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1998 — when the farewell speech<br />
was given by no lesser celebrity<br />
than sprint-ace Linford Christie. top<br />
sporting performance however is not<br />
always rewarded with top earnings:<br />
“i was always completely concentrated<br />
on the sport, and also made<br />
a good living every year. in athletics<br />
however, the really big money goes<br />
to only a handful of sportsmen and<br />
women in very particular disciplines.<br />
So the moment finally came when<br />
it became clear to me: now is the<br />
time to make a change.” it was 1993<br />
at the World Championships in<br />
Stuttgart, when Silke Knoll had<br />
reached the 200-metres semi-finals<br />
“and suddenly nothing mattered<br />
any longer”. But it did still matter,<br />
because although she soon completed<br />
her training as an advertising<br />
specialist in a dortmund full-service<br />
agency, she still stayed with the<br />
sport. the daily schedule: until 5pm<br />
in the agency, then training until<br />
9pm and finally studying until one<br />
in the morning. But this did not slow<br />
her down at all. this was followed<br />
Photo: picture alliance<br />
by a part-time position in a multimedia<br />
agency, “but there wasn’t<br />
much prospect of progress there”.<br />
after her retirement from sport, she<br />
changed from the agency to the<br />
customer side: first as an advertising<br />
assistant and then, after a correspondence<br />
course in business<br />
sciences, as a marketing manager.<br />
this path finally led her to duropal<br />
in arnsberg.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> TIME AT DUROPAL<br />
as a former top athlete, she could<br />
easily have joined one of the major<br />
sporting goods manufacturers such<br />
as adidas. “But such jobs in particular<br />
involve a great deal of travel.”<br />
and Silke Knoll has already travelled<br />
more than enough for her own taste.<br />
“Basically, i never had a place to call<br />
home.” the job profile at duropal<br />
QUaLitY<br />
therefore fitted perfectly into her<br />
planning. and after only the first year,<br />
the provisional conclusion was extremely<br />
positive: “the position here<br />
in operational marketing offers me<br />
the perfect elbowroom. i prefer to<br />
work independently. this department,<br />
which has a very high standing<br />
in the company, is simply ideal.” and<br />
Silke Knoll has once again set herself<br />
ambitious objectives: “although we<br />
have already achieved a great deal,<br />
there is much more to come in the<br />
future. duropal has demanding values.<br />
it is therefore all the more important<br />
to me that this brand conveys<br />
a uniform image worldwide, and<br />
is also perceived in the same way.”<br />
She sees a further important task in<br />
conveying to customers the advantages<br />
of the colour match range of<br />
duropal and wodego: “this colour<br />
match range offers almost unique<br />
possibilities to interior designers. and<br />
this is exactly what we have to communicate<br />
more strongly.” anyone<br />
who knows Silke Knoll also knows<br />
that she will also succeed in this.<br />
HPL World _ 19
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