My name is Maartje Mom and last year I have done an internship at Pepsi Lipton at the Unilever office in London. Currently, I’m a second-year International Business and Management student. Through some connections in my network I was fortunate to arrange this fantastic internship.
What is Pepsi Lipton?
First, I will tell you briefly how the Pepsi Lipton organization is built up. Pepsi Lipton is an organization that owns and controls the three brands: Lipton Ice Tea, Pure Leaf and Brisk. This organization is a joint venture of the two biggest players in the consumer goods industry. PepsiCo and Unilever combine their strengths in this organization. Unilever enriches this JV with their marketing and tea products expertise. PepsiCo, on the other hand, has a huge supply network and the knowledge of how to use this network as efficiently and effectively as possible. Put differently, together they are more than the sum of their parts. Combining the power and global presence of two companies has enabled the business to flourish over the past few years.
What were your daily tasks at Pepsi Lipton?
Before I define my tasks, I will explain a little bit more about the consumer goods industry first. The consumer goods industry is an extremely dynamic and rapidly changing industry. Supply and demand are constantly changing. Therefore, it is important to keep an eye on customers’ demand at any time. Besides, it is almost just as important to keep an eye on competitors, since all competitors are constantly responding to each other’s products.
“Do not feel sorry to bother people. You have the right to go after the answers of your questions.”
My task was to support the Global Strategy Director. I supported him mainly with competitive analysis. I had to talk to a lot of people from all different departments, to get to know the information flow about competitors. Besides, all the people I met told about their role, responsibilities, tasks, etc. Second, one of my tasks was to find information about Pepsi Lipton’s biggest competitors. I had to search for information about the competitors and then present it.
I will give one example about The Coca Cola Company. They are outgrowing their ‘only Cola’ image. Because other (non-cola) products they possess are growing faster than their cola products, these products will in the end, result in a majority share in Coca Cola’s product portfolio. It is very interesting to see how companies are transforming as a response to trends, competitors and the fast-changing consumer demand. This is therefore interesting information to know about your competitors.
Unfortunately, I am not able to go into more detail concerning my tasks, since this is considered as confidential information.
How do you look back on your internship?
I think I can say that I am quite proud of myself. It was not always easy because I expected a lot from myself because of the companies’ image. Afterwards, looking at that I set the bar that high for myself, I think this has its negatives and positives. It is good to keep yourself sharp and motivated, on the other hand I have learnt to not say this too often to myself. If you want to do it too well, then it will only limit you in being open minded and allowing yourself to come up with new creative ideas. This is a shame if you are writing business plans or trying to come up with solutions. This was because I imposed myself too much pressure. This will not be the case for every student, but still it is something I would like to stress.
But I have met so many interesting people, I got the opportunity to really get to know the insights of big corporate organization, and to develop myself even further. All in all, it was an amazing internship where I have learnt a lot in every sense.
What would your advice be for students who are going to do an internship?
There are a few things that I would to stress, which actually sound very obvious. With these words, I finished my final report:
“Do not feel sorry to bother people. You have the right to go after the answers of your questions.”
“Make use of the expertise of others. Together you know more.”
“Try to understand the core of the problem, before you try to solve it.”
“Be proactive and take the lead if your manager does not have the time to manage you. Manage your manager. “
“I believe that I can contribute something to the company. “
