An Airfreight Manager on a personal mission to share knowledge across departments: Armin's Kuehne + Nagel story

A healthy mind in a healthy body. This is the mantra of Armin, who swears by his 10 kilometer morning runs in a dewy German forest to kick start his day and to tackle the challenges in his job as Airfreight Manager. With 25 happy and successful years in Kuehne + Nagel, it seems like a winning formula. “For me, running is the best way to put things into perspective and to come up with answers for burning questions”, he says. Together with his team, he ensures the smooth running of our Airfreight department in Luxembourg. In between his responsibilities he also finds the time to share his knowledge with other departments.

Before his Kuehne + Nagel career, Armin was a flight operator in a German Airforce base. “Kerosene has always been the common thread in my career”, he says with a chuckle. “I still remember how, as a kid, I sat in the back of my parents’ car on Sundays as we drove past the Airport’s cargo center in Luxembourg. Each time I looked at it with fascination, hoping to catch a glimpse of an airplane taking off or landing and wondering what it would look like on the inside.” Many years later, on his first day as an apprentice in Kuehne + Nagel’s Airfreight Import department located at the airport, he was reminded of these moments in the car. Today, Armin is probably one of the most experienced people that our Airfreight department knows. 

Since we have large Integrated Logistics and Contract Logistics departments, we also focus a lot on cross-business-unit collaboration.

As Airfreight Manager, he uses that experience to steer the airfreight activities together with a team of 18. “One of my responsibilities is to look for optimizations in the operational processes together with my people. Since we have large Integrated Logistics and Contract Logistics departments, we also focus a lot on cross-business-unit collaboration”, Armin clarifies. “Besides that I participate in RFQs, join the Sales team on customer visits and work on local and regional projects. So as you can see, my job never gets boring.” If there’s one important lesson the Airfreight Manager has learned over the years, it’s that large organizations benefit greatly when its different departments join forces to work towards the same goal. Therefore, knowledge sharing is high on Armin’s list and he gladly dedicates some of his time to teaching internal Airfreight Trainings.

We want to send a signal that people shouldn’t hesitate to contact colleagues from other departments to ask for help or advice. The trainings have also made it easier for people to reach out to each other.

“Our people in operations can be regarded as consultants for the customer. When a customer calls, they should have the knowledge to ask the right questions and give the customer the information they want. Tell them, for example, that if we reduce the layers of the pallet we can fly it with a passenger aircraft which will cut the costs. That valuable advice is the service we want to offer.” Armin’s trainings have been a big hit in the office. Not only did they give colleagues a basic airfreight knowledge useful for their role, but according to Armin they’ve also opened up the doors between the departments. “We want to send a signal that people shouldn’t hesitate to contact colleagues from other departments to ask for help or advice. The trainings have also made it easier for people to reach out to each other.”

Today we’re trying to find a solution for a shipment to New York, tomorrow it can be Australia. You’re all over the place, but you can all do it from your home.

As you can imagine, Armin’s expertise and dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed within the international Kuehne + Nagel network. Having politely declined several job offers abroad, Armin states that the place where he grew up is the only one he’ll ever call home. “I’m too attached to my home town and my family and I are happy here, so we don’t have any ambitions to move”, he says. “But one of the great things about this job is that every day you’re somewhere with your mind on the global map. Today we’re trying to find a solution for a shipment to New York, tomorrow it can be Australia. You’re all over the place, but you can all do it from your home.” A home where he has his job, his wife and three kids, and the German forests where he can kick off his days with a lot of energy.

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