Natalya Dorokhina is project manager in the accessories, tuning and spare parts department at Atlant-M-Fahrzeughandel, the largest Volkswagen dealer in Belarus. The company belongs to the Atlant-M holding company.
The talented young executive acquired new practical skills and expertise during her one-month stay in Germany. Upon her return, Dorokhina devoted herself to implementing what she had learned, and set about dividing her department into specialist areas and making a specific individual responsible for each of them. The efficiency of work processes and quality control was thereby enhanced.
Although Atlant-M had already worked with German partners for several years, the BMWi Manager Training Programme led to three further contacts – a car accessories supplier from the region of Lippe, a leading provider of accessories for off-road vehicles in the Bavarian town of Fürstenfeldbruck, and a company specialising in the development, manufacture and sale of exclusive vehicles. Expansion of the product range and a new spare parts and accessories warehouse allowed the Belarusian company to expand its workforce and achieve a 250 per cent increase in turnover. In 2007 its products were certified, something in which Natalya Dorokhina played an active role. Inspired by the success of the training scheme, the company sent further employees to Germany.
Dorokhina has the following to say of her trip: “The benefits of the BMWi Manager Training Programme do not cease upon returning home. The experiences and valuable contacts we make stay with us for the rest of our lives and provide an excellent basis for personal and professional development.”
Thanks to her professional experience, excellent business relations and recommendations from German partners, the programme graduate is now in demand as an expert among overseas companies. And Dorokhina is proud of having helped a whole series of German and Swiss companies conclude long-term foreign trade agreements with Belarusian businesses.
Name: Natalya Dorokhina
Company: Аtlant-М, Minsk, Belarus
Sector: Vehicle retail
Position: Project manager in the accessories, tuning and spare parts department
Training in Germany: 12 November – 9 December 2006
Training centre: Bildungszentrum am Müggelsee, Berlin