Leadership responsibility within just a few years
For 30 years now, the Junior Managers Program (JMP) has provided a hands-on setting to prepare qualified young talent for the assumption of leadership tasks. It is characterized by individual program modules that are developed jointly by the participant and a mentor from senior management. As Kübel explains: "From the bottom up, they get to know a corporate culture that orients to values and sustainability rather than short-term profit maximization."

During the JMP, the participants alternate between plants, divisions, and corporate departments. Acting on their own initiative, they take on tasks associated with day-to-day work and projects and have access to their own training budget. According to Kübel, the goal is for the junior executives to assume leadership responsibility for a department eight years after joining the program. The participants therefore have a permanent employment contract from the very beginning.

Because of the program's popularity, they first have to prove themselves in an intensive selection process: in Germany alone, there are some 100 applicants for each single trainee position each year. The JMP is offered with various focal points, from research and development or information technology to management accounting, logistics, technical sales, and purchasing. The JMP lasts 18 to 24 months and includes a post outside the participant's home country.

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