Career Lessons in Global Manufacturing with Clemens Schmitz-Justen

Episode Outline and Highlights:

Many professionals in the manufacturing industry find themselves making challenging business and personal decisions in a fast-paced environment. Managers must balance their technical and their people responsibilities, decide if they want to manage global responsibilities, join a young, fast-growing a company, or take a leap and embark on an expatriate assignment. All these decisions are multi-faceted and should include considering the needs of the family involved.

Clemens Schmitz-Justen built on his Engineering foundation and served in various Executive roles in global manufacturing and now owns an international consulting firm. He was also the Honorary Consul in South Carolina for Germany while after he was in South Carolina as Plant President for BMW Manufacturing.

During this episode we discuss his fascinating career steps, how he managed the technical and people needs at the same time, and the pros and cons of moving internationally. Clemens shares stories and examples from his career and how his family was impacted by the choices made.

00:30 - Welcome Clemens Schmitz-Justen
02:10 - Clemens’ career story
03:54 - Clemens becomes President of BMW Manufacturing
05:15 - What Clemens is up to now
06:54 - Large company versus startups?
07:51 - Motivation and reflections
09:25 - Why manufacturing as a career?
13:01 - Challenges of manufacturing leaders: Balancing the technical and people side
15:00 - Story of resilience and persistence and picking the right crowd
16:14 - Creation of the Win-Win situation
17:51 - “..a disadvantage for you may turn exactly the opposite way of your career…”
18:30 - Engineering is a leadership tool
19:05 - The hard part of the Engineering
20:42 - Suggestions for engineers who want to lead people
23:01 - Going international and how it impacts career and family
32:53 - What is he doing now?
39:30 - Life is too short - create a career you are happy with
40:43 - End

Connect with Clemens Schmitz-Justen

· Clemens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clemens-schmitz-justen-a5a4a721/

· Clemens’ website: http://www.easc-group.com/

· Clemens’ email address: [e-mail]

Connect with Christina Stroud

· Set up a 30-minute introductory call: https://calendly.com/christina_group928/30-minute-discovery-call

· Christina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-stroud-sphr/

· Group928 website: https://www.group928.com/