Are you an intern starting out on the first rung of your career? Or are you looking for graduate opportunities and wondering how you’ll ever ‘make it’ in your chosen field? Well, everyone had to start somewhere.

Those at the top of the corporate tree have usually got there through hard work and dedication; a gradual ascent towards the top. From internships and grassroots jobs, many of the world’s most powerful CEOs started from very humble beginnings and found that knuckling down,  learning from their mistakes and building on the lessons learned to reach the top.
It’s about making the right decisions for you and laying down the building blocks to what will be your career path.
So I thought I would offer an insight into where 7 top CEOs started out – maybe your career path could mirror theirs?

1. Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft

After graduating from Harvard University, Steve (below) worked for two years as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble working on the ‘Coldsnap Freezer Dessert Maker’ and then the Moist N Easy snake cake.
He attended Stanford University Graduate School  of Business and then in 1980 took a leap of faith, quit school and joined Microsoft where he was offered a $50,000 salary and a share of the company – he was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates.

2. Steve Jobs, CEO Apple

Steve dropped out of college after just one semester to become a technician at the games company Atari.
However, while he was still at school he took an internship at Hewlett-Packard where he met an engineer called Steve Wozniak, who would later play a great influence in his career!
Steve travelled to India and upon his return he rejoined Atari where he teamed up with Wozniak to help design a circuit board for a new game.
And in 1976 they founded Apple.

3. Indra Nooyi, CEO PepsiCo

Indra (right) is a prime example of how hard work can really pay off. She kicked off her career in India where she held product manager positions at Johnson & Johnson and a textile firm. She entered Yale School of Management where she took a summer internship with Booz & Company . After graduating she joined the Boston Consulting Group and held positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri.
She joined PepsiCo in 1994 and made her mark throughout her time there until in 2007 she was named the fifth CEO in PepsiCos 44-year history.

4. Robert Iger, CEO Walt Disney Company

After graduating with a degree in television and radio, Robert took a job as a weatherman for a local TV station.
He went on to join ABC and rose through the ranks there until being named president of the ABC Network Television Group in 1993.
ABC was bought out by Walt Disney Company and, after climbing through the ranks once again, in 2005 he was named CEO of Walt Disney Company.

5. Alan Mulally, CEO Ford Motor Company

After leaving college, Alan was hired by Boeng as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and programme management roles, working his way up the ranks until he became Vice President of the company. He continued to climb up through the ranks until in 2006 he switched to Ford Motor Company to become their CEO.

6. Jim Skinner, CEO McDonald’s Corporation

Jim didn’t graduate from college but spent 10 years in the US Navy. He started his career with McDonald’s as a restaurant manager trainee. He went on to hold various management positions until in 2004 he was made CEO.

7. Bart Becht, CEO Reckitt Benckiser

After studying economics and management studies in The Netherlands, and gaining an MBA in America, Bart (below) worked for Procter & Gamble in the US and in Germany. He joined Reckitt in 1988 as a general manager in Canada, Britain, France and Italy and became Chief Executive Officer of Reckitt Benckiser in 1999.

If you’re looking to start a career somewhere that’s fast moving and challenging and gives your ambition a clear path forward, check out the RB careers site to see how you could shine here.

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘entrepreneur’?

Do you think of someone who has broken the 9-5 mould and set up in business for themselves?
Or is it something greater than that to you? Can you be an entrepreneur and still be on the corporate career ladder?

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I can’t agree more with Sydney Owen in this excellent blog post: “passion is not limited to entrepreneurship“.

She talks about how ‘entrepreneurs’ (ie those who set up in business for themselves) aren’t necessarily on the true path to passion just because they’ve broken the 9-5 mould.

There are those who are ‘living the dream’ by working on a 9-5 career ladder and consider themselves just as excited about it.
She says: “I get jazzed about thinking about how I started at my current employer as an intern, and I look forward to learning from everyone that works here as I move through (or up, whatever) the ladder that everyone has deemed evil” . . . “Doing good work, enjoying your life and making a difference is not limited to those who start their own business. In my 9-5 I have the structure that I obsess over. I also have the creative freedom to rock the house when I’m given a task and given the wings to take it and fly.”

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And this is how it is at RB – being an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t have that entrepreneurial attitude if you are in a corporate setting.
What makes working at RB so unique is that everybody – from entry level to top management – can contribute actively to the business.

There is an entrepreneurial culture which drives bold thinking, and the passion people bring is greatly valued.
When you work at RB, you are given tasks, goals, projects and the bar is always higher, but you are also given the wings to fly and reach your targets. To live and succeed in such a open context, people are encouraged to be bold thinking and take the initiative.
In my daily activities, every time I find a new best practice or a different way to approach a problem or a task, I always find in front of me colleagues and managers ready to listen to my ideas, and when they find it valuable, I am free to try the new way. And, most importantly, to share with other colleagues from other RB offices around the world.

Maybe the best synthesis of RB uniqueness and of being entrepreneurial in a corporate setting, is expressed in this video called ‘What makes the culture of RB so special?‘
And watch out for our CEO Bart Becht’s answer to the question at the end . . .  “When you show up at RB you smell it in the air” . . .

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In most large and global organizations, I would imagine that few employees get the privilege of a casual meeting and discussion with top management, especially new hires who are just starting their climb up the career ladder.

However, I can now proudly say that RB is not like most large and global organizations.  Just the other week, all of the 2009 new hires across functional areas had the honor and the opportunity to eat lunch and converse with our Executive VP of North America, Rob de Groot (pictured below on the left), and our very own CEO, Bart Becht (pictured just below on the right), during his visit to our US Headquarters here in Parsippany, New Jersey.

After grabbing some food, we sat down at a circle of tables leaving two seats open for Rob and Bart and anxiously awaited their arrival.  It wasn’t too long before they arrived and Bart jumped right into answering any and all of our questions.

I asked him what gets him out of bed each morning and what really energizes and motivates him.  He said that he is very competitive and thrives on the challenges of an aggressively-competitive environment.  This was also supported by his advice in response to someone else’s question about his career and accomplishments.  He told us that you will inevitably do more and do better in your career if you figure out what you love to do, and then strive to do what you love to do.  He knows that he loves to acheive in a competitive environment.  That is what motivates him.  And by realizing that and pursuing his chosen career path, he has set himself up well to accomplish great things.  I think we can learn a lot from his advice and success.

In addition to answering our questions, they asked us for our feedback on RB, what we like and what we like to see improved.  A number of us shared our experiences and ideas, and it was really nice to see that both Bart and Rob were so seriously interested in what we, the new hires, had to say about the company and its culture, especially considering how many priorities they have on their plates at every moment of the day.

That lunch has really motivated me on a professional and personal level to contribute more to the momentum RB already has behind it.  I don’t doubt my fellow new hires feel the same and hope that current and future RB team members have the similar opportunity moving forward.

 

There was an interesting  article I read recently about RB’s CEO Bart Becht, called Do we celebrate the wrong CEOs?
He has been named as one of a handful of  “quiet CEOs” who are getting the job done, and getting it done well. 

The conversation, over at Harvard Business Review,  quite rightly asks the question: “Where do our leadership models and leadership lessons come from? We may just be learning from the most admired, but not the best-performing leaders.”

 

It is an art to explain the most complex of strategies in a few lines - Bart is known within the company to tell the story of a company’s future in 4 slides.Â
One has to admire the man. I keep kicking myself on not having bought RB’s stock earlier!

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At RB, there is a lot of emphasis placed on being mobile. I have been at Delhi for the past 5 months, and it is now time for me to move on to new challenges that a fresh territory would pose.
A few days back, I had a presentation. The audience sat in front of 4 men and a lady. Between them, they hold the reins of RB’s business interests over India and South Asia.

Time Given to impress = 25 minutes
Content = 7 months worth of work (across roles, across territories)
End Result = Managing Director: “Excellent Presentation, Great Work!!”
Where I am in January? = Your guess is as good as mine!

 

There is no inertia here … keep your bags packed and your spirit pumped!