Austin Percifull: Diverse collaboration 

Austin Percifull, Körber site: Dallas, USA 

No one has the same skillset. That’s the point. 

When people talk about teamwork, they often mean alignment. 
Same goals. Same language. Same thinking.  

But real collaboration doesn’t start with sameness. 
It starts with difference.  

In our US team, we made a very conscious decision early on: 
We didn’t want to build a group of people who think alike. 

We wanted diversity – not as a slogan, but as a working principle. 

Different industries. 
Different backgrounds. 
Different ways of approaching problems. 

The goal was to bring these disciplines together into one team. 
A team where everyone thinks just a little differently. 

When you bring people with different expertise into one room, 
something powerful happens: 

Questions become sharper. 
Blind spots become visible. 
Ideas start to challenge each other.  

“Did you think about this?” 
“What if we approach it from that angle?” 
“Are we solving the right problem at all?” 

That kind of exchange creates speed – real speed. 

Traditional engineering environments often move cautiously. 
Thoroughly. Carefully.  

But today’s world doesn’t wait. 

Markets move fast. 
Customers move faster. 

For us, diverse collaboration is how we stay ahead. 

Because when perspectives collide constructively, 
decisions accelerate.  

Solutions mature faster. 
Risks surface earlier. 
Creativity expands. 

And this thinking goes beyond the team. 

One of the things I value most is showing customers the full scope of what Körber delivers: 

From material handling 
to packaging 
to logistics 
to software integration.  

End-to-end. Connected. 

And the same principle applies internally. 

Across countries. 
Across Business Areas. 
Across cultures.  

Different backgrounds. 
Same willingness to collaborate. 

Because progress doesn’t come from identical thinking. 
It comes from different perspectives moving in the same direction. 

If I had to describe the mindset behind it all: 
Collaboration thrives on diversity. 

And if there’s one lesson I’d pass on: 

Be open. 

To people. 
To ideas. 
To new ways of working. 

Because the best solutions rarely come from 
a room full of people who think the same.