Trained to succeed
What do the German army, a French coffee factory and a Finnish airship company have in common? The answer is Frederick Wassermann.
“These guys are totally bonkers,” thinks Frederick Wassermann while listening to the founders of airship company Kelluu Jouni Lintu and Jiri Jormakka and the company CEO Janne Hietala. It is early 2023 and the trio are trying to explain all the things that can still be achieved with hydrogen-powered, unmanned airships. From the torrent of words, Fred can make out words like space, revolution, data and commercial flights that are hundreds of hours long. And that everything started in a shed.
“It was great!” exclaims Fred (as he is known to his colleagues) now, six months later. In the wake of that meeting, he was made Airfleet Operations Manager at Kelluu.
“I felt like I fit in right away,” he says, smiling.
He was certainly slightly sceptical at first. After the first telephone interview, he wanted to see for himself what the factory and the product were all about. So, he made the trip from Montpellier in southern France, where he was living at the time, to Joensuu.
“Within a couple of days, I was convinced that the idea is good and feasible. But what impressed me the most was the international, multidisciplinary team that was clearly dedicated to developing airship operations into a commercial service,” says Fred.
“I don't understand how they’ve managed to gather all these extremely talented professionals here,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief.
Fred himself had zero experience with airships. His background is in something completely different: The German army. And the coffee industry. Yes, that's right.
How on earth did a Munich-born, half-French, half-German professional in war and coffee end up coming to Reijola, Joensuu, to operate airships? That’s a long story, and you’re about to hear part of it.
“The army gave me a chance to screw up”
Frederick Wassermann was born in Munich, the “most Italian” city in Germany, in 1985 to a German father and a French mother. Ever since he was a child, Fred has been used to living
between cultures – after all, Munich is located near the border and is a mix of Germany, France, and Italy.
Fred went to a French primary school, and completed his secondary education at a Swiss boarding school.
Fred was certain that he did not want to go straight from school to university, but take a gap year instead and do something completely different. Such an opportunity presented itself in the form of military service, where he went as a volunteer.
“The army gave me a chance to screw up and correct my mistakes. It taught me a lot about being a person and an adult,” he says and encourages all young people to take a gap year, or even several, after their secondary studies.
“Few people under 20 know what they want to be when they grow up. I for sure didn't.”
“Engineers are trained to build, doctors to cure and I to win”
After the army, Fred moved to Bristol, pursuing a bachelor's degree in international relations. He started studying for a master’s degree at King's College in London, but was disappointed by the quality of teaching and transferred to Aberystwyth University in Wales, having heard a lot of positive things about it.
“I read they offered a master’s in intelligence and strategic studies, meaning the theory of war and intelligence operations. I thought that was the coolest name for a master’s degree,” he says with a laugh.
At Aberystwyth, Fred learned how to turn rivalry into victory. He believed this skill would come in handy, no matter where he ended up.
“Engineers are trained to build and doctors to cure; I’m trained to win,” he says. “Strategy is ultimately on how to win and there can’t be any harm in learning that.”
A man with a van on the road
With this degree in hand, he knew he’d have to consider a return to the military and with global recession around the time of his graduation, Fred decided to go back to the army, this time as an officer.
“I knew that my educational background would be useful there and my languages might help me get a position in the field.”
And so he did. Fred conducted operations across Africa. During his operations, he’d often operate alone with only cash and his Toyota Hilux.
“I would drive around meeting and chatting with people. My task was to find out who we should know, who can be trusted or not and why,” says Fred.
“I liked the fact that my job gave me so much freedom. That’s not always the case in the army,” he says with a grin.
However, assignments abroad meant that Fred was away from home a lot. He reckons he spent altogether a year in four overseas, during which time he and his wife also had their first child.
“Although I liked my job, I also have responsibility for my family.”
In 2017 Fred resigned from the German army after a career of almost a decade.
Unusual CV
The next year, Fred took advantage of his army sabbatical and stayed home with their second child, completing another degree in IT-Business Economics. But then it was time to start thinking about what to do next. Fred wanted a job where there would be a link between thinking and doing. To him, this was – perhaps somewhat surprisingly – the manufacturing industry.
“I had a horror vision of a service industry job where you disappear in some office building with nothing but furniture, computers, and stationery. I’m interested in value creation and waste reduction, and that inevitably drove me to Toyota’s production system which inspired me a lot because I could also see the similarities between it and successful military organisations”
Without any experience, and with a somewhat unusual CV, he started looking for a job as a management consultant in manufacturing.
“I was an officer who had studied international relations and intelligence and strategy. I would not have been the first choice in a lot of recruitments, but I decided to trust myself and my instinct.”
Fred was eventually offered a job in Stuttgart at the operations management consulting company Staufen, which specializes in among other things on lean methodologies. This was a jackpot for his career, because the award-winning company is a leader in its industry in Germany and its customers include some of the biggest brands in the world, such as Mercedes-Benz, Lufthansa and Coca-Cola. So essentially, the best possible place to learn about consulting in manufacturing.
According to Fred, his time at Staufen taught him much of what he needed to know about manufacturing and consulting. Fred’s department had its own customers and turnover. His position was similar to that of an entrepreneur, without actually being an entrepreneur.
“One thing I learned was that we can learn a lot from the Japanese when it comes to manufacturing and management innovations. Operational excellence is not just some budget target there. It is a matter of aesthetical responsibility. Whoever says that we can't learn from them is either vain or ignorant or both.”
Fred believes that enough in life and success depend on the individual and the decisions they make.
“You can get a long way by avoiding doing what we clearly know to be bad. So, becoming excellent is first and foremost not so much about doing what is good but avoiding what is bad,” he says.
France and Finland calling
After a couple of years, Fred's customer wanted to hire him as a production manager at their coffee factory in Lavérune, southern France. Fred decided to give it a try, because he was already familiar with the customer's processes and business.
However, the French management culture turned out to be a bit of a culture shock.
“Production and management methods must be consistent with the level of ambition conveyed in the company’s targets. When management believes that better performance can be achieved by changing nothing more than the sense of urgency, you should be on your guard. That can be frustrating. But it would have been presumptuous of me to believe that I could somehow change things.”
After a year and a half, Fred looked to his wife, thanked her for her support and looking after the family with their two children, and suggested to move somewhere that would make it easier for her to resume her personal development and give birth to their third child, due end of spring.
“I told her that we can go to Finland too, and I’d find my place there.”
Fred applied for production manager positions in several large factories and had interesting conversations with various Finnish industry giants, such as Valmet and UPM.
One day, he noticed that a small airship startup was looking for a production manager.
“I was interested and wanted to find out more about the job, so I met with the management team, Jouni, Jiri and Janne. I didn’t make the decision with Excel, but took a conscious risk.”
Flying high (even in the middle of the night)!
So now Fred is working as Airfleet Operations Manager at Kelluu. He is also a shareholder in the company.
“I think it's great that we’re a small organization where the culture is still taking shape and where we can try new things with an open mind,” he says.
Fred also values the opportunity to have a say in the direction the company will take in the future.
In practice, Fred’s work begins when an airship is commissioned. Once the technicians are done building an airship, he takes over and starts preparing a plan of action with his team.
“My job is to bring together the personnel, the airships and the customers. I look at who works on which project, what data is needed and how we can get this to the customer.”
Together with founder Jouni and technician Valtteri, Fred often gets carried away planning long commercial flights. They monitor the weather and when they notice a good slot, they can start a flight even in the middle of the night.
“Just because we can! It’s great,” says Fred excitedly.
“When I step inside the doors of our factory in Joensuu, the other employees are probably thinking, uh-oh, now he wants to fly some really long flight in the middle of the night again,” says Fred, laughing.
Fred understands that not everyone is necessarily as enthusiastic and spontaneous as he is, and that’s okay too. However, he does feel that the people at Kelluu share a certain kind of passion. Everyone is committed to making the company a leader in its industry.
And Fred’s job is to push people to deliver their best performance.
“People are often capable of much more than they realize. It's always great to see a person outdo themselves. And that’s my job: to get people to outdo themselves.”
Fred also wants to outdo himself, and he believes this is possible at Kelluu.
“I only have this one life. I don’t want to just take things as they come and react to them, I want to be proactive. Success depends on whether you’re willing to take risks or not.”
The Finnish extra mile
Although Fred is a citizen of the world in all meanings of the word, he has not managed to avoid culture shock entirely after moving to Finland.
“I’ve been married to a Finnish woman for ten years, so I know that you don't just go and start conversations with Finnish people, but I was still surprised at how hard it can be,” he says.
Fred has also noticed that the afternoon wine he often had with friends in Central Europe means something slightly different to Finns than, say, Germans or French.
“When I invite the neighbours over, they come with wine boxes and cases of beer, whereas I would just have one glass,” he says with a laugh. “Maybe Finns need to be drunk before they have the courage to open up.”
According to Fred, there is no match to Finns as workers. He describes Finnish workers as responsible, communal and able to take initiative.
“I appreciate the way Finns deal with situations. In some cultures employees are not exactly encouraged to go the extra mile. It seems to me that this is not the case in Finland,” says Fred. “It's great to see how people here are wired to work autonomously and with initiative.”
“The only time the French were free to show initiative was in the French Revolution,” he says with a grin.
“What could be more Finnish”
Fred says he now lives a relatively ordinary Finnish life with his family in Pirkkala. The area, he says, is idyllic, and the kids are very autonomous.
The children keep the family busy in their free time. Having spent years on the road, Fred knows it is important to remain emotionally available for the children. That’s when the family spends time outdoors, hiking or perhaps roasting sausages over a fire.
“What could be more Finnish?” says Fred with a laugh.
Another way to spend quality time as a family is to simply listen to what the children have to say.
“I mean, they always have something to say,” he says, smiling.
Fred and his wife still make sure that they also spend some time as a couple.
“Our kids know that the time after 8 p.m. is dad’s and mom’s time together, and that's when they do their things and we do ours.”
Fred also tries to dedicate at least one hour a day to reading. He finds this important for both his brain and his recovery. And if there’s time, he goes off on one of his motorcycles. That is a hobby that he loves and that gives him the alone time he needs.
More often than not, Fred is also working on some kind of building project.
“I watch a lot of DIY videos on YouTube and learn to do different things. My latest project was building a bunk bed for my daughter,” he says. “It’s surprising what you can make all by yourself.”
Now, he has to decide what to learn next. How about the Finnish language?
“Of course, I have to learn it; when in Rome, right? It can't take that long, can it?”