Trade up strategies from cross category learnings; Procter & Gamble Asia Pte Ltd., Singapore

Abstract

My internship with P&G started on 5th April 2010, with an "Intern Orientation" program in Mumbai for 2 days. The induction program gave an overview of the organization, its history, structure, values, culture and a detailed perspective on the various functional teams (Marketing, CMK, Sales, Product Supply, Finance) across GBUs and MDOs. Following this, I moved over to Singapore (which houses the GBUs for the Asian markets) wherein a carefully structured training schedule was organized for all CMK interns, called the "CMK Interns College" (from 8th Apri12010 until 15th Apri1201O). This college exposed us to various aspects of CMK, including: (a) CMK's role in the organization (b) Knowledge on some key principles to be applied to a CMK job on a day-to-day basis (c) A great deal of subjects pertaining to CMK, including various tools and techniques for analysis, etc. Post training, I started out focusing on my internship project (detailed in the next section). The entire internship was extremely well-planned, structured, and organized. My immediate guide was a CMK Manager with whom I would interact on a daily basis and get all my queries clarified. I would also interact with my Project Sponsor who would give me broad strategic inputs and expectations from the project. These were valuable to a great extent, in that I had the big picture in mind which helped me not to lose myself in data and details. The internship also helped me (as a CMK-er) interact and interface with a wide variety of cross functional and cross-cultural teams, including Marketing, Strategy, Finance and other category GBUs. A Mid Review project presentation helped my guide and sponsor assess my progress and give me feedback on how to go forward. Post Mid Review, I had the opportunity to travel to India for a detailed Qualitative Research Study, including Depth Interviews and Mini Focus Group Discussions with Consumers, I delivered my Final Review Presentation (on 7th June 2010) to the CMK team (including my guide and sponsor) and the Associate Marketing Director, with a consolidated set of my learnings, key insights, major findings from the Qualitative and the next steps to take my results forward.