Experiences from former participating companies

Stichting De Pellikaan (India, 2011)

We are very proud and satisfied about the results that are accomplished in India in cooperation with Sefa. Three students from Sefa have worked together with three students from India to find solutions for the waste problem in Kochin, India. They have conducted their research in a professional manner in the Netherlands and India. Sefa has also facilitated the research professionally and with complete financial transparency and responsibility. We would very much like to extend the cooperation to a something structural for the future.
 

Friesland Foods Export (Bulgaria, 2008)

Bulgarian Dairy
Friesland Foods has a tradition of more than 125 years, in which the company has developed into a leading producer and supplier of dairy products, fruit-based drinks and ingredients. Our company boasts strong market and brand positions in Western and Central Europe, Southeast Asia, West Africa and the Middle East. Within this multi-national, the operating company ‘Friesland Foods Export’ handles the export of long-life dairy products to Bulgaria.

The SEFA Research Project announced itself to us in summer 2008. Although Friesland Foods Export already had some years of experience in this market, a lot of basic knowledge on trade marketing and channel management was still missing. The purpose of the research project was to gather information on distribution channels for a specific dairy category.

The SEFA team that worked on this project proved to be professional and quite self-supporting. During two preparation meetings the scope and deliverables of the project were defined. After this, the actual field work in Bulgaria was conducted with hard work and great enthusiasm. The team members showed that they could handle political sensitive issues and in the meantime were able to get many interesting facts out of the market.

The research findings of this project gave Friesland Foods some new and relevant insights which certainly helped us to grow the Bulgarian business. Iona, Judith, Lars, Gijsbert and Wouter, many thanks for your efforts!

Ewout Rijkaart
Regional Manager
Friesland Foods Export

Teleplan (Indonesia, 2010)

What happens nowadays is that many companies are so busy with their ‘normal’ operations that they do not have time
to look around them to other countries or regions. Thanks to the cooperation with Sefa this has been made possible.

Partners In Relocation Group (Baltic States, 2007)

Partners in Relocation Group management met with several Sefa teams during a Seminar about the Baltic countries. The standard sales pitch c.q. approach of several students was not good enough for PIR. We wanted the team to take ownership of their research project, and actually implement the details investigated and presented to us as ‘’the best way to be succesful’’.

One team accepted our daring proposal. We give them a lot of credit for taking this challenge. The project therefore became bigger, harder, almost impossible at times but so much more fun and meaningful. We are sure ‘’our’’ students learned so much during this project.

PIR Management learned from the students and they from us. We enjoyed working with this energetic team. Some members were more active in their communication to us, some members were more involved with the research and the putting together of the ABC’s per country. We found this team to work very well together. They communicated in a professional way to us. We are currently eager to find the results of them actually implementing their own advise to us!

All in all, PIR has been very happy with this SEFA team. We thank Mark, Anya, Stela and Kristina!

Yours Sincerely,

Isamar van Hilten
Executive Partner

Randstad (Poland, 2006)

Straight off from the very first meeting, we noticed an energetic and pro-active attitude in working towards a well defined research proposal. Each of the individual researchers displayed both enthusiasm and willingness, and combined soundness with resourcefulness. 

As was the case in Poland, a decent amount of travelling was necessary to gather the specific data. Each city differing substantially in their geographical location, with regard to the other. The group of students used the situations to their advantage and even approached some people on the train to ask for a moment of their time. Making the dataset larger than was initially anticipated.

Also, in the department of languages, several obstacles tended to arise. Often forcing the students to improvise by use of a wide range of extraordinary hand gestures. It was also inspiring to see every team member adding their own unique touch to the project. Each and every one of those students participating just as actively as the others, a quality we at Randstad so admire. Thus, the overall chemistry was most certainly there!

The eventual report offered us an additional perspective on the way, we at Randstad, view a market-setting like Poland, but more importantly: it offered us valuable information on the perception patterns of Polish employees. Providing us with insights on the worker point of view, on the phenomenon of temporary job assignments and projects in foreign countries, specifically via the services of Randstad and its business partners.

Randstad
Maurice van den Bosch
Director Cross Border Staffing

Future Pipe Industries (Baltic States, 2007; Bulgaria, 2008)

In 2007 the University of Amsterdam (UVA) and Future Pipe Industries BV (FPI) from Hardenberg, The Netherlands got together and decided on the initiative of the Sefa student group to start a project in order to explore the market in the Baltic States. The assignment was to look for possibilities to enter the Baltic market with our Glassfiber Reinforced Epoxy pipes and fittings.

In July 2007 the Sefa group travelled through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in order to gather as much information as possible for Future Pipe Industries BV. We were very pleased with the detailed report Sefa provided and the way the students communicated their findings with me and the responsible Sales Area Manager.

Future Pipe Industries BV is looking forward to work with Sefa on new possible projects and want to recommend their professional way of working.

Ben van Rein
Product Manager for Future Pipe Industries BV