This past Saturday I visited the Bavarian city of Nürnberg for the day. Despite being badly damaged in World War 2, the city has been nicely restored to its original form. The architecture is really cool and everything in the historic city center is really beautiful. I also had the chance to attend the German national soccer team World Cup qualification match versus San Marino. Germany won by a whopping final score of 7-0! Although it was not a particularly exciting game to watch, it was definitely entertaining. As a whole, my trip to Nürnberg went swimmingly. I experienced no major problems and had a really great time while I was there. Not to mention, I got my two bus tickets and game ticket for under 100 Euro!

As for the organizational culture of other firms in the multi-modal container monitoring industry, I can only speak for my own, as I have not yet visited any other firms in the industry. The firm I intern for has a very laid back culture for the most part. There is a strong expectation that employees get their work done. Besides that, everything is generally pretty relaxed. Additionally, we do not have a strict dress code or anything of that nature. Kirsen Global Security definitely lacks organizational structure for better or for worse. I personally think that the lack of organizational structure is more of a liability than it is an advantage. However, I can definitely see how it has a positive impact on certain aspects of the company, like employee morale and happiness. For instance, my supervisor told me that he really appreciates the lack of a strict 9:00-5:00 work schedule. He strongly values time with his family, and the structure of KGS allows him to experience the best of both worlds. From what I have seen, the environment here is also slightly more geared towards creativity. In fact, I just went over my midterm performance review with my supervisor and he only had one major criticism for me. He said I should put more trust in my capabilities and skills in an effort to bring more of my own ideas and proposals for improvement of the company’s operations to the table. Overall, I think all signs point to KGS having a very laid back and modern company culture. Perhaps other firms in the industry too have similar cultures.