Rahul Malhotra

I joined P&G out of campus in a whirlwind of a placement process! The organization’s concern/respect for people came out very strongly in that first day with the kind of questions they asked me in the interviews, the 5 star lunch with the category director, and every subsequent interaction with the HR folks. My first assignment was very meaty with responsibilities for total brand management (current business) as well as leading a multifunctional team on a new line extension! A supportive working environment and strong managers ensured I was trained in the fundamentals even as they threw me into the pool to deliver the strongest I could do. Since then, I can safely say that I have never had an assignment over the past 7 years in P&G that I have NOT liked – despite my tendency to get bored quickly! I have worked in sales in villages of east Uttar Pradesh. Have worked on total country type of management (Sri Lanka & Bangladesh) where I even got first hand experience of government interactions, taxation, cultural nuances of doing business outside India and the impact of macroeconomic policies on my daily life!! In fact, the assignment was so entrepreneurial in nature that our small team managed to double the business in only 12 months with the help of strong regional/global support – something not available to our local competitors. Then, I was sent off to Japan for 3 years where I worked as the only marketing person on an upstream design team that was making products for a $1 billion business in developing markets – GLOBALLY!! I met consumers in Morocco, Argentina, China, Venezuela, Thailand etc. and realized the differences, but still the vast commonalities across distances. The balance of global strategic planning and local “dhandha” management has been outstanding for my personal development and has helped me deliver even stronger results with each assignment. As I benchmark my job content with colleagues out of business school, I can safely say that P&G is miles ahead of others, multinationals included – in terms of respecting/caring for the individual regardless of level and providing a truly meaningful assignment that allows you to go home at the end of the day and say “I achieved SOMETHING today”.

What I like most about P&G:

Despite a 100,000 employees, they have always considered the individual manager as important to the long term growth of the company – investing in me and my training with total confidence that things will pay out in a win-win situation at the end.

The number of capable managers with high responsibility levels can end leading to a “too many cooks” situation which slows decision making.