One of the biggest focuses of the RB culture is career progression. The fact that everyone moves roles so often helps to keep the ideas fresh and maintain a vibrant fun working environment. Recently one of my colleagues Helen Stephenson was promoted from Senior Innovation Associate within Aircare to an Innovation Manger within Scholl & Durex. A clear idea of a career path is a must have for progression within RB, however it can sometimes feel a little daunting to know where to start in terms of mapping out your career for the next 5 years. So read on to find out how Helen planned and achieved this.

Hi Helen, Congratulations again on your promotion, this must be a very exciting time for you! Has your focus and training always been within the FMCG Industry or has your career experience so far been particularly varied?

I studied for a Masters degree in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham and started to make decisions about my career during that time. I had a variety of summer jobs, but in my third year I was successful in applying for a summer internship with ICI and found myself working within the Food Ingredient R&D group at Quest International, Holland for 3 months. I really enjoyed applying technical thinking to problems with a tangible, consumer need and this led me to have a much clearer idea about what I wanted to do following my degree – I had my sights set on R&D, particularly new product development.

Following my degree I studied for a PhD in Polymer Chemistry supported by ICI and made some great friends and connections along the way. My first full-time job was working as a Project Scientist for Critical Pharmaceuticals, a spin-out company from the University of Nottingham focusing on the development of slow-release drug delivery systems. This was a great experience in technology management; I was responsible for transferring an exciting new technology from an academic setting into a commercial business. It developed my entrepreneurship and taught me a lot about securing financial support for new ideas with the responsibility to manage risk and deliver against specific time frames.

After 2 years at Critical Pharmaceuticals I decided that I wanted to look for opportunities within a big company to gain experience in the development of products closer to the market and with global reach. This led me to Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare and I joined in 2007 as a Formulation Associate on the Nurofen brand. Nurofen is a really exciting brand to work on; I was involved with all stages of product development from concept generation through to product license submission. It was a valuable experience in understanding the Quality and Regulatory framework a consumer healthcare product must be developed within.

I then had the opportunity to make a complete change and moved to work as an Innovation Associate for Airwick. This pushed me outside my comfort zone, not only because I had to grasp a very different technical field quickly, but also a very different target consumer. I would say that Aircare is much more subjective and less functional than Healthcare; it’s important to understand the consumer’s frustrations & drivers and use these to guide technical innovation. This gives lots of opportunity for meeting and interacting with consumers, which is always great fun!

So your career so far has been particularly varied. You have been working with RB for around 3 years and held how many positions?

The Scholl & Durex Innovation Manager role will be my third position since joining RB

Which role so far has been your favourite?

That’s a difficult question, but I would say working in Aircare Innovation has been my favourite, despite also being the toughest! This role has enabled me to gain experience within a very fast paced, dynamic environment where a project can reach the shelf within 2-3 years from concept. At the Innovation end you require a strong understanding of the strategic vision for the brand and have the opportunity to really influence the future pipe-line. There is great autonomy and ownership to drive things forward and make things happen.

Have you always had a clear idea of your career path?

No, not at all. In the first stages of my career I took opportunities as they presented themselves and a set plan seemed too restrictive! What I would say is that I actively looked for opportunities at every stage to learn more about myself and develop. It was only when I joined RB that I started to realize the benefits of career planning. I have had a career plan for the last few years which maps out the responsibilities & experiences I would like to achieve moving forward, and the roles that would enable me to do this. It’s still important to keep it flexible because who knows where the next opportunity might arise, but it provides some direction and targets for me to proactively work towards my next role.

Why did RB stand out from the crowd for you?

Initially the big brands and exciting products! I wanted to be involved with making a difference for consumers. When I learnt more about the company I was impressed with the ownership and responsibility you get, not only in your day-to-day role but also in driving your career forward.

You career within RB so far has been very fast paced which fits well with our company culture and industry strategy. What do you see as the steps you took to achieve promotion from your current position to becoming a manager?

There are plenty, but these are my top 3:
- Developing a strong network and building relationships with key stakeholders
- Challenging myself to go above and beyond and then delivering
- Demonstrating the ability to lead and develop others

Do you think the step from Associate to Manager is large?

Yes, of course – it will be another steep learning curve and I’m sure there will be a few growing pains. But I’m excited by the challenge and looking forward to the extra responsibility – that’s what keeps me motivated at work!

What would be your top tip for candidates looking to apply to RB?

Be your own person and if you are motivated and driven to achieve great results through collaboration with others, RB is the place for you.

Thank you Helen, we wish you every success in your new role!

Helen demonstrates key drivers needed to succeed within RB, a personality driven by responsibility and achievement, the confidence to take real ownership of your work and someone who is always looking for the next challenge to take on. Reckitt Benckiser’s fast paced market strategy is reflected in the companies’ career progression and role movement. If you are serious about your career progression then RB is the place for you!

“If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative” – American film director, Woody Allen


It’s a really contentious discussion it seems: Is it ever ok to fail at something as long as you have done so from a position of knowledge? There has been a really interesting discussion around the internet of late, about risk taking in business. In an article at Brazen Careerist called Risk Takers and Why It’s Hard To Be One, author Joseph Yi talks about how we are programmed to play it safe and go with what we know works. Of course there is a fine line between risk taking and being foolish – no one should jump into something without having thought things through first. He adds: “The risk taker isn’t foolish, they are calculative. They decide to break from the norm because they see the potential success in something rather than let the bumps in the road stop them.”

And over at BusinessWeek, in the Debate Room they asked the question: are companies going overboard with the freedom to fail?
“There’s no doubt that innovation entails risk and randomness, and that sometimes people are going to do all the right things but get bad results. We should celebrate people who take well-thought-out, calculated risks that don’t pan out. That is not failure but important learning on the road to organizational success, as resources can be redirected to projects with higher potential”

Bold thinking is one of the cornerstones of Reckitt Benckiser’s company culture. It forms the basis of one of our Core Values: Entrepreneurship. So what does that mean when you work here? Well it means encouraging people to take the initiative and allowing daring ideas to thrive. They actually want you to take calculated risks. Which is a pretty amazing environment to work in!

In an article at Innovation Leadership Network entitled Why Making Mistakes is a Key Innovation Skill author Tim Kastelle reasons that failure is important. That it is a sign of a healthy innovation process.
“You don’t necessarily have to embrace failure, but you must be willing to learn from it. If you combine it with learning, making mistakes is a key innovation skill”.

So what do you think about having the freedom to ‘fail’? In this insightful video on our YouTube channel, entitled Advice to Graduate Trainees , Ian Hutchinson, RB’s Global Media Director, says “It’s OK to fail sometimes if you’ve actually been brave”

He, along with a group of other senior managers, offer career advice and tips to new starters in the FMCG world. But what do you make of his statement? We asked the Linked In community to share their thoughts. Comments ranged from “No, because that’s no way for winners to think” to “you have to be willing to be brave enough to take risks sometimes and even if things don’t pan out, at least you tried. Sure, no one wants to fail, but everyone does it at some point and it’s important to learn that fear of failing shouldn’t be a reason to not go for something.”

I love this quote from RBs CEO Bart Becht when he wrote a post about global entrepreneurs on this blog back in June:
“. . . we actually encourage ‘constructive conflict’! When there is a group of people who feel passionately about a set of ideas, I want to ensure those ideas are allowed to flourish. They should not be silenced by the majority consensus. And if they come armed with facts and are prepared to argue their point of view, they will be encouraged to keep working away until they find something our consumers like. Of course, this can lead to some lively meetings, but this is about finding a way to take it forward; building on each other’s ideas rather than sitting around a table and coming up with a consensus opinion. We make our decisions fast and then we all stand behind them”.

And that quote right at the beginning of this post? You’ll also find that on the RB company website, on the ‘innovators‘ page . . .

Hi all,

The series “Interview with a graduate” continues and this week we met Ilaria, In Store Account in the Sales department. Ilaria holds a Bachelor degree and a Master of Science in Management with focus on Marketing, and she joined RB in 2009 as ABM Laundry trainee. After a brilliant internship, Ilaria was given the chance to experience the field sales and she started this new adventure at the beginning of 2010. Ilaria is from Campania, a region in South Italy, and she moved to Milan when she was 18.

Ilaria, you spent 6 months working in Marketing and then straight afterwards, at the end of your internships, you started an amazing experience of field sales in an other part of Italy. A new position and a new challenge, in 1 year…

When I started my experience in the RB marketing I would have never thought that in a few months I might have had the opportunity of such a different kind of work. In my previous experiences I had always done marketing, so when I was told to move to the South of Italy to have a Field Sales experience, it was a great challenge for me. There was not too much time to move, to learn about sales, distribution  and assortment, all things I had never been familiar with. I wasn’t an expert driver and the idea of spending  the 60% of my day in a  car, was really incredible. To succeed in this challenge would have been a great satisfaction for me, and I was sure I could do it. I had to work in a new area, in a new job and deal with new people. I no longer had to work with my known colleagues side by side , but with different kind of clients and in three months there would have been the first releases. I think that great determination, flexibility, problem solving and spirit of initiative have been key drivers to face this challenge.

This kind of position gives you a lot of autonomy: at an early stage of your career, this is a very big challenge…how did you start understanding how to deal with so many different clients?

At 26 years old I was responsible of a little piece of Italy and my results depended on my approach to clients and my ability in creating great and strong relationships with store managers. It was not easy at the beginning. I soon understood that each client was different from the others and that I had to create a specific and personal approach in order to respond to the specific needs of the store and its manager. This was a great opportunity to improve my personal and relationship skills. I learnt how to be professional but at the same time friendly, smart, handy and ready to solve problems. But to be able to reach great results, I have learnt, first of all, to listen to and understand the clients’ needs in order to find the right approach to each one. During my first visits I spent a lot of time looking at the store format, the displays, the assortment and having long conversations with the store managers. This helped me to get a clearer idea of the single point of sales, to understand what was critical for each one, what I could do to make the best of it and increase the store managers’ satisfaction of Reckitt Benckiser. And now that a lot of them are waiting for me for a coffee, I think that I got the target.

At RB we always claim that to succeed you have to take the initiative to do what’s needed, anticipating the needs. How does it reflects in your daily routine?

I think that in this kind of job, one of the most important skills you have to improve, is  understanding the needs as soon as possible. You are on the field, in close contact with reality, you are not sitting at a desk managing numbers and creating graphics. You can touch the daily difficulties of the point of sales, all things that in an office you can hardly imagine. The questions of the final consumer that approaches to you asking what a specific product is useful for, where laundry detergents are and if a competitor’s product is better than yours. You learn that it is not so easy to manage even a small store and the great ideas you might have in the office are more difficult to apply to reality. At the beginning I learnt a lot, but the great satisfaction has come after months, when, going into a store and looking at the shelves, I soon realised what the problems of that specific store were, and I went to its manager with the ready solutions for him/her.

Being responsible for your area and your clients is like running a small business. Do you feel you’re acting as an entrepreneur?

Each “In Store Account” is responsible for the results of his area. We have the update of our targets every quarter and we are evaluated according to the key indicators for each point of sale.

We have great autonomy in managing our area, which means also great responsibility for our actions, decisions and obviously results. It’s really like running a small business in which you have to coordinate different activities, people, solve problems and also manage your budget in terms of promotions, coupons etc. It has been a really daring, amazing and growing experience at my age.

When you started your work experience, did you expect to have this kind of responibility and autonomy in such a short time?

When I started my internship at RB I knew it was a fast moving company but, I would have never expected I could have this fantastic opportunity in a few months. It was really a great surprise that has allowed me to grow up, not only on business activities and approach, but also on a personal point of view. I think that RB is a company that believes and invests in young people a lot. In fact it gives the possibility of learning and facing new chances every day operating in complete autonomy and this doesn’t happen very often in other companies. I have felt involved in my job since the beginning and I have understood that the company really aims at my growth at  360° . After one year work in RB I look back and can realise how much I have grown in such a short time, how many responsibilities I have been given and how much I have learnt. So I can say I feel part of a committed, great and successful team.

As I wind down my blogging responsibilities, it feels appropriate to announce that I’m finishing up as Pharmacy Sales Analyst and will take on my next challenge as Assistant Brand Manager for Pest Control -uber excited!

Seeing as  this will be my last blog post, I thought it would be fitting to revisit some of the key points in my first blog post, which was about my reasons for working at RB and how it would help me achieve my goal of having a fulfilling marketing career. Let’s see whether these points still stand true 6 months on…

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Strong portfolio of brands – No doubt this point still rings true. My Sales Analyst/Account Manager role has put me at the forefront of promoting our RB Powerbrands to my customers to ensure support and promotion within their stores. Massive launches of the past 6 months in Australia? Strepsils Cool, Nurofen for Children relaunch, Dettol No Touch Systems and Veet Suprem Essence just to name a few…

My job is certainly made easier when we’re promoting and selling in market-leading brands, which is why I’m really excited to be tackling Mortein in my next role, which has really big brand presence in Australia, as well as Brazil and India. Can’t wait to get my hands dirty and learn how to manage one of RB’s global Powerbrands!

Real ownership and responsibility –I definitely feel that I have had ownership and responsibility in a range of projects and tasks since starting 18 months ago – being able to present our business strategy to the CEO of my account, organizing and managing a stand in a retailer’s staff conference, convincing my buyer to adopt our shelf strategy in their biggest category – just some of the achievements you can also have as a RB graduate!

Challenges are the norm at RB; it’s up to you to decide how to tackle them. It might be tough initially, but it’s only when you retrospectively review your accomplishments after finishing the task that you realise how much you have learnt both personally and professionally. Certainly the experiences gained in the Sales component of the RB Commercial Graduate Program will help me tackle my next role in Marketing.

The Aussie graduates! – Well, what can I say…we’re like one big family! As we’ve gotten to know each other in the office, its great to know that I can always rely on a fellow graduate when I’m stuck in a rut with a project or just need someone to bounce ideas off. Getting the motivation to push yourself to the next level is difficult, but knowing graduates who have been in your situation and ‘broken through the pain barrier’ to get to the next level is certainly encouraging.

We still catch up outside of work, we’re planning a graduate dinner soon but before that, we’re all going to do participate in the City 2 Surf 12km run in a few weeks time…should be fun!

And that’s it folks, I certainly don’t think my reasons for choosing the RB Commercial Graduate Program have changed, in fact, they have merely been reinforced.

Whilst I’m sad to be leaving here, it is with great pleasure that I announce that my fellow graduate, Natalie, will be taking over my blogging responsibilities.
Natalie and I started the graduate program at the same time and we have shared many great professional experiences. She’s coming along to Marketing with me as Assistant Brand Manager for Nurofen, so please welcome Natalie as she shares her experiences and insights in her new role!