Was steht auf Deiner Visitenkarte?

Carlos Carranza, Vice President, Brokerage and Support Functions, Deutsche Post DHL E-Post.

Worum geht es in Deinem Job?

As we all know, Deutsche Post DHL stands for two very big areas. We are the logistic company of the world, and one of the leading logistic companies in the world, and also make sure that the postal services in Germany also work as required. My job is focused on Germany, so I work for the postal services in Germany for the area of mail, and within mail I also work for the strategy for the future of mail. That means the electronic services that we're going provide within the German society, and this is called the E-Post. My department has two main goals. One goal is to make sure that through the selective and strategic cooperation with partners, that we are able then to make sure that we bring the products, the Deutsche Post products, to the German society. On the other side, we make sure that any new orders that we get in into the company, that we ask the question should we do it ourselves, or should we buy it from a selected partner. Well, I live in Cologne, which is right near the Bonn, but I still have to drive a bit, half and hour, 45 minutes, if I'm lucky, which gives me time to start with my day already in the car, so there's a lot of calls sometimes, some things that need to be taken care of during my way to work. My day is filled with meetings. It's filled with a lot of interaction with other teams. We work together with a lot of other departments. We need to work very tightly with other departments, and this requires a lot of communication, a lot of meetings, a lot of calls with other colleagues, and if we have a need for a decision, or if we have a need for changes in our strategy, then we make sure we have the right people on board to make that decision. So there's a lot of meetings with my team, with other teams within the company.

Wie sieht Dein Werdegang aus?

I was born in Tegucigalpa. That's the capital city of Honduras, Central America. Where I went to school, I went to a private American school. That's where I got my American accent next to my Spanish language as a mother language, I would say. I started working during my first studies in Honduras in the areas of media, marketing, TV, sales, and I realized that I had an affinity for business, and also for these areas of marketing and sales. I decided to make a second studies in Germany, where I got a degree in business IT in Germany, and right after these studies I started to work with the Deutsche Post DHL, first as an enterprise architect in a global area, making sure that we had the right IT products and IT systems for our company worldwide, and then I decided to make a move three years later to the area of mail where I started working as a consultant in the area of E-Post, then I moved for two years as a head of sales for the products of E-Post also in Germany, and moved back in August to the headquarters, and now I'm managing this team with brokerage and support functions.

Ginge es auch ohne Deinem Werdegang?

I'm pretty sure, yes. I believe that my job is not based on an expertise in the market. Imagine, I'm from Honduras. I was not born in Germany, and I'm working very deep in the German market, so I hope they did not hire me for my expertise, but the important things are you need to have this management soft skills with you. You need to be committed to the goals. You need to make sure you stay hungry. You need to make sure you manage a team and yourself to develop those goals, or to reach those goals as the company needs them, and that's more important at the level I am than the real expertise for one subject.

Was ist das coolste an Deinem Job?

The thing I love most about my job is moving into new dimensions with the new strategy of the German post, of the postal services in Germany of the Deutsche Post. We are trying to bring new products for new markets. People are changing, the generations are changing, and this requires new products, new strategies, and in my job I'm allowed to create these strategies together with partners, and it gives me a lot of freedom in a market that everybody thought was already decided 500 years ago. And this is something I love, going out, just doing stuff, and making sure they fit the goals and the expectations of the company, but having the possibility to do.

Welche Einschränkungen bringt Dein Job mit sich?

I guess the limitations I feel in the job is sometimes for me personally to stay focused, because you have a lot of interesting things you could do with this company, and I've been changing positions for a long time, and the limitation is not to get distracted with the next position or somewhere else, because there are a lot of good areas. Another limitation within my job that I feel is that even though you're creating a new market, even though you are providing a new change, it takes time. There's some processes that do not go as fast as you want. You need to imagine yourself how big of a company, how many processes you need to change, even if you thought that was a great idea, you might have to bring a little bit of patience with you.

Drei Ratschläge an Dein 14jähriges Ich!

I guess three pieces of advice I would give him would be, one, foster your creativity through reading. Read more. My father used to say, "Read at least one page a day." I never did it, so I would ask myself to do it now, because it helps you for the future. Second, I would advise to ask questions. Don't be afraid about not knowing something. You can ask everyone. A lot of people have good answers to it, or they might have the same questions with you, so go through the world asking questions. Be hungry. And as a third point, I would say enjoy the time. Don't speed up trying to be older. Don't try to jump into your next year. Enjoy every phase of your life at that time, and you're going to be a lot happier.