Job Responsibilities
I was responsible for regional operations that were an amalgam
of four core areas - Treasury, Supply chain, Finance and
Compliance. I was the head of a 13 member team.
In operations it is impossible to categorize the amount of time
on each task. Operations is action oriented and every day was
different. It involved ensuring that day to day activities
across all areas function smoothly.
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Job Requirements
I have already answered this question in the previous survey.
As regards my career path, I started as a commercial trainee
with an engineering company but continued to pursue studies
simultaneously. I did my Cost Accountancy and MBA (part time)
alongwith studies. I changed my industry and over the 13 years
of work life, I have worked with 4 industries.
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Uppers
Any assignment well done is a point of "high" for me. What I have enjoyed about
my job is the "action orientation" rather than an ivory tower profile. The
opportunity to face challenges every day and overcome them has been the driving
spirit for me. No doubt it involves a lot of pressure, but that is the fun part
about it.
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Downers
The general tendency of managers to procastinate and "ostritch
attitude" is what I have always been bugged about. I would
expect managers to take up an assignment, work upon it and see
the end of it rather than sit on it and become mere paper
pushers. I feel very strongly that it is the duty of each
employee to pay back more than their salary to their employing
organization. They need to ask themselves are they contributing
enough to the organization. But it is a really put down that
most employees dont share my views.
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Lifestyle
I had a 13+ hour day, everyday. I travelled quite often but only for a day or
two in each trip. There was no dress code except for customer facing roles. The
organization provided a reasonable budget for social events that we used to
organize.
Within the employees (who were all Indians) the diversity was high, but that was
more by default rather than design.
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Compensation
My cost to the company was INR 1.3 million including retiral
benefits such as provident fund, superannuation, gratuity.
Besides this I had a company car, laptop and company paid mobile
phone. The insurance and hospitalization for family including
dependents was also provided.
It was a private company with unlimited liability and hence
there weren't any stock options.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Consumer Products industry is an evergreen industry which will
never die - after all the population will never stop using home
care / personal care products, etc. And the true knowledge of
experiencing how a customer behaves or thinks will be possible
only by working in this industry. I also believe that no
professional can become a management consultant without a stint
in consumer goods industry.
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