The CEO of the Danish Export Association, SEBASTIAN SCHWARZ, is helping a network of 700 Danish exporters from a variety of sectors to make a bigger impact around the world – including Germany.
What does the Danish Export Association do and when was it founded?
SEBASTIAN SCHWARZ: The Danish Export Association (DEA) helps Danish export companies to expand globally with market insights, advisory support, and new connections. We’ve been doing this very successfully since 1965. We have our headquarters in Silkeborg, and offices in Copenhagen and Shanghai. The core of our networking organization with around 700 member companies are businesses with 10 to 250 employees. Our association is structured in 12 professional networks based on customer segments, including Cruise & Ferry,Energy and Health Tech. This way, businesses in one sector can work together effectively to share networks, contacts and information.
How does the DEA provide support?
SCHWARZ: Essentially, we work to help companies export more, so we can strengthen Denmark’s prosperity and well-being. We do this by facilitating networks which are organized by customer segment rather than territory. Our members come to us for advice with a variety of questions, for instance, advice on the best approach for an important client or suggestions for a distributor for their next market. Our aim is to give our members a shortcut to increased exports and international growth.
What are the DEA’s plans going forward?
SCHWARZ: For me, our path forward is clearly summed up by our latest success story and the newest branch of the DEA, the Danish Export Academy, a hub I have spent the last two years establishing with the support of several major Danish foundations. The Danish Export Academy is Denmark’s first training centre exclusively focused on exports. It offers high-quality education tailored to professionals working in sales, management and marketing within export companies. The Academy provides practical, hands-on training that can be applied immediately to export work. We have built an elegant, state-of-the-art centre in Silkeborg where we hold events and courses, primarily sales, marketing and management startup groups for Danish companies who export. We also rent our location out to companies to hold conferences, strategy meetings, team meetings; there’s a business studio, where you can record videos, podcasts or host live online events. We are convinced that the new Academy is a strong brand addition which offers great value for our members.
The Academy offers a “Masterclass Germany”, part of which will be held at Business Club Hamburg early next summer. Can you tell us about the concept?
SCHWARZ: As Germany is the most important export market for Denmark, we aim to focus on Danish companies who either already successfully export to Germany or have a subsidiary or partnership here, but who seek the expertise to really boost their sales in Germany. In four sessions, our highly experienced trainers will be helping to define a new or refined strategy for the German market, provide a deeper cultural understanding of the market, and a tactical toolkit for employee and partner management that will strengthen internal collaboration and make implementation in the market easier. We greatly look forward to hosting this Masterclass at Business Club in Hamburg!
As the mind behind the Masterclass Germany events, do you have a special connection to Germany?
SCHWARZ: Well, I was born in Germany, raised in Berlin and moved to Denmark 25 years ago. Technically, I am a German citizen, albeit with dual Danish citizenship. With my cultural background, I am very well positioned to build trade bridges between Denmark and Germany.