International Women’s Day 2019 : Elisabeth Charron
6th March 2019
This week we are celebrating International Women’s Day, an acknowledgement of the achievements of women around the world and a call to action to drive gender equality. Here at AGCO, we are very proud to be part of this and to mark this special day we share with you the stories of just some of the inspiring and dedicated women in our AGCO Aftersales team.
About Elisabeth
Our first story comes from Elisabeth who started working at AGCO eleven years ago as Customer Services Coordinator for our Distribution network across Central and Eastern Europe. Elisabeth has successfully developed her career and is now Manager, Customer Services Parts, leading teams across four European locations. Elisabeth tells us just a few of the highlights of her role.
Elisabeth says “In 2016 I had the opportunity to apply for the role of Customer Services Manager, Parts and progress in my career and today I can whole heartedly say that I love my job and the new challenges this has opened up to me. My key highlights working in this role are managing a diverse team of people and sharing my experience to help them succeed in reaching their goals and supporting their growth and development.”
Overcoming Challenges
The agricultural industry is working towards greater gender equality in what is seen as a mainly male sector.
As a woman working within this industry Elisabeth has faced and overcome certain barriers, here she explains more, “Many of the dealerships we work with have a mostly male presence and when they phone us with Parts issues they can sometimes be concerned with a woman’s understanding of agriculture.
"But we have a wealth of expertise across our Customer Services teams and by working together to harness this knowledge we provide the highest level of aftersales support to our dealers. By successfully resolving Parts issues, we demonstrate through action how highly efficient our teams are.”
Balance for Better
The campaign theme of International Women’s Day 2019 is ‘Better the balance, better the world’; a call to action for us all to help drive gender balance and Elisabeth is a firm supporter of this. She explains, “I believe that gender equality and diversity in the workplace bring an important balance to an organization. It allows for more open communication and different approaches to problem solving.”
For women seeking to pursue a similar career path, Elisabeth advises them to “have confidence in yourself and your abilities as you can bring such positive value to a company.”