This weekend I was at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. The venue was host to the biggest motorsport property in the UK, the British Superbikes (BSB). The event was different, because as well as being supported by other motorbike classes, BSB hosted the Trofeo Abarth 500 GB, a new one-make car series. It could have all [...]
In 1992 I started a Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne. As well as the compulsory economics and accounting, I also studied marketing and information systems. I didn’t live on campus, instead I travelled by train an hour each way from Mount Eliza to Parkville on the days I had lectures.
Commerce at Melbourne was a competitive course, with an assumption that graduates would work for one of the (then) ‘Big-Six’ accounting firms or one of the trendy management consultancies. Marketing, while a subject on the curriculum, was an add-on, rather than a core business skill.
While at University, I paid for my car and other neccesities by working in a local supermarket. Unlike the produce departments of London in 2008, the fruit and vegetables arrived in waxed boxes from the farms and had to be prepared for sale. No pre-packaged, pre-weighed, barcoded plastic bags of salad mix.
During the summer break before my final year, I was an intern in the Victorian sales office of Procter & Gamble, the global food and groacery marketing company. For several months, I learnt the art of FMCG trade sales by selling Vicks cough and cold remedies during summer to a small territory of rarely visited pharmacies.
