I never thought I would get to write that as a headline – but that’s exactly what happened in Chennai this month! Working in the scientific services group, one of our roles is to support claims, demonstrations and approve marketing communications for the brands we support. Demonstrations are a really powerful tool in communicating with our consumer. It’s easy to be sceptical about claims made in TV advertising, it’s a lot harder to disregard when you see it with your own eyes!

This month marketing organised a “Great stain-off” which included use of a 20foot cloth, lots of messy stains and numerous packs of Vanish! We invited residents to throw wine, iodine, ketchup, juices, tea and coffee at 4 targets on our 20ft cloth. 3 stains successfully within the target won residents a prize – I’m sure you can guess what that was !

After a messy hour, the yellow cloth was looking a bit worse for wear and it was definitely time to bring out the Vanish. Taking half the cloth for washing, residents looked on as Vanish got to work. Everyone was intrigued by the oxygen action you could see and had lots of burning questions. The Grande finale was revealed when washing was complete and the cloth was hung next to its messy counterpart.

I think the results speak for themselves!

It’s a little quiet in the office today with everyone a little weary and worn out from the last few days of beaches, parties, celebrations, spa’s … oh and work presentations and conference. Yep, it’s that time again, the Australian Conference 2010!

We left Sydney bound for the Crowne Plaza, Terrigal early Monday morning, had a bite to eat and then got stuck into a bit of team building – what better activity than Bare Foot Bowls! Whilst I wasn’t able to bring my knowledge and expertise of the game to the table much (I can’t say bowling is my forte!), everyone still managed to have a fabulous time catching up, having a drink and using all their energy to get the ball closer than any of their teammates could – Reckitt Benckiser competitive? Never!

The next day was Conference Day, whereby each respective brand and account team presented updates to the business regarding strategies and new product developments for 2011, new TVC’s and advertising as well as results to date and plans to reach their balance to go targets. As a newbie in the Marketing department, it was really interesting to understand the differences between different brand approaches and idea generation – particularly the disparity of issues faced between Household and Health & Personal Care categories.

That night, 1920’s flappers, gangsters, and even Biggles, concentrated the building as we had our themed 1920’s party night. A fun night of Black Jack, Roulette, dancing and celebrating had by all.

Following our morning of presentations, everybody participated in an interactive group activity named “The Photography Challenge”. This task was a great opportunity for people in all different departments (Marketing, Sales, Supply, Regulatories, Finance) to work and compete together and assist each other with challenges such as being creative in a very short timeline (definitely a challenge that arises in all of our day to day workings in the office!). At the end of this activity, I presented my team’s photography to the business and outlined the creative and artistic rationale behind each image – our team managed to come out of top for this competition … must have been all that birthday energy!

Our next conference day (and my birthday, I might add!) consisted of an informative presentation on some potential new additions to the RB portfolio – Scholl Footwear (of which the ladies might recognize as the infamous “Party Feet Gel Cushions”), as well as Durex (I don’t really need to detail this one…!).

These additions to the portfolio would generate many new business challenges and opportunities for the RB Australia business, as distribution channels for these ranges expand outside the general Pharmacy and Grocery networks and into unknown territory such as fashion outlets, convenience stores and bars/nightclubs.

Another interesting challenge that we were given this day was the “Million Dollar Challenge” in which we were again split into cross-functional teams and tested with the question, “What would you do with $1mm?”. Each team were given a certain brand challenge (increase Pine O Cleen wipes penetration in the market, enhance consumption of Vanish in-wash, drive Finish tablets through increasing frequency of dish wash usage and tablet trade-up) in which we had to brainstorm and present 3 key ideas. Our team chose to increase Pine O Cleen wipes penetration mainly through trial and new users, for example alliances with MasterChef, wipes sampling through the new Coles recipe cards in store and partnerships with hospitals for new mothers bounty bags. Although we did not win this challenge, it was really remarkable to see that RB willingly will be supporting the winning team’s ideas on Finish by investing an incremental $1mm into the plan for 2011.

To top off our week at Conference that night was a Black and White Soiree Ball where everyone had the chance to let their hair down and party it up one last time before returning back to the office. We had a fabulous band called the Figaro’s performing Italian Opera music, a beautifully set up ballroom, awards for ‘best dressed’ as well as prizes for winners of competitions throughout the week. A really great end to a fun and enjoyable week away.

And back to the office we are.

Although a little more drained than before we left, definitely refreshed from a good break away – who knows where to next? I think we’ll push for New York and see how that follows through …

When you take a highly mobile job, you will spend a lot of time working with a virtual team.
It’s a very popular working pattern in RB as I know.
Although face to face communication is the easiest way for most people,  working in RB demands you to acquire the skills of getting messages across and organizing people by email, live meetings, phone and via teleconference efficiently.

In the first days of working in RB,  I found discussing projects with a whole team by talking to a teleconference machine quite inconvenient and easy to lose my focus during the discussion.
Soon enough I got to understand that it’s a necessary and popular working way in RB especially in the IS department, and sometimes you won’t have a chance for face to face communication so you need to grab every chance to speak up and get yourself understood by others, that’s people’s expectation here and how you contribute your ideas no matter you are typing to a screen, or talking to a phone machine, or sending out an email.
For most projects I’ve participated, the team members usually are sitting in different countries and most of the significant discussions need to be carried through teleconference, even user trainings and technical supports need to be done remotely.

And of course we will have conference held several times during the year that all the team members come together, actually it’s quite amazing that when I see in person someone whose face I haven’t seen for months, I don’t feel them unfamiliar at all even their looks change somehow,  it feels like we’ve never been far away from each other and everyone knows exactly where our team stands and what others are up to. Although most of the time it’s a virtual team, the feelings is always real.

Before you realize it you already get used to the working pattern and become better and better at communication via different ways as well as your ability to quickly adapt to a changed situation.  For example, when you have prepared a presentation facilitated by many PPT slides containing the supporting figures and charts and you are going to present it through video conference to others sitting in another country,  then something happens and the video equipment suddenly become unavailable,  you should be able to adjust yourself to the new situation that you are not able to show your PPT slides, so what you can do is to quickly accept this and adjust yourself,  make your presentation as convincing as possible by only talking through the phone,  by your voice and the words you say.  In fact, this ability is vital for every RB employee.
And no need to worry,  you will be able to practice it once you join us.

What do you think makes a global team?
International locations? Yes.
Different nationalities of team members? Yes.
Mobility of individual staff? Yes.

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Overall, what is the essential element that makes a global team a truly “One team” instead of several groups that work for the same company in the same department?
Well in the RB Information Service function, this essential element is trust. IS people sitting in one site trust that their team members sitting in another continent can fully understand and help resolve their problems, trust the team members sitting across the ocean and can upgrade their local servers and promote their programs.
That is what’s happening in today’s IS.

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So, how do you build this kind of trust? High quality of delivery, accurate and effective communication and well-known expertise and efficiency. These are all important factors that need to be built in multiple dimensions.
Every day we are facing our objectives, our customers, our team members and we need to deliver the project or service in a constantly improving and measurable level of performance.

The accuracy and effectiveness of communication can be a challenge to all the international enterprises and organizations, it is especially important in a function that needs to get full alignment across all levels, all countries, from global to each local site. Working in RB IS you will not only learn the technical expertise but soft skills like the different types of communication skills such as - presentation skills, how to make a winning demonstration in conference, how to be convincing in front of business team and how to manage team from 3rd party.

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To those who are considering seeking job opportunities in RB, I want to share with you a little bit more on this.
What is RB looking for when they recruit new people? Through my personal experience, the most important attribute RB is looking for is – Leadership.
This is also what will be continually enhanced when working for RB.

Being trustworthy and the ability to earn other’s trust is the key part of your leadership.

So, you want to join RB? You want to be one of the best in RB?

Learn how to build trust from today onwards.

What do you want from the first years of career?

Intensive on-job training? Decision making opportunities?  Vast developing platform? …..

No matter how much you have in your expectations,  the Information Services (IS) Graduate program at RB will surprise you by one thing: engaging in a truly global working life.

In the past several months, I’ve experienced working in a global community that no matter which part of the world you originally come from, you always have to be prepared to communicate with another country for a conference, a training session, a project, an assignment and quickly adapt yourself to their local working and living environment.  

The IS team everywhere share a common vision and comply with a common standard, it doesn’t matter where you sit, you are always part of ONE team and the entire globe is your base.

The most challenging and rewarding part of this experience would be how quickly you need adjust yourself to the different local business environments. Although Information Services are one global team, we are facing the local business team and customer at the end of the day, our job is to see how quickly we can understand the local business needs, present ourselves in all possible ways to develop trust and understanding, so we can better contribute and address their needs.   

It’s not only about enhancing your skills, it’s more about sharpening your mind and strengthening your personality, you will feel surprised at how good you become in negotiating and dealing with different groups of people.  For me being part of this IS graduate program in RB is like being provided with an once in a lifetime opportunity to cross the ocean, the continent to work with people you never image you are going to meet.  

So join this program, start your new adventure and be ready to be surprised and let’s see how good you are!