Marcela Ortiz knows what it’s like to work while everyone else is partying. For ten years she worked in restaurants and bars in Colombia for Heineken Beer. When she told her boss at the time that she was going to take a job at Sennheiser, he looked very puzzled: “What kind of beer do they make at Sennheiser?”
You might think that switching from beer to decibels, or from event catering to the audio industry, would have come as a culture shock, but Marcela just laughs: “In the very early days at Sennheiser, I found myself at a team meeting in Mexico with various colleagues from all over the world. Of course, I didn’t know what anything was at first—boundary microphones, frequency coordination, DECT, and so on. But we all sat together in the evening, with tacos, tequila and Mariachi music playing from KH 120 Neumann speakers. It was then that I noticed what an impressive international presence Sennheiser had and I realized that these conversations with the engineers would help me to understand everything, no matter how technical it sometimes seemed. For me, it was very easy to make the transition to this other world.”
Marcela began touring all of Latin America in her role at Sennheiser. She shared her passion with the customers she spoke to. “I was really overwhelmed by the love and passion in everyone’s voices when they spoke about our brand. That still amazes me.” Her first job as a Consumer Electronic Sales Manager was particularly memorable. “That was in Panama. I got a headphone order worth 22 million from just one customer. It was like selling beer to 50 customers in Colombia for two full months. I was so happy.”
There really is music on every corner in Latin America. For us, music is more than just notes and sound waves. “It is in our blood, it is part of our lives. No matter how badly our economy faring, we wouldn’t survive without music. And that’s why I like working for Sennheiser because I quickly realized that I don’t just sell headphones in beautiful packaging. I sell people special experiences and magical moments.”
There’s just one more question. What beer will be in our glasses when we raise a toast with Marcela to Sennheiser’s 75th birthday? “After four years working for Sennheiser, I have so much German DNA that it has to be a Weihenstephan wheat beer. Sorry, Heineken!”