Seven IE students participated in the P&G Future Female Leaders Sales Edition 2017

The day after celebrating International Women’s Day, on March 9th, 2017 Procter & Gamble invited young professional women to Madrid to take part in a recruitment initiative for the Sales department, where generally a female talent shortage is experienced. Seven IE students from the IE University as well as from our International MBA and Master in Management programs were selected to participate; one of them, Ilaria Pellegrini, IE Master in Management 2017 candidate, has shared with us her experience.

“After receiving an e-mail announcement from IE Talent and Careers, I applied on P&G’s website and was selected as a participant. For the second edition of the P&G Future Female Leaders event, the company invited 20 participants from Portugal and Spain for a day of activities and networking with leaders from the Sales department.

The day started off with a breakfast at the amazing Silk and Soya restaurant in La Moraleja for us to get to know each other and meet the HR team that selected us.  Later, we were split into groups and took part in a “speed dating” activity, having the chance to interact for 15 minutes with Sales leaders from different roles such as Shopper Based Design, Country Leaders, Market Strategy and Planning, as well as with the interns selected after last year’s edition. Later we engaged in a “Retail Safari”, during which we visited the Al Campo store nearby and observed best and worst sales practices implemented by the store owners, which we discussed in the debrief that we had afterwards. A networking lunch and offices visit followed. The last activity included a session regarding how the digital transformation is impacting the process of selling and the behaviors of shoppers: for example, shoppers now check goods online before going to the store or buying directly online – therefore, the importance of an omnichannel strategy, the business model according to which companies must be present and create a customer experience in all distribution channels.

Vannesa Prats, the Director of Sales, gave a closing speech to motivate us to continue in P&G’s selection process and empower women because “If I shop, I can sell!”. All the participants will soon be interviewed for an internship opportunity in the Sales department.”