When chance shows you your path: interview with Dan Rața (HS Bucharest)

Nothing happens by chance even if sometimes it looks like it. When you’re not in logistics you might think of the field as boring and repetitive. It’s only a matter of perspective.  

Talking to Dan Rața, Head of Logistics at Holzindustrie Schweighofer in Romania, we discover a whole new side to logistics. Even if he entered the field “by chance”, as he says, he became a believer.  

“I applied to a training program in the largest maritime transport company (Maersk) and I got in. It was great, as after University I had two intensive years of learning by experience,” says Dan.  

During this time he found out that logistics, although solidly grounded in reality, isn’t boring at all. Moreover, it involves you in the entire company’s activity. Since that moment his professional path was clear: 13 years of experience in 5 companies. 6 years with Holzindustrie Schweighofer alone.  

“I found my place here,” says Dan. “I learned a lot and I still feel I’m growing as a professional. I learned to really get involved in what I am doing and take responsibility in my work.”

Another kind of definition to his years spent on his current position. At only 32 years of age, Dan joined Holzindustrie Schweighofer and accepted the big challenge of structuring a department vital for the company.

“I come from maritime transport. I’ve been doing logistics my entire professional life. If you don’t know who Holzindustrie Schweighofer is, then you don’t really know the market.” Said and done. “I always knew I’d end up with a client. We do almost everything, minus air borne transportation,” underlines Dan.  

Taking on a newly created job, Dan pioneered within the company. I asked him what his favorite projects were during these 6 years. “One of them was internalizing certain processes initially done by third parties. Now the flow of wood imports is very interesting. Before it didn’t belong to logistics. You have to learn a lot about railway transport and in this field you don’t have many learning options, only by experience. Here we’re talking about volumes, meaning a high degree of complexity. If I think about it, I don’t know another company to do as much internal logistics as Holzindustrie Schweighofer.”

Dan Rața has an original vision about his department and activity. “I try to see myself as a service provider. What’s great about my department is the fact it’s connected to another very grounded department: purchase. The challenges are significant as now it’s more difficult to bring raw matter in.” 

And the person? We talked about the professional. I’m trying to find out about his work/life balance. “It’s pretty hard, but not impossible. I travel a lot for my job: 30-40% of the time.” Dan is the father of a 4 years old boy, travels, reads a lot, loves philosophy and the mountains.

In the end I asked him a surprise question: “Tell me something you’d like to share and nobody thought about ever asking you.” He never expected this turn, which led to a very interesting answer. “I think I’d ask myself why 6 years here. I can only think that I found my place here. I still have many challenges to overcome and I am far from bored.”