Friday 8th November 2019
Futures Friday's most recent speaker was Pete Harbour, Unilever Marketing Director for Ice Cream Europe (live from Rotterdam HQ). This was a new experiment that went well, as we connected to a live Skype from Rotterdam; we went for an interview type talk rather than a 20 minute monologue. This flowed much better and was very engaging.

Pete talked about what his role means on a day-to-day basis. He also talked about how he got there via a graduate scheme. What was really beneficial for the students was he linked the Four Ps of Marketing Theory (Price, Promotion, Product and Place) with real world application and added a fifth P, People, as essential for successful marketing. He then went on to talk about different pathways into Unilever.

The best part of the talk was when Pete talked about what he looks for when he is recruiting. He said you have to stand out from the crowd and you have to think about things you have done (at school) which show leadership qualities using sport and extra curricular activities to demonstrate your people skills. He said it’s EQ as much as IQ (emotional intelligence and people skills) He also said Wrekin having a richly diverse and cultured pupil base was a real benefit as they look to recruit people who can work and appreciate different nationalities and cultures! Some of our Sixth Formers are now amending their personal statements to reflect this.

Pete has offered to support any students with questions and has put forward his team to deliver more marketing content to pupils in the future. Feedback from pupils who attended: “fantastic”, “really interesting”.