#3 - Intensive course to business travel – case example

Soon after my graduation I was heading to my first business trip outside Finland. I was going to a standardization meeting in Ulm Germany and I was lucky to have a senior engineering professional, Mr W. travelling with me. We were flying to Munich, from where we were supposed to take a train to Ulm. First things first – lesson number one. We headed to Hofbräuhaus in order to enjoy the famous big pint of beer and some German sausage. After that we were ready to take a train to Ulm.

Ulm - real intensive course. Source: Here.com

Finally we arrived at the Ulm Maritim hotel. The hotel looked very new and nice. Luckily we had a company price agreed for our stay, because otherwise the price would have been rather expensive. Already during the first morning I was happy to notice that they served champagne with strawberries at the breakfast. Despite my juniority, the meeting went very well even if all days long part of my attention was taken by the enormous crystal chandelier that was almost the size of a medium size ballroom.

One evening we were offered a nice seven course dinner outside the city area. Participants from various European companies were sitting in several small tables. I and Mr. W. were sitting together with Swedish delegates and a couple of persons from other countries. As a junior delegate, I was not very proactive in small talk. However, that was perfectly compensated by Mr. W. who was sitting next to me and entertaining the table with his stories about Swedish Christmas delicacy sour herring. Especially the description of the process in which the rotten herring develops high pressure gas that expands the conservation can made some delegates feel sick during the dinner. However, the food was delicious and the evening was entertaining.

The meeting went well, as I managed to initiate some important technology development. This is real style to make business travel, I thought. Unfortunately the following years have bitterly demonstrated that business travel is seldom such a luxury.

Lessons learnt:

Prioritization - first things first.

Coaching culture – Kick-start your learning with a senior coach.

First impression may be misleading.