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Reckitt Australia & New Zealand

4.1
  • 1,000 - 50,000 employees

Jason Benjabutr

Don’t rush to your next role for the sake of progression – it isn’t important. Refining your skills, gaining breadth of experience and becoming an expert on your account/brand need to be your priority. If you do this, progression will naturally come (faster than you expect it)

What's your job about?

 

Reckitts is the global market leader in health and hygiene products. I currently head up the eCommerce team for the Australian business.

My day to day entails leading our eCommerce team across all things relating to our Online retailer sites to our Branded websites. Simply put, everything you see being sold Online will have gone through a member of my team. We deal directly with our Major Online retailers like WW Online, Coles Online & Amazon and work with them to execute our 4P strategies across our brands.

My team will own their individual relationships with their customers (retail customers, i.e. WW, Coles etc), however my main responsibility is in assisting them in build and execute their full year plans. We also have some specialist roles within our team who manage everything Search (when you type into the Search bar on these sites) and Consumer Experience (ensuring all our Online shoppers have a very seamless, consistent and positive experience across every platform).

What's your background?

I was born and grew up in Sydney, Australia – however my family is originally from Thailand. I went to high school here in Lewisham, and Macquarie University for tertiary studies.

I completed a number of internships at Transport for NSW, P&G and IBM before finally starting the graduate program at Reckitt (formerly RB). I’ve been here for 6.5 years now, of which I have moved through 9 roles across Marketing, Sales & Trade Strategy – and now finally leading the eCommerce space since January this year.

Taking the graduate role at Reckitt was a major step forward in my career. Not only do they have a very fast start approach to their new starters (i.e. real jobs with real responsibilities/accountability for grads) but with the right attitude there was no limit on how quickly you could learn and progress once here. I was fortunate enough to have plenty of support from both my peers as well as Mentors in senior leadership positions to help guide me along the way.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes. For most of the FMCG world, there isn’t a specific degree or area of expertise that is required for you to have studied to succeed. Actually, it just comes down to willingness to learn quickly and ask the right questions. Coming into a business like Reckitt, you get surrounded by very intelligent people within the industry, so being able to stay humble and learn whilst also bringing to the table creative ideas and challenging the status quo is crucial.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

One of the best things about working at Reckitt is the ownership and immediate affect you see from your own work. It is also extremely fast faced, absolutely no room to get bored – in fact each time I started to feel comfortable in my role, the business took it as an opportunity to promote onto the next role. Finally, we tend to hire an extremely diverse set of people – which in turn promotes challenging the status quo and continuously trying to innovate.

What are the limitations of your job?

Yes we work extremely hard at Reckitt, and it certainly can consume a lot of your early career and life. The key is to ensure you set your own boundaries with work-life balance. In saying this, my career path has been an extremely mutually beneficial relationship – what I have put into the company and each role has been rewarded back multiple times.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  • You’re young, now is the time to put the energy into your career.
  • If you aren’t happy with something, or think there is a better way – then find the better way and own it, don’t just keep complaining about the process
  • Sponge everything, you have so much to learn. You will enter a business with some of the most intelligent people in the industry, they likely know more than you – so listen and learn.
  • Don’t rush to your next role for the sake of progression – it isn’t important. Refining your skills, gaining breadth of experience and becoming an expert on your account/brand need to be your priority. If you do this, progression will naturally come (faster than you expect it)