International Competition Provides Students Employment
Sunday October 27, 2013
BY DEENA EL SAFTY
Unilever has launched a project named ‘The Quest’ to identify the top business talents across North Africa and the Middle East.
“We are offering five people the opportunity to join Unilever Future Leadership Program, it’s a fast track program designed to grow fresh graduates into managers through hands-on learning alongside world-class experts,” said Noha El-Mehelmi, Leadership Development Manager for Unilever Mashreq.
El-Mehelmi explained that normally it takes five to eight years for someone to reach a managerial level at Unilever; but, with this leadership program, students are given the opportunity to reach a managerial level in up to three years depending on their performance.
“It’s [a] chance to actually innovate and put your ideas to life and get feedback from people who are actually in the business,” said Ali Badawy, Marketing major at AUC.
According to a presentation sent to the AUC community by the Office of Student Services (OSS), School of Business, the competition includes four phases.
It started with the registration phase, which was open for all students of all majors and classes.
“It is not about the guaranteed internship, recruitment or the trip to [the] Unilever headquarters as much as it’s about the learning experience that even people from the first phase will encounter,” added El-Mehelmi.
El Mehelmi explained that they are not only targeting business students because for a business to be successful, there are many other sectors that play a huge role, such as marketing, human resources (HR), finance, supply chain and customer development. She said that the latter complement each other in any successful business.
“We do not like to categorize students by their major. This is why [The Quest] is open to students from all majors,” said El Mehelmi.
She added that the company aims to recruit individuals who can strengthen their knowledge with teamwork and leadership skills.
The presentation stated that after registration, students from 19 universities from Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Lebanon are placed in the same pool.
The only two universities that are included in The Quest are AUC and The German University in Cairo.
“I am excited about the diversity of students in The Quest as they will provide me with the opportunity to compete on a professional level with qualified students from different backgrounds,” said Perihan Hafez, Finance major.
The OSS described the second phase as ‘Experience Unilever Day,’ which starts today and ends on Nov. 7.
At that point, participants learn to apply theory to the real business world and also spend a day with many business leaders from across the world and gain more experience in the field.
“You don’t always get multinational companies like Unilever that offer you the opportunity to enroll in one of its most prestigious business competitions,” said Badawy.
The next phase, according to the OSS, is the ‘Country Talent Championships,’ which starts on Nov. 24 and ends on Dec. 5.
During that phase, Unilever places students from the same country in teams of five; each team includes variation of majors. The teams compete to solve a real Unilever business case, implementing many aspects of business such as marketing, finance, sales and supply chain.
“Getting a chance to travel, interacting with the managers, seeing what it’s like, being graded by people who actually know what I’m talking about and who have amazing experience in the field, is an amazing opportunity,” said Badawy.
As stated in the presentation, each country’s winning team will then meet in Dubai where they will participate in the ‘NAME Camp.’ Afterwards, they will attain a spot in the ‘Unilever Leadership Internship Program.’
“It really motivates the person to give it their best shot as they can go so far in the competition and make numerous connections a long the way,” added Hafez.
The ‘NAME Camp’ will take place in Feb. 2014. At the camp, 25 competitors will be assessed both individually and as teams. They will be given an entrepreneurship business case and will be expected to solve in their teams of five.
“We have the huge ambition of doubling the size of the business while reducing our environmental impact. To achieve this, we need the best talent,” said El-Mehelmi.
Finally, according to the e-mail, judges from the Unilever board will choose the top team and winning team members will be referred to as ‘management trainees.’
“I think it’s a win-win situation for both the competitors and Unilever; we [acquire] a great experience and they get new employees that will benefit them on the long run,” added Badawy.
Previously, Unilever included AUC in another competition called ‘Ideatrophy’ which was similar to ‘The Quest’, but was a national competition.
