Like many Australians, I love my nightly fix of MasterChef on TV, a competitive cooking game show which is currently the top rating series on Australian TV. So imagine my delight when we were told we would be facing a cook-off challenge after our Quarterly Sales Meeting!
The sales department was split into 3 teams and we were each put to the test of creating a 3-course lunch consisting of entrée, main and dessert. Chefs were brought in from Bar-be-School, a BBQ cooking school, to teach us all the secrets of a good BBQ. We beat, chopped, sieved, marinated and tossed for the title of best cooking team…who would have thought that whisking eggs would be so tiring?!
‘Core values’ isn’t just a term found in company recruitment brochures at RB; I saw them in full force today even though we were outside the office. Team Spirit was definitely present, as we worked together to prepare our dishes whilst protecting our respective cooking territories from potential sabotage such as egg throwing and utensil stealing – all in the name of friendly competition of course!
Then there was the Achievement in creating not only great tasting, but aesthetically pleasing dishes with the clock ticking down quickly, it couldn’t have been achieved without everyone’s input. I guess it’s true when they say we RB’ers live and breathe the RB core values!
.And the best thing?
Being able to eat all the food we collectively worked so hard to prepare and cook! My favourite was the succulent, lightly salted BBQ salmon on skewers our team prepared, no bias of course! Perhaps today’s lessons on how to cook a good BBQ might inspire me to actually cook something more exciting than spaghetti bolognaise at home!
Aside from all the cooking, the Quarterly Sales Meeting was a chance for the sales team to come together and hear about what’s happening in other channels within the sales stream. It was great to hear how other teams were tracking and to hear about the focus areas for Quarter 3, such as Finish Quantum launch and Germwatch.
It was also a great opportunity for the RB Graduates to get up in front of the business to present, as we were each given the task of providing the sales team with an update on what’s happening with our respective channel and action plans for next quarter.
As an RB graduate you might often feel as though you’ve been thrown in at the deep end, but looking at it from another perspective, it’s also reassuring to know that RB has enough confidence in you as a graduate to present something as significant as the sales results.
Yum!
I was given total Ownership of the project. My team was extremely helpful when I asked for guidance; I was able to pick their brains whilst piecing together my presentation. Sometimes presenting in front of your peers is more daunting than with external customers! The best thing about presenting today, other than the practice, was that people were genuinely interested in what I had to say and I got some great feedback, which is always nice to hear after putting in effort and time in preparing and practicing!
All in all, a great afternoon filled with great laughs and good food, what more can you ask for?
Tags: achievement, career development, Challenge, company culture, Competition, Core Values, Culture, Opportunity, power brands, RB grad scheme, taking responsibility, team building, team work
