What's your job about?
My Employer is Diageo. A global leader in alcoholic beverage industry. With over 200 brands in 180 countries. To put it in simple terms we manufacture and distribute some of the world’s leading brands such as Johnnie walker, Smirnoff, and many more across globally.
As for me, I am a National Account Executive for Coles Liquor Group. Structure of my role would be that I am part of small team (6 individuals) that look after Diageo product orders, promotions, innovation sell in and marketing for Coles Liquor stores across Australia. As for what I do. I start my work by going through business plans in regard to upcoming promotions for the month. I then work on Coles margins and our margins and make sure they align with set guidelines. Then I sit with the team and work on what prices and promotions work and what may need some change. Everyone has a set task around those promotions. I on the back end get high level approvals for some promotions to make sure they are profitable for both parties. Once I have them approved, I then send confirmations to all Coles stake holders and then those products get put on promotions across all Coles stores. For a timeline perspective this whole process can take up to 2 weeks to finalise as a lot of negotiations take place in between. We try and always make sure that our products work well for our customer and that it stands out in the market. My work isn’t hard to understand but what it does require is a lot of time management and relationship building.
What's your background?
My story has a lot of waves around where I was born and where I grew up. To start I was born in Sydney, Australia and spent 4 years of my early life here. As time passed my family moved to India as that’s where my parents were initially from. Spent 12 years in India, from kindergarten to year 10. The education system in India was far more complexed, competitive and strict compared to here in Australia. when I moved to Australia to pursue my year 11 and collage education. Every aspect of learning felt a lot relaxed and practical. For example, I was never taught to use a calculator in Indian high schools. So, I had to use mind methods or rough work sheets to do complex calculations.
From TAFE I took a diploma in Aviation as that was my passion and a dream to be a pilot. Which I did for the early stages of my high school graduation. But slowly as I started to try new roles as a part time employee at places like Vodafone & Luxottica, I started to enjoy my self in a corporate setup a lot more and began to push myself in areas such as sales and marketing. I had an early success in fields of sales, people management and innovation sales. I had heard about Diageo from a friend as he use to be crazy about how big they were and what an amazing work review it had. It always sat on the back of my mind that maybe I should give it a try and apply there. So, I did and got rejected 3 times due to lack of experience and every time I got rejected I would go back and work harder in my at the current role and progress to show Diageo that I had what it takes. But after 3 years of constant push to grow I finally landed a role with Diageo as a Business Development Manager in 2018. From looking after Independent liquor stores across the Sydney South West I progressed into looking after the biggest national store in Australia, Coles Group in 2022.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
YES! I was from a field of Aviation with no background to sales and all it took was an open mind set on learning more every day and the will to fight your fears. My ethnicity was my fear at one stage that made me feel that I might not be relatable and slowly I realised it was the very strength that made me more interesting and gave me that edge to a lot of others. Along with good excel skills(Not compulsory but will surely help) , discipline in time management and passion for learning.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The very key thing I love about job is that what I do on a chair in an office makes the impact in 800 stores and creates this audience for the brands I truly have passion for. It gives me a sense of achievement. I enjoy the promotional planning part that gives me the opportunity to be creative and work on ideas to sell products. When I hear from my managers and customers about how my ideas or hard work made them successful and I get recognised for it is when I feel that I have done something that impacts in a positive manner.
What are the limitations of your job?
I do bear a lot of responsibility, as one mistake on my part can impact 800 stores with poor sales or incorrect pricing issues. But then again mistakes may happen it’s about owning up to it and being able to put in that hard work to fix it. I do not work on weekends. My role would be more mentally challenging than physically demanding. Limitations would be poor computer skills, unable to work long hours on a computer, lack of understanding about how FMCG industry functions, Fear of dealing with big executive level stakeholder. Not willing to put in the hard work of learning new skills to better yourself. For myself personally my limitation to over come was average computer skills than what was needed. But as I grew and learnt from my peers It built me up to be better. I was ok at say excel but now I can say that I’m much better. Its how willing you are!
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...