the value he brings to our business because of his experience with a large crane rental company.
“As an OEM, I think we gravitate to certain aspects of our business that we find important, but Jannik has demonstrated that our customers might not view them as being as important. He’s bringing a high level of value-adds in terms of detail, the little things that we might have been missing. I know his internship will prove mutually beneficial.”