IN T E RV I E W Learning lessons With 12 years in the industry already, Gosselins Lennert de Jong is one of the sectors most experienced young movers. In this interview, he speaks to FIDI Focus Editor Dominic Weaver about the people and events that have taught him how to make the best of his career to date L ennert de Jong says there is an opportunity for personal growth in every encounter. Whether this means a conversation with a FIDI 39 Club peer or business partner, a chance discussion with a colleague at the bar at an industry conference, or a life experience shared, these are all chances to learn, be inspired and develop, says Gosselins Manager of European Services. As such, he says there are at least 100 people and events that have defined his 12-year moving industry career to date. Even De Jongs earliest experience of growing up around the bustle of the Utrecht-based garden-shed manufacturing business that his parents founded had a significant impact on his early career choices. With his mother doing the accounting and managing the office, and his father running a 40-strong sales department, company and family life were tightly intertwined. While De Jong enjoyed the manual jobs he did as a teenager for his parents, the always-on nature of their roles proved decisive for him. Their job was not 9 to 5; it was all day, every day, including weekends, he says. It was very clear to me that I didnt want to work in a family business. However, he adds that the experience has also, ironically, made him highly committed (maybe too much at times) to putting in maximum effort for his employers. Close family friend Marcel Boer also worked at his parents firm before joining the moving business and Lennert de Jong with his peers at the Young Movers Conference gala dinner became a further influence on De Jongs career. Marcel saw me grow up from birth, he says. When I was 18, and about to finish high school, he was working for De Haan, and he called me and said the company was looking for a move coordinator. A knee injury had recently forced De Jong away from hands-on work into the back office of the concert scaffolding department, where he was working parttime and the variety offered by a switch to moving appealed from the start. The international part, working with people and logistics, triggered my interest immediately, he says. He began this work with no clue about the challenges that define moving and relocation, but quickly grew to appreciate the blend of hard and soft skills required by the business. Moving is such a weird mix, he says. On the one hand, it is a tough industry, with logistics, containers, road, sea and air freight; but there is also a soft side that requires empathy and delicacy in packing personal items, for example. That mix is so unique that I would probably never switch to a logistics company because it removes the emotional part or move to a full customer service-driven organisation, either. De Jong says its moving from role to role rather than through the ranks that really satisfies him. Different experiences at De Haan across imports, exports, client management, pricing, surveys, and customer services have given him a broad perspective and boosted his problem-solving capabilities overall. While at De Haan, De Jong discovered a passion for bringing people into the company and using his own experience to develop their capabilities. I get a lot of energy from seeing somebody grow, he says. When you have a new hire who comes in and you see that fire start as we expose them to new things and explain the importance of building relationships with people, for example. De Jongs career development meant uncovering key personal challenges, too. This included addressing his emotional attachment to the work environment, which could see him obsessing over problems and affecting his enjoyment of work and life for quite some time. The sustainability of a company is built 40 FF311 Sept-Nov 23 pp40-45 Interview.indd 40 11/09/2023 15:56