FMCG is an industry that I always wanted to be a part of. I believe that it is one of the most lucrative and stabilized industry, an industry which majority of the marketing students like to be part of.
My summer internship was with Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, the manufacturing and distribution arm of The Coca Cola Company in India, which handles 70% of its distribution across India, while the rest is handled by the licensed franchisee bottlers.
Ideally, an internship starts with an induction program, an office tour maybe and an in-depth understanding regarding the work. However, it would be a lie when I say I was not surprised when I was asked to report at the anchor distributor, given a brief about what was supposed to be done for a week and was asked to visit market along with our sales team within an hour of reaching at our base location, and see for self how the work is being done, make notes, generate queries. This is what is expected by the A-class FMCG company, for you to be self-driven to be able to match up with the fast pace of this industry. I was aware that my work was majorly confined with the market, and hence eventually the real-time work would start when we are finally on the grounds but the importance of having an induction program on grounds was a realization which only came to me on the hindsight of it
Internship at HCCB was one of the most enriching as well as most exhaustive experiences that I have had, with contains dealing with various physical as well as mental challenges.
The project was “Channel Program Expansion and Gap Identification”. If I were to put my internship journey in a crisp form, it basically involved 5 phases, from getting an in-depth understanding of the business model, identifying the discrepancies in market execution, rolling out the first ever loyalty program for one of the retail channel of HCCB and state gaps in the of loyalty program with respect to practicality of it in the real-time and finally ending by providing solutions for minimizing these gaps.
Each day at HCCB consist of a set of new learnings and challenges right from conducting various market drives, increasing the off-take of focus products, dealing with scorching heat, covering majority of Delhi by foot etc, however the most challenging among all was to communicate with the retailers effectively, being from the supplier end of one of the merchandise these retailers happen to sell at their outlets, you have to take the raw attitude of the retailers, pacify them at times and make them feel that you are one among them and understand their concerns, this majorly requires your ability to make them feel empathized, while constantly working towards the company’s objective.
Being from Jaipur, and a protected child, I was very apprehensive of the capital with regards to the safety and traveling to different markets, however, the support and consideration shown by the entire sales team of Coke, made my insecurities fade away as we moved ahead in this journey.
In a company as large as HCCB it would have been difficult to have a continuous mentorship, However, there was a well-established mentor and guidance system in place. The attitude of treating an intern as good as an employee, giving them autonomy in the whole learning process and welcoming ideas and recommendations by keenly examining them and implementing them as and when possible makes the entire experience palpable.
Also, the entire environment in HCCB is such that everyone is encouraged to speak their thoughts, be it a sales executive or the zonal sales head, everyone is treated the same, with respect for each other thoughts. One can reach out to any official anytime for support, as the core of HCCB in being the no. one FMCG in sales and distribution lies in being united and executing operations as a team.
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