Month: August 2024

During July 2024, Vladimir Vykoukal joined the team at IFG Asota, Linz, Austria as an intern.

Early in July, Vladimir introduced himself:

“I am 22 years old and I come from the Czech Republic. I study international business as the University of Economics and Business in Prague. Besides my studies, I enjoy playing sports like tennis or football. I am also always eager to learn new things!”

We asked him about how he had found his first week:

“The first week working here at IFG Asota was really interesting. The team welcomed me warmly and we started working on a couple of projects focused on promoting sustainability at IFG. We have also started working on enhancing the website. It has been really rewarding to apply the knowledge I gained from my studies in a real company setting, and I am very excited to see what the rest of my internship has in store!”

During Vladimir’s second week, we asked him his general thoughts on sustainability in business – it’s always interesting to hear new views on the subject. Here’s what he had to say:

“These days, “sustainability” is often overused and is used in a lot of marketing campaigns of big companies. For me personally, it is important that it is not just a marketing strategy, but that the company really follows a sustainable path.

There is no doubt that climate change is a real thing, and we need to act to prevent it. It is not an issue that could be solved by one person alone, it requires collective effort. While consumers can make a difference by sorting waste, choosing eco-friendly products, and reducing energy and water usage, a lot can also be changed by businesses.”

 

In week 3, Vladimir shared more of his thoughts on the sustainability practices at IFG:

“I’ve been really impressed by what IFG is doing to be more sustainable. The R&D team is continuing to come up with more sustainable innovations. IFG is using more and more recycled and bio-based materials in their production. It’s important that companies are starting to apply changes like this.

Now, these actions seem complicated, they may be more expensive or time consuming, but in the future they will be worth it.

During my internship, I learnt a lot about IFG’s different fibres. As I am working on the Sustainability Promotion Project, my focus was on the recycled and bio-based fibres.

To get a better overview, the Asota team and I tried to summarise the key characteristics of sustainable fibres in a graphic

While learning more and more about sustainable fibres, I realized that there is a clear trend à higher sustainability and performance comes at a higher cost.

To be more sustainable, companies need to invest more. This could decrease their short-term profitability, but as I already said last week, these actions will pay off in the future.”

Finally, we asked Vladimir to summarise his time at IFG.

“My father works as a representative for IFG and was able to introduce me to them. It’s important whilst studying International Business to get real-time experience at a company that operates internationally, and for me to see first hand how it works. I have gained some valuable inside experience of business issues experienced in the real world.

I have largely focused on marketing, which will play its part in any future role I have, even if it’s not my sole focus. The key things I have noted during my experience is the attention to detail required in marketing to ensure the company is represented correctly and that we are presenting facts in any campaigns that the company runs. IFG really cares about the work they do and want to be the best in the industry.

Chemistry and Physics aren’t necessarily my strong point, however R&D leader Andreas really helped me to understand the technical details of the fibres.

Most of my time was spent with Debby – we got on really well, and with her experience we worked together and came up with some really good ideas – together we worked on presenting some suggestions to the wider marketing team, of how things could be improved. We also worked on some case studies of real life applications of IFG’s fibres.

IFG Asota is a small team with a friendly atmosphere, everyone was very welcoming and friendly.

I would definitely recommend IFG Asota as a place to undertake an internship. The team is welcoming, products are interesting and as they have a lot of uses, their fibres are really important in industry. It was great to get experience in both business and learn more about the technical aspects of fibre production.

The key takeaway is attention to detail – marketeers really need to consider how their writing can influence the perception of information.

I am really grateful for the opportunity that IFG gave me. It has been a really nice experience being in Linz for a month, living in a different country. I met new people, had many new experiences. We will keep in touch and I hope our paths cross again in the future.”

Vladimir’s blogs and social content ideas will be rolled out over the coming months, we thank him for his time spent at the company and his valuable contribution.