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Michael Germershausen
Managing Director Eurasian Region at Antal International
Michael Germershausen is the Managing Director for Antal International in the Eurasian Region, a role he has held since November 2009. He is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and oversees operations across several countries in the region, including Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Under his leadership, the company has placed over 1,000 candidates annually and employs more than 150 staff members in the region.1
Education and Background
Germershausen has a diverse educational background, holding degrees from:
- Anglia Ruskin University: Bachelor of International Business Administration (1995-2000)
- The Berlin School of Economics and Law: Diplomkaufmann in European Business Administration (1995-2000)
- Saint Petersburg State University of Finance and Economics: Exchange student focusing on Russian economics (1998-1999)
He is fluent in several languages, including German, English, French, and Russian, which enhances his ability to operate in the diverse markets of the Eurasian region.1
Professional Focus
Germershausen emphasizes the potential of the CIS market, highlighting the region's large consumer base and active workforce. He advocates for businesses to consider investing in this area, particularly as local currencies have devalued, making investments more attractive.1
Highlights
How to give unpleasant feedback? Yesterday, I had the first "roditelski sobrani" at our elder's son school. This is the session when the teacher invites all parents and gives guidelines for the upcoming school year. I learned a lot of new Russian words, however there was few opportunity for networking with the other parents, this will be happening at the upcoming kids birthdays. Most striking for me, however was the direct comment of the main class room teacher. "Dear Parents, we have now reached an age where we start to stink, we are not boys and girls anymore but young men and women. As school kids can be quite cruel and direct when giving feedback about the smell of each other, please ensure that your kids always come smelling well at school". This reminded me of one of my first office manager candidates that we recruited. She was a master organisor, got on very well with everyone at our clients office and the feedback towards the end of the probation period was really good. However there was one "but": she was smelling. The General Manager asked me as the recruiter to talk to my candidate and find out why she never seems to wash her hair. Giving such not easy feedback can be quite a challenging task, in particular when your client delegates this job to us as the recruiter. In the end our candidate started washing her hair more often and we became great friends with this particular client. Should the recruiter check smell as well? Right now we are hiring for several PA's - let us know if you need any or if you are a candidate - "smell free":). Antal International PS: By the way, one of the best trainers i met so far in training how to give difficult feedback is Jochen Kracht
Water or Oil? The price of water is rising. If you compare the price of a litre of petrol and the bottled price of a litre of drinking water in the supermarket or at the petrol station, you will be surprised to see that getting your petrol out of the earth and taxing it - seems to be cheaper than making a litre of water - can this be? Probably, the margin of producing bottled water is much higher than the margin of petrol, but I am not an expert here and ESG experts would also argue that the cost of petrol does not include a lot of elements it should actually. What I know for sure, is that because of the high temperatures the glaciers, which are supplying a big part of our drinking water in Almaty, are melting at a record speed, which everybody can also observe by watching the river levels during those hot months and the color of the glaciers this season. At the same time tap water seems to be relatively cheap and if you check the water usage in each of our offices, you will be surprised how easily we are opening the tap and don't close it... In recruiting terms this topic has now reached the employment market. Both FMCG water producers as well as Agri irrigation companies this year have been very active clients of us. Moreover, the topic of ESG and all related challenges including the clever usage of water resources can be found in many more job descriptions these days. I suppose if we all start being a bit more aware of how much water we spend/waste every day (i am not talking about drinking less) and start to save, there will be more left for our children. Antal International
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.