Motivation brief

NV Dierickx
During my studies at Artevelde I am preparing myself to work at NV Dierickx. NV
Dierickx is a family company at the 4th generation. They are a Belgian deboning
company of exclusively beef meat. Different ways of deboning cuts are being
handled, as well as different possibilities of packing (fresh, vacuum or frozen).
Carcasses are bought of slaughterhouses with quality certification and after
screening. After the production, the deboned meat is sold to different companies
in different countries (Sweden, Spain, The Netherlands, Armenia, Germany,
Russia, The Philippines, Greece) for further processing.
To be able to work in the international environment, I will need to know the terms
of each specific part of meat in different languages. To accustom myself already a
little to those terms, I wanted to complete my internship at a company that has
something to do with meat and preferable cows as well.

Anuga fair
In October I went to the Anuga fair in Kln, with my father who is the CEO of NV
Dierickx. This fair is organized once a year to gather all companies active in the
world wide food industry. One hall was specifically dedicated to meat companies.
In between meetings I wandered around to look for a company that may be
suitable to do an internship and I met Mr. Ravn at the NoriDane Foods stand.
The NoriDane Foods stand was very professional and well provided with staff, all
sales and purchase responsible persons as well as every one of the marketing
and even the accountancy department flew over. I later found out Mr. Ravn was
the CEO of NoriDane and that their policy is that everyone that comes into
contact with clients needed to be present there so that they could meet them.

NoriDane
NoriDane is a meat company and his headquarters are located in Norway and
Denmark. Nevertheless they do not operate only from there out, other offices are
located in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Sweden and Poland.
The main activity of NoriDane is to be the linking partner between meat
distributors and slaughterhouses or deboning plants. The mother company of
NoriDane, which is Nortura SA, has a market share of 71% in Norway, this makes
them besides the largest importer of meat in Norway, also a big player on the
export market.

Internship
In a brief conversation at the Anuga fair, I explained to Mr. Ravn that I was still a
student at Artevelde University College and that in order to fulfill my bachelor I
need to complete an internship. Moreover I hoped to fulfill this practical training

in a meat company similar to the company of my father. However no connections

between the 2 businesses are allowed.
Mr. Ravn then assured me that each trainee accepted in the several departments
at NoriDane is given a big assignment so that everyone that completes their
internship at the company can work together on it.
When I got home, I looked up some more information about the company.
I applied and got a mail back within one hour saying that there was a spot left for
me and that the internship would take place in Copenhagen, Denmark since the
office is bigger over there. Later that week I got more information, during the
time I will be there, they need someone to implement a system named Qlik View
Business Intelligence that is used to extract information from their ERP system
Microsoft Dynamics NAV. I was asked to study this program to see if I was
interested in it and if not they will give me other options either in the logistics
and accounting department or more marketing/sales related.

Motivation
Both companies, Dierickx NV and NoriDane, are active in the meat industry but
have no alliance. It seems interesting to learn more about the specific terms used
in selling different parts of meat and to see how NoriDane handles it. It could be
that they use a more efficient way and that maybe I could implement it later
myself.
Both companies are worldwide active, a lot of the communication is handled in
different languages. With is good to improve my languages, telephone and email
skills, which I will need later at my job.
Since my top talents are being a perfectionist and a busy bee, I am confident of
myself I will be able to work with the ERP system and extract the necessary
information. I have been asked to study the materials and knowing myself, I
wont leave to Denmark without mastering them.
During the TMD lessons of this year, I found out that I should be more patient and
open. Working together with others will also help me and could lead to a better
solution.