Recently, I have been called for an interview by this company who called themselves GPS Research Asia. This company is headquarter in Germany. They are a full service research company; specializing in Real Life Shopper Research & Retail Analytics. They work for leading brands in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), providing valuable shopper insights to put their clients into positions of market superiority. For their international activities, they have established offices in Germany, Malta, Russia, Singapore and soon-to-be in Malaysia. The afternoon interview session took place at the Royal Bintang Hotel, at their lobby area (it brought back some fond memories as it was the same place where I had an interview session with Atticus a few years back)…I had the opportunity to meet up with the company’s founder and current CEO Mr. Gerd Palmer and Managing Director Mr. Philipp Stegmann. They were very nice gentlemen and I truly enjoyed the whole interview process. I took a half-day leave that day. It was good to get out from the office clutter and free my mind from all of the work deadlines. Just stepped out to take a breather is so good for the soul :) I like the interview questions that they throw at me. It’s good to stay up-to-date with the latest recruitment process. I can get complacent, take things for granted and being rusty all into one.
The company is looking to established themselves in Malaysia. I think this country is absolutely fantastic for their business module because this country have a very strong shopping culture among its people, the domestic demand is still very vibrant, the local consumption & buying power is still there; especially so in the food sector. It will be good if there are detailed research & analysis data to aid buyers in determine what will be the right assortments to fill up the shelves, the right price point, the right planogram to attract the customers, the right concept to develop, the right promotion, the right sales development, identification on the next market trend etc. Apparently, the Japanese Aeon has hired them to do the initial research on their Grocery section. They do not have a physical office yet but Aeon have offered them that they can use their office in Taman Maluri, Cheras.
If I am hired – my responsibilities will include Generating Shopper Insights and analyzing shopper behavior based on Retailers transaction and customer loyalty card data, Identification of growth opportunities for their Retail and CPG Clients based on insights and development of Shopper Marketing recommendations, Present my analysis and the recommendations to their Retail and CPG Clients and build relationships with key clients, Creating SQL queries and tables based on various requirements, Analyzing Market Trends in the field of Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Consulting of Customers on specific cases. Hey, that’s what I wanted to do :) But I am coming in without a food background, I have always been a non-food person and I told them I would prefer to start in January 2014 as I would like to settle of the BTS, Christmas & CNY projects for this year.
Well, they didn’t call back, so I guess that I did not manage to secure the job after all. It is always a challenge to find a new job at my age, to re-start all over again, but I believe that there are possibilities and opportunities out there.
Be kind to yourself. Don’t be so hard on yourself – Katy Perry
No comments:
Post a Comment