My experience as a management trainee at Diageo -By Drishti Ranjan from NMIMS Mumbai

I have always been fascinated by Diageo and its brands Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, their Royal Challengers IPL team and the famous No.1 Yaari jingle. Being a part of the Placement team at my B-School, I wanted to get Diageo on board for summers and final placements as it was the only big name missing in our list of hiring partners from the Alco-Bev industry. When I first visited their office in UB towers, Bangalore, it was love at first sight! At that very moment, I knew I wanted to see myself working there. However, we couldn’t get them to campus due to certain limitations.

When I started working post my MBA, I came across a job opportunity in Diageo, the best part being that it was their coveted Management Trainee Program. I filled an application form on their company portal, which was followed by a 1-hour long psychometric test. I did not hear from them for a long time and when I had almost given up hope, I received a call from their HR team. They scheduled a zoom interview with the Sales Head of the South region. 

Preparation time

To prepare for my interview, I talked to a couple of my batchmates and seniors who were working in the Alco-Bev industry to understand their sales structure and Go-to-Market route. I read a lot on Diageo and its brands, their key focus areas and their marketing campaigns. My interview mostly revolved around my current work experience as it was also a sales role. There were questions on sales planning, achieving targets, team management, etc. 

I was happy with the interview and was expecting a second call from them, which I received a month later. This time the interview was with the COO of the North region. It was relatively short and covered broad level questions about the industry and its dynamics, and few routine hygiene questions like my personal and professional goals and my achievements in my previous job.

Two weeks later, I received a congratulatory call from the HR while I was on my way to the office and it was one happy moment, the best news I had received in months! I was hired for the Commercial team as a Management Trainee at Diageo in Gurgaon.

How my journey as a management trainee at Diageo started

I received a warm welcome on my first day and met a couple of my B-School seniors too. My orientation was scheduled for a week with multiple sessions revolving around Diageo and its brands, its policies and its different business verticals, which culminated with a market visit. This was followed by a 2-day induction program for all MTs and new joiners in Bangalore, where I revisited their grand workspace, this time as an employee! This induction program was exhaustive and consisted of multiple sessions from leaders of all business verticals, a cocktail making session at the Biere Club with our Brand Ambassador, a visit to our manufacturing plant in Kumbalgodu and finally a market visit. 

The management trainee program at Diageo was flexible and well structured, it was designed to have multiple short stints across sales, customer marketing, sales analytics, finance and strategy. I was also told that as and when a suitable vacancy surfaces, I would be aligned to shadow the person leaving for a smooth transition.

My first project as a management trainee at Diageo 

My first project was in the Customer Marketing team in Delhi for their on-premise channel. (hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants) The objective was to devise an activation plan according to the type of outlet and relevance of the product segment and suggest ways to increase the market share of our brands in the luxury segment. I was provided with all the relevant data and to carry out my own research I did weekly visits to Delhi and met a lot of F&B managers and bartenders to understand the current trends. I successfully finished the project in 2 months, post which I was transitioned to a new role as a Sales Manager for on-premise business in Rajasthan, which was in line with my project.

What I learnt at Diageo

The Alco-Bev being a government regulated and media dark industry, poses its own set of challenges, and one gets to learn a lot. I find this role in particular quite fascinating as it not only involves managing a team and achieving volume targets, but also focuses on driving consumer experiences to build their taste and preference for our brands, especially at the time of a new brand launch or a brand renovation. During the time of the pandemic, we were also working to revive the bars and restaurants by equipping them to operate smoothly in the new normal through our Raise The Bar program.

Recently, Diageo launched an Employee Resource Group aimed to accelerate the inclusion and diversity efforts across functions and I got an opportunity to be a part of this initiative. I can confidently say that I am proud to be a part of Diageo where people are so passionate about its brands, where every opinion matters, every voice is heard, everyone has the freedom to succeed and where hard work and inspired decision making are rewarded regularly.

In a span of 8 months, I have attended multiple virtual award ceremonies, Royal Challengers IPL campaign launch, Johnnie Walker’s 200 years celebration and documentary launch, Careers week, Inclusion week and many more interesting events, true to Diageo’s central purpose of “Celebrating life, Every Day, Everywhere”. 

Check out other related articles 

• The journey of an MT at Hero MotoCorp -By Garima Agarwal from NMIMS Mumbai
• My ecstatic experience as a Management Trainee at Myntra -By Sai Sandeep Yelchuri from IIM Bangalore
• The journey from an MT to Jr Manager, HR at RITES Ltd -By Amit Kumar, IIM Ranchi