Hello Caro, please introduce yourself briefly.
Hi, I’m Caro, 35 years old and originally from the beautiful Osnabrück. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been living with my husband and our 1.5 children (one is still in my belly 😊) in Munich, closer to the mountains – a move that Greenplan made possible for us and that I’m very happy about.
What are your tasks at Greenplan?
Together with our two managing directors Florian and Clemens, I am responsible for sales as well as sales development at Greenplan. In addition to managing and executing our global acquisition activities, my job also involves developing and improving our sales processes and strategies to achieve our ambitious growth plans. And on the side, as it is in a small team, I do a little bit of everything, just like everyone else here at Greenplan, and it is this diversity that I really appreciate about my job. No two days are the same, routine is a foreign word.
What do you like most about Greenplan?
I love the flexibility that Greenplan gives us – for example, that I was able to move to Munich and now work mostly from home. Or that I can adjust my full-time working hours to the opening hours of the daycare center, even if that means that I start almost 2 hours before most of my colleagues and consequently leave 2 hours earlier, and am therefore no longer available. But this allows both my husband and me to work full time and still spend time with our daughter, making it just family and life friendly.
But that’s not all, I also love the freedom of action and the leap of faith that every employee gets – got a cool idea? Tell it and start implementing it!
And last but not least: Working in a small team! Before, I worked exclusively for large corporations, where it sometimes took weeks, literally weeks, to even find the right contact person for a project. And now? Everyone knows everyone, and it takes me exactly one phone call to find out who is responsible for what I need information about. I love that.
…Can I add one more thing? We already carry our green mission in our name and that was hugely important to me when choosing an employer at the time. Years before, I had worked for a company that sold water in plastic bottles and could identify with it less and less. Now I work for a company that is helping to reduce the carbon footprint in logistics and I am proud to be part of that mission.
You’ve been with Greenplan for over a year now. What has changed since you joined us?
Ha, a lot! 😊 The biggest change might have been when Greenplan became independent in January 2022. When I started at Greenplan, we were still part of the Deutsche Post DHL Group, which has almost 600,000 employees. A few months later, Clemens and Florian bought Greenplan from DHL – and suddenly we were only 15 employees. This brought about personnel changes – colleagues who valued the security of a corporation left and new colleagues who valued the flexibility of a start-up started. And we all could and still can experience first-hand what it means to make an initially small start-up big with a strong product, because Clemens and Florian are very transparent and let the whole team participate in the exciting company developments.
What do you appreciate about Greenplan as an employer and what would you change if you could?
I have already explained in detail above what I like about Greenplan .
What would I change? Clearly: We need an office in Munich! Because I’m not really the home office type, but rather appreciate working in the office in close exchange with my colleagues.
Where do you see Greenplan in 5 years?
For the fourth time in a row in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for route optimization software.
Now enough about Greenplan, we’d like to know a little more about you. What is your favorite way to spend your free time?
Ha, well, I prefer to spend it doing sports – ideally together with friends. And hiking in the mountains. With a job, a child, and a baby in my belly, as well as an apartment that is still not completely furnished, my urge to move can’t be realized quite as much as I’d like at the moment. But the next summer season in the mountains is ours, that’s for sure! 😊
What book are you reading right now?
I always read and listen to different books in parallel – depending on my mood and mental capacity the appropriate book. I’m particularly fond of “Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World” at the moment. Awesome book. I love non-fiction and this is an extremely good one that I can recommend to anyone who has ever wanted to know why politicians of different countries behave the way they do.
If you could put one word in a dictionary, what would it be and what would its meaning be?
Mega, awesome, and crass. I think these 3 words can be used to express quite a lot, haha, and that’s probably why one of them appears in every third sentence of mine at the latest.