Dirk – Commercial Controlling
Commercial Controller
Name: Dirk
Nationality: German
Where I work for RB: France – Finance
Education: I graduated as a BSc in Business Studies from the University of Wales Swansea (UK). I then continued my studies and graduated in Business Administration with Intercultural Qualification from the University of Mannheim (Germany), where I specialized in Marketing and Controlling.
Career: You want it all and you want it from day one? I joined Reckitt Benckiser in 2006 as a factory controller in Austria and got just that! After my studies, I wanted to quickly assume responsibility and was therefore looking for a “direct entry” job as opposed to a trainee programme. During the recruiting process I really appreciated that my future managers made no secret of throwing me in at the deep end. A few weeks later, I found myself doing factory operating statements, capex calculations, forecasts and efficiency analyses. You really learn fast if it’s sink or swim!
What I instantly liked about Reckitt Benckiser is its genuine commitment to an international career path. Only recently recruited, the company helped me a lot during my move to Austria. It did not stop there, however, as working for RB means working in a truly international environment - be it plan discussions in the UK, benchmarking studies in Italy or controlling workshops in Hungary, I have had ample opportunities to exchange with my fellow colleagues from all over the world.
After two years in industrial controlling for the company’s private label business, I was looking for a new challenge and decided to make the move to the opposite side of the RB universe. Since 2008, I’ve worked as a commercial controller in Reckitt Benckiser’s branded business in France. Instead of capital expenditure and machine downtime it is now all about marketing expenditure and advertising airtime! Indeed, no two days are the same in this company…
