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.

 

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!

These last couple of weeks have been extra busy due to the Swine Flu situation. I look after the Strepsils brand which is a sore throat product and there has been a viral joke email making the rounds about Strepsils. We obviously didn’t create this and wouldn’t ever take advantage of a serious health risk. We have been working with our PR agency daily to monitor the media and inform journalists that these joke emails were not condoned by RB.

The PR situation is slowing down now so I can get back to my day job. I say ‘day job’ but every day is completely different.

This week’s a good example as unexpectedly our CEO (Bart Becht) has challenged one of our recommendations for the brand. We really believe in our proposal so we’re going to prove it to him. That’s the good thing about RB: it’s not hierarchical and you’re encouraged to fight for what you believe in and not give up, so I’m not. I’m now writing a presentation for our General Manager to present and gain alignment from Bart. Lots of pressure to get this one right! If Bart still doesn’t go for it, we’ll have to come up with a whole new plan in record time to still deliver our targets for the year. The big meeting’s next week so I’ll let you know how it goes and if he’s aligned to our recommendation.