Thomas Schmidt develops functional textile materials

What do graduates of Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) do for a living? In order to introduce students to different perspectives, Michaela Thiel and her team from the central alumni network "Uni Würzburg Community" regularly interview selected alumni.

Today it's Thomas Schmidt's turn. He studied Chemistry at JMU and has now been working for the textile manufacturer Huafeng in China for ten years. The company has 15,000 employees and produces functional textile materials for sports shoes and clothing.

Thomas, how would you describe your work to a layperson?

My work is very varied. At our headquarters in Putian, I lead a development team that is primarily concerned with the coating and printing of textiles. We develop printing inks and application processes. I often liaise with new raw material suppliers and help with communication with western suppliers. The same applies to the application machines, as we have to find and develop suitable technologies for applying our new materials. I also make a significant contribution to marketing and, for example, designed our brand name HAPTIC for 3D printing of textiles. We create product presentations and catalogues and I fly around the world to discuss our new ideas with our customers, the big sports brands and their innovation teams. I visit industry trade fairs, produce samples for our trade fair stands with my team and go to conferences and industry forums to keep up to date with the latest scientific and technological developments and to build up contacts.

What do you particularly like about your work?

I find it very interesting to live in a different culture and learn something new about people, technology and the world every day. I have the opportunity here to combine technology, marketing and intercultural experience, and I enjoy that. I'm always back home in Germany and I'm really happy when one of our innovations can be seen on a sports shoe in a shop here. Or when you see someone walking around somewhere in the world wearing our materials on their shoes.

What qualities should you have for the job?

Patience, unconventional ideas, initiative, intercultural competence and the necessary political skills not to want to go through a wall but to find a solution together.

What is it like to live and work in China?

It's very different here. Direct communication is very difficult because of the language barrier. Then there is the different approach to problems. Misunderstandings are unavoidable. Everyone involved has to trust that they want to achieve the best together. In my special case, I am highly valued as a foreign expert and can concentrate on the areas where I can make the best contribution. Thanks to the language problems, many day-to-day management tasks and annoyances simply fall away from me. However, I also have to accept that others always have a say in decisions and that a lot happens in the background. Flexibility is always more important here than time efficiency. The great strengths in China are team spirit and the willingness to do what needs to be done immediately. Of course, this comes at the expense of efficient time planning. Professional and personal schedules are overturned without any warning.

Thank you very much for the interview!

Are you not yet a member of the alumni network "Uni Würzburg Community" or Alumni & Friends e.V.? Then you are cordially invited to register! You can do so on the Community website. There you will also find the interviews with JMU alumni and alumnae published so far.