At the beginning of the year, the four Burda MORE International trainees have started the last rotation of their program.
Lunching with the CEO: at last week’s lunchtime meeting in Munich, Martin Weiss chatted with the international management trainees and welcomed his young colleagues in person. The first cohort of the new Burda MORE International Trainee Programme is made up of four trainees from four countries. Denisa from Prague, Maja from London, Issima from Gonesse (France) and Ben from Bangkok are currently completing their three-month posting in Germany – and getting to know the people and media companies at the Munich and Offenburg sites.
Martin Weiss launched the international trainee programme back when he was a board member at BurdaInternational. So he felt it was particularly important to get to know the four trainees personally and get first-hand feedback on how the programme is being put into practise. Four young people from different countries can also offer four fresh perspectives on Burda, especially as the trainees have gained experience of Burda’s international divisions in Great Britain (Immediate Media), Czechia (BurdaInternational CZ), Thailand (BurdaLuxury) and France (BurdaBleu) since beginning the programme in January.
“Burda thrives on its diversity, all around the world. The programme allows trainees to gain experience and knowledge across national boundaries in order to drive business models that will act as a platform for Burda”, says Martin Weiss. “Naturally, I was very keen to get my colleagues’ feedback and initial ideas. I had just as many questions for the trainees as they had for me.”
Weiss kicked off by looking at Burda’s evolution over 20 years of digital disruption. He explained how the corporate group has managed to remain 100% family-owned with continuous organic growth. In particular, this is due to the sustained development of its publishing business and an early focus on expanding digital business models. Thanks to its willingness to innovate, Burda has become one of the biggest players in Germany’s consumer internet.
The group then chatted over food at the Arabellapark office – and of course they couldn’t leave without posing for a photo. The trainees are currently working at Burda Create!, the Finance team at BurdaInternational and at BurdaForward. They will return home in the summer before heading off to their next international post in the autumn. The new Burda MORE International Trainee Programme lasts for 18 months with seven different postings.
