Me (second left) with the RB crew!

Last Sunday I ran the City 2 Surf – a 14km run (for fun!) from the city of Sydney to the iconic Bondi Beach, which this year became the world’s largest run (85,000 people took part). I ran the whole way, reaching a personal best time of 77minutes. Why would I do such a thing you ask? Running gives me a sense of achievement. It is not just about how physically fit you are, but involves mental toughness as well. It is such a great feeling when you cross that finish line and know you have reached your goal.

The sport of long-distance running can be likened (metaphorically speaking) to a career at Reckitt Benckiser. Here is how our culture and values relates to the race.

1. Continuous fast-pace: Everyone talks about the speed at which things happen here at RB, and once you get into your new role you understand why. The talent, ambition & sheer hard work of the people here allow us to get across the line first, just like I did on Sunday (ok, maybe I didn’t quite come first, but I definitely crossed the line!)

2. Passion & Motivation: just as you need passion to push yourself up that hill, the same passion is required to push your ideas & projects even further

3. Strategy & Performance: it is all about timing your run perfectly – pace yourself in the beginning and finish strong. Others will start off fast, but you will catch them later as they run out of energy. At RB, our strategies focus on targeted growth & beating the competition

4. Uphill & Downhill: The most famous hill in the City 2 Surf is Heartbreak hill. The name says it all – 1km of heart-break & hill. This is by far the toughest part of the course, but you must keep on going because if you stop, you will lose time. Being a graduate at RB, I have at times felt just as overwhelmed as I did on that hill. The graduate program is designed on a steep learning curve, but the harder you push, the quicker you will learn and reach level ground once again

5. Mental (& physical) Toughness: there is no question that running is hard. The demands on your body and the continuous voice in your head telling you to stop, but you don’t, because you have trained hard & have faith that it can be done. At RB, we work in a fast and demanding environment – a lot is expected from you, however the results & rewards are well worth it! (For example, the brand I work on, Dettol, reached its highest ever share in Australia last week!)

6. Thinking outside the body (or square): during the race, you will feel pain. It is important to let your mind take over from your body & focus on the things around you – spectators, other runners, supporters, the scenery – all while staying on track to complete that goal. At RB, thinking outside the square is key to driving growth & achieving the results we do (think recent innovations like the Dettol No Touch Handwash System, which has contributed significantly to category growth since launch)

7. Achieving Goals: Running is all about achievement – that first kilometre, the top of that hill. Achievement also defines who we are at RB, so consider if you too want to aim high to achieve your goals.

8. Tangible Results: Our performance is measured by the tangible results we see – Net Revenue, market share, new products coming to life – all of which is just as rewarding as the time on that clock when I finished my run and the medal around my neck

I have knocked off 14km, but I am still not satisfied – 21km is my next goal, stay tuned to see how I go!

Welcome to Bondi Beach!

Matt Dubow

When I first walked onto the Penn State campus as a freshman my head was dizzied by the limitless opportunities before me. As I became a more seasoned undergraduate, I began to become more aware of my potential in areas I had never even considered before, both as a consumer in the grocery store and as a young professional at our career fairs. How were my dollars being used in this economy? Was I becoming part of the global economic, social, and environmental problems or rather contributing to companies who were creating a solution? These same concerns were easily paralleled in my employment search as I scoured for a company that shared the same values and beliefs, one I found in Reckitt Benckiser.

The question posed in this blog’s subject may seem plainly obvious to some, however to the average college student, RB may just be another company on their laundry list of potential employers. It is important that college students come to know RB in a multitude of dimensions. Initially, they must grow to be smart, aware consumers who view their purchases as investments into their personal lives. In this sense college students should be researching and exploring their options in household, personal, and healthcare categories. As a smart consumer you are not only taking an active mindset in regard to your finances, but become aware of the innovation, philanthropy, and culture provided by your supplying companies.

With their respective market leading positions, the Reckitt Benckiser Powerbrands will undoubtedly provide many of the solutions these consumers search for. It is easy to find excuses to pick RB’s products off the shelf. Philanthropic programs such as the Carbon20 effort and aggressive sustainability benchmarks, to their product innovation and value, many college students will find themselves establishing life long relationships with RB products.

Additionally college students who explore career options in the FMCG industry would be foolish to overlook Reckitt Benckiser. The company’s culture and core values suggest that with the right fit, young professionals are given international opportunities to not only prove themselves but move through their career at an accelerated pace. If you were to research one of RB’s 19 market leading Powerbrands you would find a history of innovation, value, and a proven track record. Behind the scenes RB associates live the values of achievement, entrepreneurship, team spirit, and ownership that create and drive the culture of the company.

The challenges presented to college graduates within the workplace are demanding, yet the rewards of success are reaped both professionally and personally.

What are your opinions? As students, consumers, and professionals how are you taking strides to improve the world we live in? How do you see RB innovating its social and environmental programs in the future? I am greatly intrigued to hear how everyone is working, whether its on campus, in an office, with Reckitt Benckiser, or on their own. Are you taking the initiative and challenging the status quo?

If you have read anything about RB then you’ll know by now that our core values are essential to how our business is so successful. Since relocating to the Korean business I have seen some examples of how these core values are displayed and used to their fullest. The RB Iksan factory, based on the East of Korea has one motto which is displayed proudly throughout the building – ‘One team, one heart’. These four simple words (well three if you don’t count the one twice!) sum up all four of our core values perfectly.

To have a successful business you need teamwork, cooperation, support and shared knowledge. This is where the ‘one team’ comes into play, displaying shared Team Spirit and consequently Achievement. The sense of one team is constantly strengthened with frequent team meals and socials, such as the Kareoke evening I attended after a meeting in the Seoul office last week (that’s me attempting to sing in the photo!).

The second part of the motto, ‘one heart’ describes a vision that each and every individual needs passion, dedication, Ownership and Entrepreneurship to achieve that extra edge which turns a good product into a great one. One heart beautifully describes the close working relationship between the RB employees not only within supply but throughout all our functions.

It’s when this synergy of one team and one heart come together that provides the key to achieving all four core values. Despite this English phrase being a second language to most of the team here, they all understand the importance and meaning of this simple phrase and this focus helps them achieve the level of success which RB is so proud of.

Here we are with another interview with a graduate blog, and today I met Alberto, ABM (Assistant Brand Manager) Laundry. Alberto Gorini joined RB straight after graduation in Marketing Management at Bocconi University in Milan. After a 6 month internship in Marketing department with focus on Fabric Treatment, Alberto started his experience as ABM Laundry last June.

1. Alberto, from the start of your time with RB you’ve been exposed to a number of challenges not common for an entry level position.

I can say that RB is a company that really makes you grow professionally right from the word ‘go’. Since the beginning I’ve been asked to provide my input in a wide set of marketing decisions. You can feel a bit dazed, but I can ensure you that a young graduate’s learning curve grows very fast when you are immediately given responsibilities. Together with fundamental strong analytical skills I’ve had immediately significant freedom of action on many projects: packaging design development, copy production, relationship building with clients and suppliers.. A 360° view of the business that quickly gives you the confidence of being an integrated part of the team!

2. Would you share with us the highest achievement you’ve reached so far at RB?

Actually it is a very hard question, I cannot name you one single achievement right now. But I can tell you I feel a great sense of achievement every time I’m asked to do things that I feel I’m not able to do, but in the end I accomplish with great results. In these cases accomplishments not only comes from personal satisfaction, but even from realising that people around you know your potential and try their best and push you hard to exploit it. The feeling that your boss counts on your help for tougher and tougher duties makes you feel really proud.

3. Imagine you are managing a young graduate, who just joined your team: how would you explain to him the sense of achievement at RB?

I believe that achievement, especially in the beginning of your career, is realising how much you learn day by day. When you are put in such a dynamic and fast environment, you never have the time to stop and look back. But when you do it you feel surprised in realising how much you have acquired and how much people around you have given to you.

4. Laundry is a very important category for the Italian market, and the pressure form competitors is high: within this scenario, a very strong sense of achievement is fundamental. Do you feel that the bar is set higher and higher?

The bar since the beginning has been set high, it never stops rising up. Laundry is probably the most competitive market in Italian FMCG scenario, and consequently the business complexity is really high. Moreover I am Assistant Brand Manager of two big brands, Ava and Sole, and in many aspects of everyday business life I can say I’m required to put in twice the effort. Having such a high focus on you can be stressful, but at the same time it allows you to build up your know-how and expertise very quickly. The fact that you keeping on learning and gaining new responsibilites is for sure what makes me feel the strongest sense of achievment.

5. This constant pursuit of results and over-achievement can come across as stressful. How do you manage to be always goal oriented and result driven without burning out?

RB is very demanding and I can say that feeling stressed and under pressure can happen at the start of your career. Moreover I entered as a new graduate and it took me some time to gain confidence with everyday business life. At the start your vision tends to be short-term oriented, time after time you get the confidence to understand which actions will be more impactful for the business tomorrow. The experience you get  then allows you to understand better which are the priorities.  After 9 months I’ve improved a lot, and I strongly hope I’ll have the time to grow more and more in this direction with RB.

This is the story of Marc Fonzetti, Head of Media at Reckitt Benckiser.

If you are a graduate looking for inspiration or proof that one person really can make a difference, then the details of his career climb is something you should read. I’m writing this for the blog because it’s a perfect example of how one person is able to make changes within a huge FMCG. It shows how, if you have the passion and the drive and if you are a risk taker, you can succeed. And it also highlights one of Reckitt Benckiser’s Core Values: Ownership

Four years ago Marc joined the company as head of digital and was responsible for everything from RBs websites to building our digital media footprint. But he had joined a large corporation where digital was not a core consideration.
However, not to be deterred, he spent time talking to people, getting to know their needs and seeking out those who shared an interest in digital advertising and could prove to be an advocate in the future. Then he set about understanding: meeting key players, working side by side with people, digging down to the nitty gritty of what was needed to make this work. It led to an Ad Age Media Maven Award in 2009 and a promotion earlier this year to his current role as Head of Media for RB North America.

So how did Marc do it?

In his own words there were 4 key elements:

1. Passion. You cannot evoke great change alone; so know your passion will drive you, will be infection and will get others to follow.
2. Vision. Know your work and stay ahead of the curve.
3. Small wins. He started by getting peer support and learning their business. Then he worked his way up the ladder, using what he had learned and made what he was doing measurable and accountable: “It’s hard to ignore strong results, no matter how small at first . . . ”
4. Bridge the knowledge gap. Where two groups of people speak a different ‘language’, be the translator so both groups understand each other properly.

This is what RB is all about: Giving people the opportunity to take the initiative; to develop the way you want and to place your career firmly in your hands.
As I said previously, one of RBs Core Values is ‘ownership’. That means ‘people are given the latitude to do what they want to, within a framework for success’.

To read more see Marc’s interview at Forbes: Reckitt Benckiser: Creating A Game-Changing Media Strategy. And if you want to learn more about our core values and how they drive our success take the Core Values Challenge! and discover if you are an RB person.