Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Jana Cain and I (Grace Yokoi) spent a few days in LA over the summer meeting with companies and alumni in consumer retail. Company sizes varied: very large /public, large/private, medium-sized/growing, very small. Below are our insights.

THE HONEST COMPANY

We met with the head of HR and Facilities, who gave us a company overview. As of July, the company was 235 employees across LA, Ontario (fulfillment), and Austin (call center). Their original line was “essentials”, comprised of 17 products. They have been growing product lines (oral care, vitamins, cleaning products). In June 2012 they launched as an ecommerce/subscription business, but in April 2013 started a push into retail (Target, Costco, with limited products).

They’ve been focused on senior-level hiring to build out some of their functions. They look more for skills and functional capabilities than they do a CPG background. The interns they’ve had so far have gotten connected either through their investors, or through referrals from friends. This summer there was a Wharton intern in the operations team who focused on two things: potential expansion, and processes/procedures for sourcing materials. This intern had this locked down in February.

They are looking into expanding into a more formal recruiting program, but will still rely heavily on word-of-mouth and internal referrals. Recruitment for any new opportunities will begin in late January.

MOONFRYE

(See the latest news on them) Kara Nortman (MBA ’04) welcomed us to the Moonfrye office, showed us their products, and talked to us about the business. What was important to her in starting the company was to work on a technology-enabled business that allowed women to do things that are most meaningful to them. They target the “party city snob”– moms who want to have high-quality parties for their children but are short on time. Their competitors are Party City, Oriental Trading, and Party Express. This meeting was important to us not only because of the potential for internships, but also because we know Kara to be an amazing mentor and manager. This was apparent in how she treats her 15 employees: she has recognized their talent and promoted them very quickly into big roles.

NESTLE

At Nestle we met with a recruiter to learn more about their MBA hiring. Nestle as an entity is broken out into five divisions that all recruit and operate autonomously:

• Nestle Purina
• Nestle Nutrition/Life Sciences, which includes Gerber
• Nestle Water
• Nestle Professional (which services restaurants and other commercial accounts)
• Nestle USA (pretty much all of the food)

The bulk of Nestle USA’s recruiting effort is focused on internships. It has just one graduate program, in Marketing. The great news for GSB students is that Nestle has moved away from core versus non-core recruiting and now takes a more digital approach to attract talent. They post to approximately 19 school job boards as well as host webinars. Recruiting gets in full swing from November to January, with final round interviews taking place in February.

Interns are placed in one of the three US hubs – Glendale, CA, Ohio, and Oakland, CA. Internship candidates must have US Work Authorization. For full-time hiring, interested candidates should check the Nestle careers website. They are open to hiring new MBAs that did not do a CPG internship.

ROLL GLOBAL

Roll Global is a privately-held business of POM Wonderful fame (they do a lot more than that). We started our morning by meeting with the Director of Strategy from Roll Global’s strategy consulting group – the group in which all new MBA hires start. The  group is largely comprised of ex-consultants and is used as a pipeline to supply to talent to the other business groups in the company. Once candidates have spent roughly 2 years in  the group they can then move on to brand-based projects throughout the company.

New this year will be opportunities for MBAs in the marketing function. Interested candidates will need to have an extensive marketing background to be considered a good fit.

BEYOND MEAT

After a full morning of traveling back and forth across the valley, we were thrilled to meet with one of the co-founders of Beyond Meat. Founded as an 100% plant-based meat alternative, this is a truly innovative company that is growing quite rapidly. They launched their branded product in 2013 and were already getting picked up by Whole Foods and Safeway as of early July 2014. Their focus continues to be exclusively on meat (no prepared foods).

They don’t have any full-time MBA hires yet, though they did have two MBA interns (gotten through networking/referrals). They are likely to begin recruiting in the spring.

TIEKS by Gavrieli

Although Tieks have been a bit too pricey for Jana and me, we were excited to reconnect with the founder, MBA ’08 Kfir Gavireli. We were inspired by his story of bootstrapping (to this day) his company and being very focused on the web-only fashion brand. He spoke to us of the early days and all he had to learn, as well as the challenges of manufacturing and building relationships with factories. He works with his sister and brother-in-law, and have 42 employees. He hasn’t thought it makes sense to hire on any MBAs without direct, relevant, applicable experience, but he is a wealth of knowledge on the industry and was very generous with his time. It was one of my favorite meetings.

NASTYGAL

Grace and I were quite impressed when we arrived at the Nastygal offices. Truly a hidden gem in a classic (read: nondescript) highrise in downtown L.A., the Nastygal offices looked and felt more like a Silicon Valley startup than an apparel manufacturer. We met with a member of Nastygal’s People and Culture (HR) team to get the inside scoop on how the company attracts and retains talent. 

First and foremost, all hiring at Nastygal happens just-in-time, including internships. Internships are paid  but they’re not MBA specific and are only part-time (2-3 days per week). The team is looking into the feasibility of a more formal program that could incorporate a full-time offer at the end. On the full-time side, they do have a year long strategy externship for MBAs, which can be a good fit for an ex-consultant. Once inside the company, the People and Culture team runs the “Summer School Program”, which encourages employees to hold skills training workshops for each other.

Nastygal sources most of their hires from LinkedIn and internal referrals. They’d also be happy to accept resumes from the CMC, so if you’re interested in learning more about open opportunities, let Grace or I know!

TOMS SHOES

The HR folks we met asked us many questions on how a summer internship might be structured to be valuable to MBA students. They have just started thinking this through, and want it to be a great experience for students. They talked about the company as very fast-moving, where priorities change quickly. They had 9 summer interns (not MBA) this year. Each intern worked in a specific area (supply chain, sales, marketing, ecommerce, etc) and they also all did a group project together. We look forward to seeing where they will go with regards to MBA recruiting.

NEUTROGENA

We met with Megan Williams (GSB ‘09), who is currently a Brand Manager. Megan provided some valuable insight into Neutrogena’s recruiting. First and    foremost, the company relies heavily on their internship classes to fill their full-time hiring needs. Once on board, however, interns are not guaranteed to get a full-time offer for the same location where they did their internship.

Neutrogena recruits heavily from the diversity conferences, so it is recommended that candidates connect at one of the large fall conferences in advance of applying. The application process begins with the online application to Johnson & Johnson, indicating a location preference. The company will look outside of their intern pool for full-time roles if they have more open roles than qualified intern candidates.

DISNEY CONSUMER PRODUCTS

We met with our recruiter at the Disney Consumer Products corporate offices in Glendale. After touring the offices and viewing the upcoming product releases, Joel shared information about Disney’s consumer products group and their recruiting process.

Disney Consumer Products works closely with their publishing group to leverage Disney storylines into consumer products for the public. The product portfolio not only includes toys, games and apparel, but also additional books and publications as well as digital media (apps, online games, etc). MBAs hired into the Consumer Products group could work in any one of those product categories.

All of Disney’s hiring from the GSB will be handled through one central point person. This will be for all roles (corporate, studios, ABC, ESPN, etc). Full-time roles tend to be just-in-time hires. Internship recruiting will begin in late fall into winter.

MATTEL

Ashley Lewis (MBA ’12) is on the global brand team for Barbie at Mattel. She loves the job as it’s a blend of creative and analytical. The global brand teams set the strategy for the product, and pricing, and think about what the line should look like. They work with the design team and engineers to create the line. Ashley got the fulltime job by networking with a friend of a friend who worked at Mattel. Mattel does not seem to have much of an on-campus presence anywhere; they buy the resume books for Anderson, Booth, Marshall, and Vanderbilt (likely because they have strong alumni representation there). Our advice would be to talk to Ashley if you are interested in Mattel.

Last week, 20 of our club’s members traveled to Specialized and Clif for an OA-led Career Trek. We had an awesome visit to both companies and learned a lot about their respective business models, products, and job opportunities. Below, please find the notes from our day so that you can learn more about these two adventuresome, innovative businesses!

Clif is a privately owned company that has chosen to operate independently despite acquisition offers in the past.  They currently operate under five bottom lines; brand, business, planet, people, and community, through which they filter all of their decisions and actions. As a company they are committed to providing quality products with quality ingredients. In the past several years, Clif has expanded rapidly, adding healthy snack products, among other categories, to their well-known performance products line (Clif Bar, Builder Bar, and Clif Shot Blocks).  Clif, like many successful companies, emphasizes their people. In this light, they define how they want to come to work, and the five ingredients for success, ingrained in their culture, are create, inspire, connect, own-it, and be yourself.

On a tour of the building, we visited their on-site gym and rock wall, while learning about their amenities, such as free personal training, that are open to all employees. The company as a whole has turnover of less than two percent, which indicates the dedication of their employees. The building also contains a kitchen where all recipes are imagined and tested.  The new building, decorated with bikes and canoes on the ceiling and Clif products everywhere, is in an open layout, encouraging people to be spend time together and be active, which in general are principles that many OA Club members are sure to appreciate in the busy lives that we lead.

The CMC loves sponsoring Club Career Treks!! We are excited to post this great recap of the Brewers Guild Trek to an AB InBev brewery in Fairfield written by Samantha Shiells!

 On Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 4 MBA1s and 4 MBA2s traveled to the AB InBev brewery in Fairfield, CA to meet with its brewmaster, Scott Ungermann. This Career Trek was co-sponsored by the Brewers Guild and the CMC and was designed to enable participants to learn more about the “business of brewing”.

While touring the facility, the students asked questions of Scott, who provided insight into the brewery’s operations and processes. They observed all steps of the brewing process, from the raw ingredients through bottling, and gained insight into the impact of technological advancement in ensuring a quality, consistent product. After the tour, participants had the opportunity to sample some of the beers at various stages of production, experiencing first-hand the different flavor profiles produced by the processes described to them on the tour.

They also had the opportunity to discuss the brewing industry at a high level as well as AB InBev’s strategy in the marketplace.  AB InBev maintains multiple brands across multiple different markets — domestically and internationally.  This presents a host of challenges, from maintaining consistency in flavor at dozens of distributed breweries to managing shifting demand patterns across markets.  However, AB InBev’s size is also a strength, as it gives it flexibility that smaller brewers lack; for example, to make up for temporary deficits in one production area with product shipped in from another.

The contrasts between small and large breweries were numerous.  Aside from the sheer scale of the operation, one other notable difference was the level of technology used in the production and packaging processes.  AB InBev’s brewery had a control room staffed by four people with computers monitoring every phase of the brewing process.  Though we were surprised to learn that, even at Fairfield, some steps are still performed manually, much of the process is automated.  Smaller breweries often lack this level of sophistication — partly because it is expensive and partly because it is not strictly necessary when producing smaller batch sizes. Finally, Scott shared his personal career path from student to AB InBev brewmaster.

After the trek, participants left with better understanding both of the brewing industry from a global perspective as well as of the operations of an individual brewery. Those students who had also participated in other Brewers Guild treks were able to contrast the AB InBev experience to what they had seen at smaller, craft breweries, gaining a fuller picture of the differences and similarities between breweries of various types.

 The CMC can help provide funding for career-related club treks. If you are interested in learning more, please click here. Trek proposals can be submitted via this form. 

…the easiest thing would be to come talk to me. I had a conversation with Chad Smith ’05 this summer, and more recently with the VP of HR. It’s hard to get the nuances right in a blog, so if you would seriously consider it as a career option talk to me. Some salient points of our conversations below:

FROM HR:

• The hq is in San Juan Batista, and anyone joining would likely at least be there for a while (a few years?). They do have a Palo Alto office that is focused on marketing, but the heart of what they do is further south…and anyone joining the company would need to really have a good sense for the operations.
• They are small but growing (1200 employees, 800 of whom are seasonal). They are just now trying to figure out how HR supports the growth, both from a hiring and an organizational perspective. There has been no real training and development program and no formalized internship programs.
• Successful people have the attitude of “nothing is beneath me”.
• Interesting facts: they do private label stuff (eg, Safeway’s Organics) and they have *no* outbound logistics– all of their customers come to them.

FROM CHAD:

• Until early August (when I talked to him) Chad was in charge of all packaging (eg, model costs for all packaging suppliers). He’d just hired his replacement and his role was going to change. They were/are in the midst of creating a spin-off that he’d head up.
• They have been launching new products outside of the traditional space, things such as processed purees, frozen foods, juice, cookies, granola, trailmix.
• They are PE-owned (and will likely IPO soon). They finally feel as though they have the capacity to offer jobs.
• Locations are San Juan Batista, Arizona, Palo Alto. CEO Charlie Sweat has ties to the GSB through an executive program.
• ADVICE TO STUDENTS:
• If you’re interested in running a company get involved in the day-to-day operations. You’re better able to articulate your value to the enterprise.
• Don’t be dependent on others to implement your ideas– that makes you vulnerable.
• If you have ideas and can back it with analysis, you will gain more and more responsibility. This is true for any consumer packaged goods company.
• Valued skills:  industry experience, data-driven analysis (being able to analyze what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis using data), sales (highly values– roles lead to senior exec roles quickly; “if you get accounts and grow accounts you will move up quickly”)
• The culture: “People mistake us for having a hippy culture…we’re a bottom-line driven business and an agricultural business. Farming *is* very bottom-line driven– you need to be savvy.  The reason we’re able to do what we do– operate responsibly and connect with the community– is that it enables us to make more money.” Culture is “friendly, but if you don’t get the job done you won’t last long”.

Revolution Foods has become somewhat of a staple in my conversations with students interested in healthy food, and Jen Paragallo (Director of Business Innovation) has become somewhat of a fixture in student-food-career conversations. I had a chance to chat with her this summer about her job search, and promised her I’d blog about it in hopes that I could answer some FAQs that students direct to her.

But first, a bit about what she’s doing…when I spoke with her she’d been there for 2 months and had just hired the first person on her team.  Her title is now Director of Business Innovation. She is effectively the GM of a new line of business (and one that she hasn’t had experience in…but sounds like is taking the bull by the horns). Her mandate was to launch it by September 15th…and she’s been travelling non-stop to get it going. (more…)

Nathalie McGrath, Laura Moore (Development Office) and I traveled up to Seattle to meet with our recruiting partners at Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, and Maveron (VC firm). This summer we have quite a few interns working in Seattle. It was a great opportunity for us to hear about their plans for recruiting next year and get a sense of the job climate.

We also had a small networking event from alumni and MBAs where we got the inside scoop on corporate culture, internship programs, and living in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is a beautiful city with great food, fantastic views, and easy access to recreation.

If you have company suggestions for future Seattle meetings, we’d love to hear them! Simply comment on this blog.

Here are a few notes from the field.

Starbucks

• Looking  to re-start an MBA intern program, hopefully hire more interns next year
• Starbucks is run by categories. Food, Merchandise, Espresso drinks, Blended drinks. Each category has their own marketing team.  There is also an international team
• Focus on Seattle’s Best brand so lots of potential hiring in that group

Microsoft

• Love fresh ideas from innovative MBAs. Continue to target Stanford MBAs with tech, marketing, finance background
• Full time hiring typically happens just in time
• Hire from Wharton, Sloan, HBS, GSB
• Looking for MBA’s interested in returning to China after a few years in US

Amazon

• Lab126 will continue to hire MBA’s (in Bay Area)
• Want more Stanford MBAs – especially those excited to move to Seattle area
• Alumni there have been able to move groups within company

Maveron

• 3 investment people in the Seattle office, 2 in the SF office
• Fund was started in 1998 by Howard Schultz – 1^st investment was eBay
• Areas specialize in: Web consumers services, Financial services, Education, Wellness, Retail