A week in South Africa with the Big Five

From October 5-9 I was in South Africa for the 2009 IS Developing Markets Conference.

Developing Markets is one of the three geographical regions where Reckitt Benckiser operates (the other two are Europe and North America and Australia) and it encompasses all countries outside Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand where RB is present.
As you can imagine this is the region with the biggest mix of cultures, languages and nationalities.

 
The theme of the conference was “Starscope: Future Ready”.

 The idea behind it was to bring together some of the best talents from Information Services (IS) across Developing Markets to work together during one week and come up with ideas to support the future of IS with Reckitt Benckiser and to understand what we need to do NOW to ensure that we can deliver sustainable and above-industry average growth in the coming years.

During the first 4 days of the conference I had the chance to work with great people
from all over the world; most of them were managers and senior managers. It was an amazing learning experience and all the work we were doing was being supervised by the IS Developing Markets BIG FIVE: The four IS Regional Directors and the IS Developing Markets Director.

In the last day we had to present all the work we did and our ideas and suggestions to the BIG FIVE and also to our CIO (Chief Information Officer)!
It’s really amazing the opportunities you have as an IS graduate at Reckitt Benckiser. I wonder where else in the world I would have had a chance to be there in front of a CIO presenting what me and my colleagues believed to be the best strategy for our future!

Besides working really hard during the whole week we had some breaks to recharge our batteries and to be ready for the next day.
During one of these breaks we went in a game drive and had the opportunity to see the African Big Five.

The chance to work with bright people, in front of your big bosses and you also have a chance to visit an amazing place like South Africa.
These are the opportunities you have when you work for Information Services in Reckitt Benckiser!