Deborah  Wilkes is Editor & Publisher of OTC bulletin, the business newsletter for the consumer healthcare industry. Co-founder of OTC Publications Limited, which launched OTC bulletin in 1993.  Deborah is Chair of the Judging Panels for OTC Bulletin and OTC Marketing Awards, and is actively involved with industry bodies and is regular speaker at industry events.

Q: As an industry insider what keeps you fascinated by the OTC health sector?

From an international perspective, the steady flow of shifts in business strategy and the rapid pace of mergers and acquisitions in the consumer healthcare industry.

Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the OTC sector today for eg:  the high street chemist/branded suppliers/overall?

One of the biggest challenges is forecasting how the difficult economic environment will affect the different product categories within the consumer healthcare sector.

Q: How do you think OTC retail is changing/may change in the next 5 years

Over the past few years, more OTC medicines have become available from supermarkets and other non-pharmacy retail outlets. This trend seems likely to continue over the next five years. Meanwhile, pharmacies may take a more proactive approach to their OTC business, as their prescription dispensing business comes under pressure.

Q: What do you see as the impact of online retailing on the sector?

Online retailing is becoming more important for OTC products, but the uptake varies considerably from one category to another.

Q: With the growth in online and multiples in the sector what do you see as the future for independent pharmacies?  What is their usp and what support do you believe manufacturers must offer them?

The future looks tough for independent pharmacies, but many are located close to doctors surgeries and have a steady flow of customers picking up prescriptions. A lot more could be done to encourage customers to buy more healthcare-related products while they are in independent pharmacies.

Q: How do you think branded suppliers can maintain their position against own label value developments? What advantages do brands have?

Building brand loyalty is very important. Some manufacturers have done a very good job of building loyalty to their OTC brands, but others could do more.

Q: What do you think are the main challenges in marketing OTC products?

Working within the regulatory constraints that apply to marketing campaigns for OTC medicines, and dealing with the increasing regulatory caution as regulators become more risk averse

Q: What advice would you give to someone planning a career in OTC marketing?

The marketing budgets may not be as big as for other consumer brands, but consumer healthcare – with its regulatory constraints – is a fascinating and challenging area of marketing.

Q: How important is innovation for brands and retailers in the sector?

One of the most important forms of innovation in the OTC market – switching – can create completely new OTC product categories by taking prescription medicines and making them available OTC from pharmacies. More generally, innovation keeps brands one step ahead of the competition and retailers own-label products. Many innovations in the consumer healthcare sector in recent years have focused on making OTC products easier for consumers to take or more portable for them to use anywhere.

Q:  How important are manufacturers in training and development of pharmacists and pharmacy assistants?

Manufacturers can play an extremely important role in training and development, particularly for independent pharmacies. When new OTC product categories are created by prescription medicines becoming available OTC from pharmacies, then it is absolutely critical for manufacturers to make sure pharmacy staff are fully prepared to handle consultations with customers.

Q: In your opinion, what makes a great marketer or account manager?

An inquisitive nature combined with an open mind.

Q: What is your view of RB UK as a player in your industry?

Good at building brand loyalty.

Q:  What is your favourite RB product, and why?

It is too hard to choose a favourite, but from RBs long-established portfolio, Lemsip comes to my rescue most winters.

Q:  What should be RBs next great product innovation?

A toilet cleaner that only has to be used once a year. RB would have lower sales volume, but the product could definitely command a premium price!

Rachel Tressitto – Penn State University

Approaching Graduation

As a Penn State senior approaching graduation in just a few months, I find myself constantly thinking about the memories I have made these last four years. What were my most unforgettable experiences? What will I miss? What will I take with me in the future? I would have to say that one of my greatest experiences was the semester I spent studying abroad in Ireland. It provided me such a great opportunity to explore different cultures, expand my knowledge about the world, make international friends, and open my mind to diversity.

You might be wondering why this matters and how it relates to Reckitt Benckiser? Well, being a business student, I recognize how important it is to become more globally aware; and I’m not alone. More and more students are realizing the significance of studying abroad because it is no secret that the world is getting smaller. Expanding into international markets is a highly successful business strategy and is becoming the norm in todays market. As students start embarking on their career search, they cannot overlook this is the direction the business world is heading. One of the reasons I admire Reckitt Benckiser is because this company has completely embraced this idea of international business. RB’s home, health, and personal care products stock the shelves in over 180 countries, continuously providing innovative products for millions of consumers across the world.

International Career Opportunities

Furthermore, if you are someone like me who has already been abroad and is anxious to continue your international exposure, Reckitt Benckiser provides great career opportunities in this respect. I find it intriguing that the Executive Committee has roots all over the world in countries like the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany, Italy, and India. Therefore, it is not surprising the company also provides international careers in operations located throughout sixty countries. I am interested to find out what global opportunities interest you, where do you hope your career will lead you? When you look back on your career path, is international exposure something important to you?

Whether you have been abroad and looking to have an international career or not, you can appreciate Reckitt Benckiser’s entrepreneurial spirit and success around the world.

This post could be a continuation of Indy’s post “What do people really look for in a job?”. The survey he mentions reveals that 43% of the graduates think the most important factor to choose a job is career progression possibilities. This is definitively crucial for me. As I have just entered RB’s graduate program, I have lots of expectations and dreams to become a successful and young leader. Therefore, I am asking myself:

Is it possible for me to become a middle manager before 30?

Even if I am ready to work for it, it surely is quite ambitious. But the truth is, I can already tell you that at RB, it is possible and even expected from the graduates to be ambitious and to grow very fast. Within the Supply department here in Brazil, there are one director and 6 managers. The age of these managers was something that hit me right from the start: They are between 26 and 35 years old and really respected because they are doing an incredible job. Motivating, isn’t it?

A month ago, I was invited to a conference about leadership and personal development. I found it particularly inspiring so I want to tell you about it.

First of all the speaker – working at RB for 12 years, he has lived in Brazil, Holland, South Africa, Germany and England and he is now one of the top 40 managers of the company. And he is just 45. That is the kind of career I would love to have.

I would like to share with you some of the key points that were highlighted during the conference. Some of them will maybe seem obvious to you, other not, but I definitively hope that it will give you some ideas for your personal development and crafting your leadership style:

Personal development – How can you improve yourself?

- Identify your picture of success. What is success for you? How do you measure it? What do you get from it? How are you responsible for it?
- Connect with you at your best. What is your high performance operating zone? Where are you the best?
- What culture/environment do you belong to?
- Identify your blind spots. What do you avoid doing and limit your potential/performance? Why do you avoid it and how can you correct that?
- Identify the knowledge you need. What should you learn to grow in the company? What experience should you get?

Enablers – Who and what can help you?

- You! Your career is what you make of it. You have to work on each one of its aspects
- Coach. It is a person who stimulates you to think about what you don’t usually think about, who gives you other perspectives. A coach is really interested in developing you beyond the transactional point of view (tasks to be delivered).
- Feedback tools. Ask for feedbacks! After every important project or presentation, you have to ask for feedbacks from the main people involved.
- Role models. Who do you think is successful? Why? What could you learn from him?
- Reflection. Dedicate regularly some time to stop and think about you career development.
- Assignments. Seek national or international assignments (short term projects). You have to find projects to develop yourself in the area where you are under-developed.
- Formal training. Organized by the company, they can help you to develop a solid base on knowledge you are new at.
- Continuous learning. It is all about the attitude. You never completely own knowledge. Try to always improve.

Dimension you career – What do you need to learn to become a leader?

- Expand your functional excellence. You need to have more than only one strength or one function. It is crucial to get differentiated experience to build your resume.
- Global profile. In a company as global as RB, it is important to get global experience (global projects, international experience)
- Work on business cases. It is really essential to regularly work on projects that have real impact on the business of the company. They have to become your success cases.
- Enterprise leadership. Ability to lead in complex situations. You have to develop a high degree of effective leadership.

Winning leader qualities

- People, relationship centered
- Thinks systematically. Acts long-term
- Develops his teammates through support and challenge, encourages personal growth
- Delegates space for autonomy
- Consistent and careful on behaviors (to become a model)

Winning leader attitude

- Highly confident, not arrogant
- Clear sense of purpose/picture of success
- Asks questions that others do not have the courage to ask
- Focuses on the next big challenge
- Removes obstacle for his team
- Sets high standards and big goals
- Seeks to understand people and motives
- Stays himself, authentic

This is food for thought. I hope it will inspire you as it has inspired me. The good point is that Reckitt Benckiser is widely open to train its graduates. So I am really determined to make the most of it and to be able to join the team of the young leaders very soon.

What about you ?

Are you ready to become a leader? Do you think it is possible to get high responsibilities without years of experience? Have you already developed the tools and the knowledge for that?

I’ve been here at RB for just over 4 months now as part of my year’s placement; my experience so far has helped shape me in to a young professional with the hunger and drive to succeed. I decided an internship would be beneficial not only for the invaluable experience it provides, but to ensure I am as employable as possible once graduated. Reckitt Benckiser stood out from the rest because of its exciting, innovative approach to business not to mention its impressive portfolio of globally recognised brands.

So what does RB offer interns?

Right from the start I was immersed into the fast paced and vibrant working atmosphere, liaising with a diverse range of people across the globe on exciting and rewarding projects. I have gained an extremely valuable insight into the world of business and industry, helping me develop into a more organized, experienced and ambitious character.

Working on a broad range of tasks has allowed me to not only master my design techniques, but has provided me with the opportunity to learn many new topics such as intellectual property, finance and technology. Bold and entrepreneurial thinking is encouraged, which ensures all inputs are valued regardless of whom they are from. At RB they expect you to take ownership in your work and give you responsibility on all levels allowing you to use your initiative and creativity to achieve your goals and take pride in your work.

So if you’re looking for the best way to start a successful career with development, experience and responsibility, check out what opportunities there are for you.

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 …