British American Tobacco Australasia (BATA) is one of the most successful FMCG companies in Australia. Most people know BATA from selling tobacco products in a strongly regulated and very competitive market.
I have joined the business as a Marketing Global Graduate and am in my second rotation in the Logistics team. There are many responsibilities in our Logistics team, and our daily assignments encompass warehouse and transport monitoring, third party logistics KPI tracking and management, interstate stock transport management, and managing the intersection of market analysis, innovation, and strategy. . It’s like continuously trying to solve a Rubik’s cube by balancing process efficiency, effectiveness and most importantly supreme customer service.
At present, I am working on a national routing review project. The objective is to ensure that how we service our customers is in line with the continuously evolving market. Such projects enable me to enhance my analytical skill set as well as further develop a sound understanding of the highly interdependent and sophisticated stakeholder network within BATA.
I grew up in Luxembourg, a small country in the heart of Europe with a population of half a million people. After completing my undergraduate studies in Germany and in the UK, I pursued a Master of International Business programme at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Throughout my university life, I made a consistent effort to compliment my education with professional endeavours to test and apply new skills and learnings. These endeavours include internships in marketing departments across several companies and industries, including shipping, transport, investment banking (in Luxembourg), and real estate (in Mexico). My goal throughout this journey has been to identify my passion as well as developing a robust personal and professional skillset.
After finalising my Masters, I decided to apply for the graduate programme with the goal of challenging myself in a though, continuously evolving industry, where I have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from like-minded individuals.
Clearly YES! The BAT ethos embraces diversity to meet the needs of a highly diverse customer and stakeholder network. Diversity encompasses experience, education, thinking, gender, and ethnicity to drive creativity, innovation, and new ways of conducting business. It is exciting to work in a highly dynamic working environment where relevant issues are tackled and analyzed through a myriad of different lenses.
The greatest characteristic of my current role is the overall balance between tasks (data analysis), and working with stakeholders (fine-tuning secondary supply chain strategies). In addition, fresh ideas and new insights are always valued and are considered when coming up with new ways of doing business. It’s a highly dynamic working environment with continuous new challenges where no two days are the same.
BAT successfully implements a 70-20-10 model for learning as well as for personal and professional development. In short, employees should obtain 70% of knowledge/ training from job-related experiences, 20% through interactions with colleagues and line managers and 10% from formal educational events or courses. This results in a great learning/coaching environment while being permanently thrown into deep waters. This approach encourages us to clearly structure career aspirations, and analyse our personal development with key strengths and areas for improvement.