Darling Ingredients : The Sum of Us – Strength in Diversity

"You have to be focused to always deliver on time while keeping a very high level of accuracy", explained Christian Waechtler from Germany. "Working within finance is a big team challenge. Everybody has to deliver their part in time, otherwise the often tight schedules wouldn't be met. Every piece of work is important and contributes to the success of the organization."

While knowledge and effort of each individual are key, it is teamwork that further makes the difference. That goes for many levels and professions, with Finance being one of them. Dieter Berrens from Belgium works in Son, The Netherlands. He clearly sees the necessity and benefits from teamwork: "We are working with four people on the finance department and have a lot of interaction with each other and each others soundboard in case of doubt or peculiarities."

The importance of this kind of transparency is something his American colleague John Daly acknowledges: "Most of the projects we undertake involve cross departmental cooperation and exchange of data and ideas. Good communication between departments is key to success."

This also connects strongly towards entrepreneurship, transparency and integrity; Darling Ingredients' core values. Sunny Pan, Financial at Sonac in Wuhan, China, sees plenty of challenges overseeing these within her job. "The best part of my job is playing an active role in the Chinese team, providing proactive input and support where needed. My main challenge is the risk management in financial controlling. We prepare monthly and quarterly financial reports, which shows the transparency to the management team and the public."

"As Plant Controller I am tasked with providing a fair and accurate representation of the financial position of our operation", Daly added. "Transparency and integrity are major components to achieving this goal. Entrepreneurship is key to continually improving the accuracy and efficiency in the collection and interpretation of key data."

They see many benefits for the company and themselves in working for a international company that represents so many nationalities. "Working with people from other countries forces you to step out of your comfort zone when it comes to communication inanother then your native language," said Christian. "For most of the international people I work with at Darling the situation is the same, so it becomes less intimidating."

"It gives you insights into how people think in the world", says Dieter. Sunny agrees on this: "It is a fantastic experience to work with different people around the world, to respect the differences and to learn from each other."

All four confirm that diversity and being heard contributes to the succes of the entire company."I believe our Plant Management team does a great job of creating an environment where everyone feels included and has a voice", said John. "The collaborative efforts to solve problems here at our plant is something I have not experienced anywhere else."

"For me it is very important that everybody can openly present their opinion and is heard," Christian concluded. "Not only is this beneficial for everybody personally, because of the feeling of recognition and being valued. Having different viewpoints than your own is also the best way to ensure success, since it allows you to discover solutions you wouldn't have had otherwise."

Wherever we are active, as Darling Ingredients we thrive through fostering our diversity. So that our success is truly based on 'The Sum of Us'.