ANNA JONES ON HOW YOU WILL BE CHALLENGED IN A MARKETING ROLE AT MDLZ AUSTRALIA

Thursday, September 01, 2022

The brands. The opportunity to work on a brand like Cadbury, there are not many other brands in Australia & NZ like Cadbury. The delight grows as you actually see the other brands in the ANZ portfolio, your excitement grows, once you appreciate the scale of brands we have. As a marketer, the opportunity to innovate and have the ability to influence the direction of the brand’s trajectory, uncovering insights and consumer needs, through to delivering a physical product, it’s become quite rare, this breadth of responsibilities for many marketers in Australia.

Within MDLZ ANZ Marketing, there is a very high calibre of talent in the business. The access to specialised expertise across pricing, point of buying, revenue, category, insights, media, equity is quite unique. Access to amazing talent to support our initiatives, which is again quite rare.

The culture of the Marketing community – and it really is a community - we share knowledge on brands that we have worked on, or that intersect. There is a sense of passing the baton, several custodians who leverage each other’s experiences and knowledge, sharing of brand history and storytelling.

Joined in a Regional Innovation role, then Candy, Growth Hub, Easter Innovation and Cadbury Favourites and now Marketing Manager Seasonal, all over a 5 year period.

What has been the highlight/s (projects) for you?

Definitely bringing the Pascall brand back into growth in Australia and NZ. The expectation was that it may be retired, and after working closely with the consumer insights team, its role became clearer and clearer. We developed a strategy for the portfolio, an innovation led strategy, locally relevant, and we were able to influence the trajectory of the brand and re-ignite consumers love for the Pascall brand.

What do you think people can expect from a career with MDLZ?

A diversity of experience, ability to share your own journey is really important, getting exposure to new experiences, ability to have a unique and personalised experience, dependent on your passion and development points. You can build your own adventure.

Cross-functional and lateral moves, are big drawcards, we can explore sales roles, or move from finance into sales, the access to cross functional development is unique.

Younger colleagues can make international moves, others that wish to remain local, there are so many opportunities for career progression locally without leaving the company, as we have the scale and growth, generally in an 18 month cycle. The more ambitious younger colleagues feel confident that they will get the opportunities.

What is unique about working in Marketing at MDLZ?

• You are empowered to impact brand trajectory
• A very diverse marketing team
• Presence of very specialised experts to learn from and leverage
• A group of critical thinkers with broad and diverse experience
• Marketing owns the brand, and it’s P & L
• Accountability for the portfolio to ensure it delivers to profitability targets
• Execution of plans, ATL and BTL
• Not just about producing adverts, its end-to-end ownership
• And on top of all of this, the ability to influence NPD pipelines through constant portfolio renovation and innovation

What does flexibility mean for you?

Initially I was working in a regional model & learnt quite quickly reporting to someone in India, with lots of time in regional calls, after hours, how to find a groove, & would manage time in day to meet all commitments flexibly, both kids and work.

We are set up well as a business, to work across different locations and time zones, well-tuned to delivering results as remote teams. It’s well embedded and it’s a mature and sophisticated approach to flexibility. Feeling empowered and trusted is the default, people over deliver, inspired by being empowered, people take pride, positive choices.

What does career development and learning, mean for you at MDLZ?

A lot of the rich learning comes from on the job, cross functional opportunities, learning from functional experts. 75% is on the job, shadowing, cross functional moves.

How would you describe the working culture here?

• Sense of co-ownership, stewardship, community
• Healthy attitude, working towards the common good of the business
• Psychological safety, high level of trust
• Not under threat of criticism, not singled out, not a culture of blame
• Leadership team takes ownership of a situation

What advice do you have for someone considering an opportunity with MDLZ? You should be willing to be challenged, in terms of scale , speed, complexity, breadth, but also be prepared for a period of great personal and professional growth