Emmy De Caluwé

Product Manager Retail at DCM

A few years ago, I was working as a PhD student. I was about to defend my doctoral thesis. As my contract with the university was coming to an end, I had proactively put my CV online. To my surprise, I soon received one call after another and, with the prospect of my doctoral defence, I had to make a selection among a number of recruitment agency offers. At that time I didn't have a concrete plan in mind, but one of the agencies made me very curious about a vacancy in Grobbendonk. Shortly afterwards, I applied for a job at DCM. I still vividly remember that first moment when I walked through the sliding doors and was immediately welcomed with a big smile. I had come to the job interview without any expectations, but after the first interview, I was immediately enthusiastic and this feeling only increased during the following interviews until I knew for sure: “I must have this job!”.

In 2011, I started as a customer service assistant where my main task was to provide sales support based on my technical expertise. Thanks to the growth of the company, I had the opportunity to move to a coordination role for the European market after one year. Today, as a product manager, I participate in the various retail sales meetings in the core countries, where I try to find out what the market needs in terms of products and what the sales team needs in terms of tools to sell these products in the retail market. The market needs may differ slightly from country to country, but on the other hand, there are also common needs in the different countries that we try to bring together in one project. These projects are then developed in close cooperation with the various departments, such as production, R&D, purchasing, logistics, marketing, compliance, engineering and IT. As a coordinator, I play a pivotal role between the various departments.

This job is very diverse and offers many challenges. I often can't choose the easiest path, but that's exactly what fascinates me. In terms of content, I feel strongly stimulated by my work, but also on a human level everything works out well. There is a strong sense of collegiality in this company; colleagues are loyal to each other but also to the company. In addition, many colleagues have incredible expertise in what they do, which means that we encourage each other to always do better and to always go further. After all, DCM is a family business where you can strongly feel the family atmosphere. The managers are very involved, present and approachable. This makes everything you do very personal; you know who you are doing it for and you work together to achieve the same goal, which is an important motivating factor.