Abbas Raza

Armed with Engineering and an MBA degree, I joined P&G about 7 years ago. The key reason that swayed my decision at that time was the glimpse of P&G corporate culture that I got during my interview process. P&G came out as a company, which did not have status boundaries, and the whole working atmosphere seemed to be fresh, frank, open and quite disarming. On top, finance career at P&G offered much more variety in terms of professional learning and growth versus a career in say banking or brokerage house. Today, as I look back, I feel that my decision to join P&G stands vindicated. During the last seven years, the company has provided me ample opportunities to work in different areas of finance. Currently, I’m handling financial analysis, profit planning and treasury departments in P&G Pakistan with five managers reporting to me. Before this current assignment, I was sent on an international assignment to P&G Saudi Arabia - three years after joining P&G in Pakistan. That experience was probably one of the most fulfilling and rewarding in my professional life so far. I was assigned the job of Product supply finance and accounting manager in one of the biggest P&G paper plants in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. As the finance manager of the plant, I was fully responsible for financial management of a plant, which supplied paper products to more than 25 countries and employed more than 400 people. At such a big production facility, providing financial leadership to the product supply organization to deliver the cost and working capital targets was an immense learning experience for me. As I look back at my career at P&G, the career progress that I have made so far gives me lot of personal and professional satisfaction. P&G is a sort of company, which lets you chart your way if you have the right mix of initiative, leadership and technical expertise. A new employee in P&G is initially provided the required coaching and guidance and is then usually trusted with lots of responsibility pretty early in the career. If someone is determined to give his/her best shot and has the ability to prove him/herself in the chosen field, the company creates opportunities and open new doors and vistas. The best part of the deal is that it is only performance that determines a person’s growth at P&G and no personal biases or prejudices hinder your progress.