When our alumni come to Pforzheim to share their experiences, it is not only an enriching experience for our students but also an opportunity for our alumni to get a fresh outside perspective from the young minds at university. In addition to providing the first-hand experience about business challenges and inside views that no book can teach, such events also provide our international cohort with the unique opportunity to expand their professional network in Germany.
In our recent online “Guest in Classroom” session, we had among us a member of our Class of 2018, Nathaly Sandoval, Global Category Expert in Indirect Purchasing at Bosch in Stuttgart. Born and raised in Ecuador, Nathaly kicked-off the session by introducing her professional background and the key lessons she has learned over the years both while studying in Germany and also while working at large companies including Bosch, Accenture and Schlumberger across two continents. In this section of her presentation, Nathaly laid a strong emphasis on how her interest in sports, outdoor activities and dance keeps her motivated and creative in her demanding daily job. The journey of Bosch GmbH from a tiny precision workshop in Stuttgart to a global corporate powerhouse was also covered passionately by Nathaly.
In the second part of her presentation, Nathaly briefly explained the differentiation between direct and indirect purchasing and dived deeper into the technicalities her job- Indirect purchasing with a focus on procurement of marketing services. As marketing services are the second biggest cost centre after raw materials, their importance for manufacturing companies and the role of the procurement department in the decision areas of quality, delivery times, innovation and creativity were well explained by Nathaly. She believes in lifelong learning and highlighted her recent achievements as a certified negotiator from world-renowned institutes. As her job involves being a point of contact between suppliers and Bosch, the negotiation skills developed through these certification courses help Nathaly negotiate contract terms and deadlines, making sure that the deals are favourable for Bosch and allow her to participate in designing Bosch’s global category negotiation strategies. Through a real-life case from her job, in which the tables greatly favoured the supplier, Nathaly demonstrated how she and her team prepared for negotiation rounds with the help of pre-decided and planned dimensions for negotiation, decision tree and simulations.
Nathaly devoted the final minutes of her talk to speak about how focusing on personal branding, finding the right mentor and developing a long-term career roadmap can help new graduates distinguish themselves in today’s competitive industry.

text:Shvetang Pai Angle, Class of 2021
screenshots: Shvetang Pai Angle