Team culture at Nestlé

How is it to work with finance for a global company compared to a smaller firm? Is it challenging? Is it possible to change position and work with different areas? How many KitKats do you eat a day? These are some of the questions I usually get when visiting career fairs, or talk to old friends who chose different career paths. The answers are; I don’t know, yes, yes and no comment. But allow me to elaborate.

I am 29 years old, so my first full time position after business school was here at Nestlé; so I can’t speak for the differences to smaller firms. But Nestlé is not just a large company, Nestlé is humongous. Before I joined a few years ago, I thought I knew the brands. Within the first week though, I had been introduced to a different picture: Nestlé is not just Nescafé but also breakfast cereals; not only KitKats but ice cream too; and besides infant formula I had to also familiarize myself with a wide range of candy, many kinds of coffee, soups, funds, chocolate, pet food and fruit smoothies. The list goes on, and even after more than 2 years, this is one of the many things that still make it challenging, yet fun!

One, of course, cannot do everything alone, and the way it works here, is that all of the brands, the ones you know and the ones you don’t, are handled by their own business, or categories. Each category then has marketing and finance representatives – roughly speaking; it differs a little from team to team. Then, naturally, there are the classic service departments like Supply Chain, Sales, HR and Finance.

I work in the latter in a team consisting of only six people. I moved to this team about two years ago, from another finance team focusing on the top line and financial analysis for the account managers. The expected analysis from the account managers was a really challenging and hectic job, but it also allowed me to get to know the products first hand. I carried these experiences with me, and am now responsible, together with my team, for COGS costs of distribution, hedging, cash flow and much more. In other words, I have moved laterally down the P&L (profit & loss statement) to a new area of responsibility. This sort of thing is encouraged as soon as you start here – and within the first month, you have set up a personal plan with your manager, who then knows your expectations and ambitions! Exactly this is what helped me continue my career within the company.

My current team is only a handful of people, but we are five different nationalities from all over the world, and with completely different educational backgrounds and ways of fitting within Nestlé Nordic. Myself, I grew up here in Denmark - attended mostly Danish schools and I live in Copenhagen. So when I come to work, I step into a different world, with different cultures flying in all directions. If you love that kind of workplace, this should be a place of consideration for you.

Even though I have my team, I work with the other finance and supply chain teams on a daily basis, and you quickly adjust to other teams’ way of working and peak seasons, so that you know when you can assist, or get assistance – even if they are not in the office, they are only a phone call away. In summarization, what I really love about this job, is the collaboration – strengthened by differences.