At Mars we have many different business models. Experiencing multiple business models builds perspective, sharpens insights and allows you to share ideas. Business models can be defined in terms of emerging vs mature markets, type of category, e-commerce vs traditional trade, retail vs CPG vs service business, etc.
One of the most rewarding experiences I ever had is navigating different business models. It shapes you and broadens your perspective. I consider myself very lucky having had the opportunity to spend 40% of my time within Mars in developed markets and rest in Emerging markets. Interesting enough that even within both developed and emerging markets there are different business models. Your ability to understand what is unique about the business model, in other words what creates value and what does not, is imperative in creating a sustainable value creation. I found that one of the most challenging part is not to learn about the business model, actually is about “unlearning” what you think you know, and stay curious about doing things in a different way. That does not mean that you do not leverage on your past experience, or not taking positions, on the contrary, you will find that it can be of a great value as long as you stay curious and keeping a growth mindset.
Having managed different business models shaped me in different ways, clearly broaden my perspective, allowing me to look at things from different vintage points, grounded me in way that I am not expected to come with all the answers, actually framing powerful questions is even more critical, that resulted in boosting my confidence and becoming more inclusive leader, embracing differences in both business and people.
Embrace it and enjoy it to the max!
In my career I’ve worked across several business models, prior to Mars I had experience working in Business Advisory services for KPMG and in an infrastructure engineering team consulting for government. Since joining Mars I have worked in the Petcare division and Mars Global Services, both complimenting each other while also presenting very different experiences. In my time in MGS we have also drastically changed our business model: moving from an in-house service center with all tasks performed by Mars associates, to leveraging a 3rd Party provider (Genpact) to execute transactional processes across most of our teams.
In S&F the most powerful tool you have at your disposal is your ability to influence, and the best way to do this is to empathize and understand your stakeholders’ motivations and background in order to present the most compelling argument. Having the direct experience of working in the Petcare business unit has given me invaluable insights into the repercussions of what we do in MGS and how that impacts what our stakeholders in S&F care about the most. This helps ensure we’re prioritizing the most important things effectively, while also allowing me to paint a more compelling story of the meaning behind my team’s work and build engagement.
Similarly, cross pollination of ideas can be very powerful. The way we look at performance analytics in Petcare was very advanced, and I really enjoyed bringing some of those over into MGS, for example converting the “Price-Volume-Mix” sales variance framework to look at Accounts Receivable DSO as “Aging-Sales-Mix”.
From the other side, when I first went from MGS into Petcare, having the deep level of understanding of how our financial systems worked was invaluable in being able to quickly and effectively perform analyses of what was driving overall financial performance, and create guidance on how to course correct.
Moving into MGS raises the bar in terms of what’s at stake every day. Where in Petcare I had time to craft messages and do deep analysis and strategy formation, in MGS you have a much greater direct impact on results. We are directly dealing with customers, vendors and associates payments as well as overall financial systems stability and if anything is going wrong you have to act fast with limited information. This shift in balance from mostly “important, not urgent” to mostly “important, urgent” took some adjustment.
From my time in MGS I have a much greater appreciation for the complexities of our financial systems, software and controls which I will take with me for the rest of my career. Being able to be the expert in the room on these typically “dull” areas of finance for new ventures like setting up new ecommerce platforms, integrating new businesses or transforming our operating models using outsource providers is actually really exciting!
From my time in Petcare, the power of getting the right analytics tools in place to facilitate fast diagnosis and decision making becomes really obvious as time pressures increase. When I first lead the AR function we had some metrics we reported on, but the team barely understood them and the ties to business results. Rebuilding these metrics (and continuing to refine them!) has made them much more useful in both driving the right actions from the team and having the right conversations with our stakeholders.
Across gum and chocolate (Wrigley Czech/Slovakia was an early MW). MGS, shared services.
Willingness to learn and test our of comfort zone. Researching external provocation and look beyond the internal knowns
Know my limit and find experts. Confront the lack of knowledge openly and take required stakeholder onboard by engaging in educations and bring forward the required decision made to support the different business model.
External benchmark seeking, learning from other. Do not accept the first/usual answers, go research and question status quo.
The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It’s about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Experience in this layer empowers Associates to make credible and informed decisions and create value for the business.
Experiences expand your business acumen; they help you understand how Mars works as an organization. In this layer you can demonstrate your ability to make strategic choices and create value in a variety of situations and scenarios. Successful experience in this may demonstrate that you can manage better business outcomes.
The People layer gives you experience in people management, a critical capability for managers and leaders across the organization. If you wish to manage large scale teams, significant experience will be required as part of this people layer.
Gaining experience across Finance pillars will help Associates gain perspective, business understanding and be more credible when making decisions. You build functional skills by gaining experiences in at least two of the three job families within the Finance function (i.e. Innovative Business Partnering, Smart Financial Operations, Enhanced Specialized Services) as well as some experience in the Digital space.
The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).
