Module Title: Crafting Your Future: Professional Practice and Research

Module Code: BUS113

Student Name:

Student ID:

Word Count: 3376

Table of Contents
Table of Figures..............................................................................................................................iii

Executive Summary........................................................................................................................iv

Research Essay................................................................................................................................1

Introduction..................................................................................................................................1

Research Aim...............................................................................................................................1

Research Questions......................................................................................................................1

A Brief Background of the FMCG Industry of the UK...............................................................2

Literature Review.........................................................................................................................4

Analysis, Discussion and Critical Evaluation Section.................................................................6

How the UK FMCG Industry Requires Specialized Skillset and Its Place in terms of
Opportunities for Developing Career in this Field...................................................................6

Required Creative and Ethical Leadership Skills in the UK FMCG Industry.........................7

Digital Showcase of Self-Reflection...............................................................................................8

Analysis of My Journey-..............................................................................................................8

What Happened to my Journey?..............................................................................................8

What Assumptions did I Make?...............................................................................................8

What do these Assumptions Show about Myself and My Skills?............................................8

What are the Alternative Ways of Looking at the Problem?...................................................9

Action-.........................................................................................................................................9

What Actions Would I Take to Improve?................................................................................9

How can I Learn from What has happened?..........................................................................10

How would I Respond if This Happened Again?...................................................................10

Personal Development Plan...........................................................................................................11

A. Personal Analysis................................................................................................................11

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 B. Setting Goals.......................................................................................................................12

C. Personal Objectives............................................................................................................14

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15

References......................................................................................................................................16

Table of Figures
Figure 1: Segments of the UK FMCG Industry...............................................................................3
Figure 2: Porter's Five Forces Analysis of UK FMCG Industry.....................................................4
Figure 3: PEST Analysis of the UK FMCG Industry......................................................................5
Figure 4: Personal SOAR Analysis...............................................................................................11
Figure 5: Personal Goal-Setting.....................................................................................................13
Figure 6: Personal Objectives........................................................................................................14

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Executive Summary
This report is divided into three segments such as research essay, a digital showcase of self-
reflection and a personal development plan (PDP). The research essay segment has conducted
some background analysis of the FMCG industry of the UK; provided a literature review and;
also did some discussion and critical evaluation based on the above analysis. The self-reflection
segment has analysed my personal journey and some future actions. Finally, the personal
development plan (PDP) segment has discussed my personal analysis, goal setting table and
personal objective table.

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Research Essay
Introduction
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, also known as Consumer Packaged Goods
(CPG), is a fast-paced and immensely competitive industry and; is also the multi-million-pound
and fastest-growing sector of the UK (Das, 2019). Many of the biggest brands of the world are
from the FMCG industry and this industry includes products like beverages, foods, toiletries,
confectionery, household goods and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals (Bodhankar, 2020). As a
successful and one of the most dynamic industries of the UK, it is full of opportunities for
successful career development. Here, this report will identify the career-building opportunities in
the FMCG industry; do a self-reflection study and; will finally create a personal development
plan (PDP).

Research Aim
To create a career development plan to enter the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
industry of the UK.

Research Questions
Broader Question- How a career can be developed in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods
(FMCG) industry of the UK?

Specific Questions-

 What is the current scenario of the FMCG industry of the UK?

 What are the skills required to enter this industry?
 How will my current skills and experiences be helpful to enter this industry?
 How will I enhance my current skills and experiences?
 What is my personal development plan (PDP) to enter this industry?

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A Brief Background of the FMCG Industry of the UK
The FMCG industry of the UK consists of many services such as manufacturing, retailing and
distributing. UK’s FMCG industry is the largest manufacturing sector of the country accounting
for 14% of all manufacturing goods of the UK and the country currently has thousands of FMCG
companies that have created employment for millions of people (Cui, 2020). UK’s FMCG
industry currently worth £110 billion; its export value is £18 billion and import value is £38.5
billion and; currently, UK’s leading FMCG trading partners are France, Germany, Spain and the
USA (Francis, 2020). Some of the biggest FMCG brands of the UK are Reckitt Benckiser,
Diageo, British American Tobacco (BAT), Associated British Foods etc. The FMCG industry of
the UK is divided into a few segments according to their different product categories and the
background information of these segments are discussed below.

Segments of the UK Background Information

FMCG Industry
Food and Beverages There are around 10,000 food and beverage businesses in the UK,
creating employment for over 450,000 individuals; and according to a
study, every year the UK spends around £230 billion for food and
beverages and around 140,000 new recruits will be needed by 2024 to
satisfy the needs of the UK’s growing population (DEMİR and
ISTANBULLU DİNCER, 2020).
Personal Care The UK is one of the leading cosmetic consumers in Western Europe
and the country’s cosmetics boom happened in 2017 when its cosmetics
sector’s market value reached £9.8 billion. The leading destination for
UK exports of toiletries, soap and cosmetics is European Community
and in 2019, the country's toiletry and cosmetics import from the EU
was £2.6 billion, export was £3.6 billion and the expenditure of the UK
in this sector was £32.9 billion (Knaggs, 2020).
Household Goods The FMCG industry of UK includes the non-durable packaged
household goods and in 2020, UK spent £4.02 billion on non-durable
household goods. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sales of non-
durable household goods reached their peak in the 2nd quarter of 2020,
with a sale of £1.14 billion (Gong et al., 2020).

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 Over-the-counter Over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals refer to the drugs that can be
Pharmaceuticals sold without a professional's prescription. In 2020, the UK's
expenditure on OTC drugs was £2.63 billion where pain relief drugs
were the highest sold OTC drugs with a sale of £660 million, followed
by £500 million sales of vitamins and minerals (Melbin, 2020).
FIGURE 1: SEGMENTS OF THE UK FMCG I NDUSTRY

Source: (Cui, 2020)

Literature Review
According to Shirur (2019), the competitive environment of the FMCG sector is determined by
the intensity of the threat of new entrants, threat of new substitutes, rivalry among the existing

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competitors and the bargaining power of suppliers and the bargaining power of customers. So,
many industry analysts suggested conducting a Porter's Five Forces Analysis to understand the
competitive environment of the UK FMCG industry.

Factors of Porter’s Description

Five Forces
Threats of New According to Corstjens et al. (2019), the FMCG industry of the UK
Entrants requires high economies of scale, high cost of brand development and
low brand switching costs for new entrants and therefore the overall
threat of new entrants in the UK FMCG industry is weak.
Threat of New Francis (2020) argued that the low brand switching costs and the high
Substitutes availability of substitutes have made the threat of new substitutes in the
UK FMCG industry moderate.

Rivalry among Barin (2020) claimed that the high number of firms, the high
Competitors aggressiveness of firms and the low switching costs have intensified the
competition among the FMCG firms of the UK.

Bargaining Power of Bala and Kumar (2019) stated that the moderate population of FMCG
Suppliers suppliers, moderate size of individual suppliers and moderate overall
supply have made the bargaining power of suppliers in the UK FMCG
sector moderate.
Bargaining Power of According to Dr. B. RAJASEKARAN and P. A. SARAVANAN
Customers (2019), the moderate size of suppliers, high quality of
information and the low brand switching costs have made the
bargaining power of customers a strong force in the UK FMCG
industry.
FIGURE 2: PORTER'S FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS OF UK FMCG I NDUSTRY

Source: (Shirur, 2019)

Diehl et al. (2019) argued that Porter’s Five Forces Analysis can only measure the competitive
environment of an industry, however, this analytical tool cannot analyze the changes and trends
faced by the industry. Hamister (2018) supported them by further adding that a PEST analysis

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which includes the factors such as Political, Economic, Social and Technological is capable of
analyzing the changes and trends of the UK FMCG industry.

Factors of PEST Description

Analysis

Political According to Barin (2020), the Brexit has created some disturbance in the
smooth import and export operations between the UK and the EU
countries and; as there is also a recent announcement of the increase of the
UK corporate tax rate from 19% to 25% from 1st April of 2023, the
operation costs of the UK FMCG companies are expected to increase in
coming years.
Economic Cui (2020) stated that despite suffering the economic crisis from the
pandemic, UK is still one of the five most largest-economies in the world
with a GDP of £1.96 trillion and; last year, the UK government has also
lowered the interest rates from 0.25% to 0.1% for ensuring sufficient
economic supports for the UK businesses during this pandemic.
Social Bodhankar (2020) argued that the people of the UK prefer those FMCG
companies that use sustainable packaging; use materials from sustainable
sources and also maintain environmentally sustainable manufacturing
process.
Technological Pellé (2020) added that the e-commerce platform has become the most
successful FMCG distributing platform in this pandemic and people of the
UK currently prefer purchasing FMCG products mostly from home
through the web, mobile applications and social media platforms.
FIGURE 3: PEST A NALYSIS OF THE UK FMCG I NDUSTRY

Source: (Hamister, 2018)

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Analysis, Discussion and Critical Evaluation Section
How the UK FMCG Industry Requires Specialized Skillset and Its Place in terms of
Opportunities for Developing Career in this Field
The FMCG industry of the UK is one of the largest employers in the country, creating jobs for
millions of people, however, this sector requires individuals to develop some specialized skills to
go a long way in this field and the required specialized skills are discussed below.

Interpersonal Skills: An individual who wants to work in an FMCG firm in the UK is required
to have good interpersonal skills to ensure a good relationship with the team members and
colleagues and also, to ensure great customer service for clients (Ohlsson and Borg, 2017).

Time Management Skills: Some time management skills such as organizing, goal-setting,
prioritization, planning, communication, stress management etc. are required for managing time
properly and ensuring the completion of the assigned projects within the given period of time.

Creativity: FMCG employees require to have the skills of creative thinking and innovation so
that they can introduce new products to the customers and gain a competitive advantage in the
market.

Analytical Skills: FMCG employees require to have analytical skills which include the skills
like attention to detail, decision-making skill, critical thinking ability and researching skill to
successfully analyse the market data and design the next project plans (Westbrook, 2019).

Technological skills: Individuals who want to work in the FMCG sector of the UK, must have
digital marketing skills as, nowadays, digital marketing platforms are becoming the most popular
platforms among FMCG customers for their convenience of purchasing products from home.

FMCG firms of UK require creativity and innovation to stand out among the competitors and;
besides, time management, customer service, successful project plans all are important for an
FMCG firm of UK to become successful in the race with the competitors and that’s why every
FMCG firm of UK looks for those individuals who have the above-mentioned skills and
therefore those skills are very crucial to grab career opportunities in the FMCG sector of the UK.

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Required Creative and Ethical Leadership Skills in the UK FMCG Industry
Leadership skills are important for FMCG employees to effectively communicate with their team
members, direct them in the organizational goal achievement process, motivate them and also
maintain a peaceful workplace environment by solving the arisen problems and conflicts of the
workplace. The required creative and ethical leadership skills for the FMCG industry of the UK
are discussed below.

Creative Leadership: Creative leadership involves creating and implementing innovative

solutions, that are new or still unknown to the majority of people, for workplace problems. As
there are a lot of competitors in the FMCG industry of the UK, every company tries to
implement a unique solution to the common workplace problems to gain a competitive
advantage in the market and creative leadership which includes insight skill, understanding skill,
strategic thinking skill, is a type of leadership that can bring this competitive advantage to the
companies (Lawson, 2018).

Ethical Leadership: Ethical leadership involves maintaining ethical codes, ethical beliefs,
honesty, trust and fairness in the operations of a company and as, nowadays, customers prefer
those firms who maintain ethics in their operations, it is very important for the FMCG companies
of the UK to give strong consideration to the ethical leadership skills to survive in the market
(Mohamad, 2019).

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 Digital Showcase of Self-Reflection
Analysis of My Journey-
What Happened to my Journey?
In today’s business world, the FMCG industry is one of the most competitive industries and
therefore it will be very difficult for me to develop a career in this field as a fresh graduate if I do
not gather any practical experience in this field along with my graduate degree. And this
competitiveness in the FMCG industry made me do a part-time job in a small FMCG company in
the UK where I worked as a sales assistant. My responsibilities as a sales assistant included
assisting and advising customers; transaction with customers; handling customer complaints;
stock management and assisting with store deliveries (Ohlsson and Borg, 2017). These
responsibilities made me understand how an FMCG company communicate and make successful
transactions with customers and try to gain a competitive advantage over competitors, however, I
faced some difficulties in communicating with some customers and also in handling some
customer complaints due to my lack of experience in this field.

What Assumptions did I Make?

My work experience in the FMCG company of the UK has helped me make some assumptions
regarding how this industry works and the assumptions are given below.

 Customer insight is very important for the FMCG companies of the UK as the trends in human
behaviour determine the effectiveness of a product or service.
 Sustainable business practices which include sustainable packaging, using materials from
sustainable sources and sustainable manufacturing processes, are important for the FMCG
companies of the UK to gain a competitive advantage in the market (Shirur, 2019).
 Availability on digital marketing platforms is a must for every FMCG company in the UK to
secure its market position for the future as the young generation of the UK now highly prefer
online platforms for their daily purchases.
 Requesting customer feedback and handling customer complaints properly is important for the
FMCG companies of the UK to create positive reputations in the market.

What do these Assumptions Show about Myself and My Skills?

My assumptions made me understand that I have to go a long way for developing my career in
the FMCG industry of the UK as I still do not have the proper skills and experiences required for

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working in this field. Currently, I have academic knowledge that I am gaining through my
current degree from Icon College of Technology and Management and also have some
technological skills, some basic knowledge on digital marketing and a moderate knowledge on
sales management, however, these pieces of knowledge are not enough for career development.
Therefore I need to enhance my knowledge on analyzing customer insights, interpersonal skills,
strategic thinking skills and analytical skills for developing a career in the FMCG industry of the
UK (Westbrook, 2019).

What are the Alternative Ways of Looking at the Problem?

While working as a sales assistant in an FMCG company in the UK, I faced some issues with
customer management, however, this problem can be viewed from alternative perspectives and
the perspectives are discussed below.

 As I have been able to identify my shortcomings as an FMCG employee, I will be able to

overcome this problem before the completion of my graduate degree.
 My problem in customer management has also identified the necessity of the
development of some other skills such as interpersonal skills and communication skills
that can facilitate my customer management skill (Ohlsson and Borg, 2017).
 As I have faced issues in customer management, I can try to switch my career choice
from sales or marketing to management where I would have fewer chances for direct
communications with customers.

Action-
What Actions Would I Take to Improve?
Customer management is very important for those FMCG employees who perform sales-related
jobs and as I do not have proper customer management skills, I must need to improve this skill if
I really want to build my career in the sales sector of the FMCG industry and therefore I
identified some actions that I would take to improve my customer management skills and the
actions are discussed below.

Improvement of My Interpersonal Skills: I will improve my listening skills and language

skills and also, practice empathy and emotion controlling to better understand customers’ needs
and complaints and also, to control my aggressive behaviours even against customers’ bad
behaviours (Gallagher, 2018).

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Improvement of My Communication Skills: I will improve my non-verbal communication,
straight-talking and stress management skills so that I can understand the complaints of
customers without feeling a lot of stress and better respond to those complaints (Biech, 2017).

How can I Learn from What has happened?

While working at the FMCG firm, I have realized the necessity of improving my customer
management skills and the learnings that I have achieved from this realization are discussed
below.

 Customer management should be the priority of any FMCG employee as customers are
the centre of all the operations of an FMCG company and therefore I should identify my
shortcomings in this area and improve them.
 Interpersonal skills and communication skills are the two important skills that are
embedded in customer management and therefore I need to improve these skills through
practice.
 I also need to improve my emotional intelligence to better understand the behaviour of
customers and this skill will also help me effectively communicate with my colleagues
and team members in future (Wall, 2019).

How would I Respond if This Happened Again?

As I have mentioned earlier that I will try to improve many of my skills to improve my customer
management skill, however, if I again confront this issue in future even after taking all of these
actions, I will try to switch my career choice to management where I would have little or no
interaction with customers. To pursue a career in management, I would have to improve my
leadership skills, budget management skills and creative and strategic thinking skills, however,
here, I would need to improve my emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills and communication
skills as well, to manage my subordinates (Gallagher, 2018). So, as it is evident that these three
skills such as emotional intelligence, communication skills and interpersonal skills are required
for almost every job role of FMCG companies, I will give strong consideration to improve these
skills as early as possible.

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Personal Development Plan
A. Personal Analysis
A SOAR analysis is an analytical tool that will help me reflect upon my strengths and aspirations
and; will also determine my opportunities and the tools of measuring my achievements and
therefore, a SOAR analysis is conducted below for self-reflection.

Strengths Opportunities
 Time Management Skills  A large number of small and large
 Organizing Skills FMCG companies in the UK.
 Analytical Skills  A variety of job roles in the FMCG
 Leadership Skills companies.
 Technological Skills  Continuous career development
 Creativity opportunities in the FMCG companies
of the UK as I have the opportunity of
getting hired in a large company with
my work experiences gathered from
working in a small FMCG company
(Yarnall, 2020).

Aspirations Results
 I want to start my career as a sales  Setting SMART objectives will help me
manager in an FMCG company. determine my success in career
 My next goal will be the job of director development.
of marketing analytics, followed by the  I will also use the Career-Success Scale
job role of VP of Digital Marketing. to measure my career achievements.
 My final destination is to become the
chief marketing officer of an FMCG
company.
FIGURE 4: PERSONAL SOAR A NALYSIS

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 Source: (Laird and Laird, 2017)

B. Setting Goals
I will use the following table to set my objectives, determine how the objectives can be achieved
and how I can measure my success.

What do I What do I have What support How will I Target date for
want to learn? to do? and resources measure my review of
will I need? success? results.
Interpersonal I will have to I will need some My ability to 2 years
and practice active books on better
Communication listening, interpersonal understand and
Skills emotion skills and effectively
controlling and language skills communicate
non-verbal and also need with customers
communication some online will indicate my
skills and also courses for success.
have to enhance learning
my language different
skills. languages such
as Spanish,
German etc. to
overcome
language
barriers
(Gallagher,
2018).
Emotional I will have to I will need to My ability to 1.5 years
Intelligence increase my read various better
self-awareness books and understand
and social skills watch various customers’
and; also documentaries needs and

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 practice on emotional complaints and
empathy (Wall, intelligence to response to
2019). enhance this these needs and
. skill. complaints will
determine my
success.
Digital I will have to I will need My ability to 1.5 years
Marketing gather various books better
theoretical and and newspaper understand and
practical articles and effectively use
knowledge on some online digital
digital courses on marketing tools
marketing tools digital will determine
and also identify marketing my success.
their (Gallagher,
effectiveness in 2018).
the market.
Commercial I will have to I will need My level of 6 months
Awareness understand the various knowledge of
current trends in newspaper the latest trends
consumer articles related in the FMCG
behaviour and to consumer market will
lifestyles and; trends, market determine my
also, in the trends and new success.
FMCG market innovations in
(Clive, 2020). the FMCG
market.
FIGURE 5: PERSONAL GOAL-SETTING

Source: (Ohlsson and Borg, 2017)

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C. Personal Objectives
Setting clearly defined personal objectives are important to measure personal growth and success
in personal goal achievements.

Short-term goals (next six months)

I will continue my part-time job as a sales assistant in my current FMCG company and try to
improve my customer management skills and besides, I will also enrich my commercial awareness
within this period of time.

Medium Term Goals (next 2 – 3 years)

I will achieve better interpersonal skill, communication skill, emotional intelligence and digital
marketing knowledge and will get a full-time sales manager job in a small or large FMCG company
in the UK within this period of time.

Long Term Goals (following 3 to 5 years)

I will get a promotion to the job of director of marketing analytics and will also continuously apply
for the jobs at the largest global FMCG companies in the UK and moreover, my marketing skills
will be suitable for working at these types of companies by that time.

FIGURE 6: PERSONAL OBJECTIVES

Source: (Kucharvy, 2020)

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Conclusion
The FMCG industry of the UK consists of various segments such as food and beverages;
personal care; household goods and; over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. It is currently one of the
most profitable industries in the world and therefore, this industry is offering a lot of career
development opportunities to its employees and that's why I identified this industry as my career
destination. However, only identifying the career destination is not enough, a self-reflection
analysis and a well-designed personal development plan are necessary for career development
and that’s why I have conducted my self-reflection analysis and designed my PDP plan to
develop my career in the FMCG industry of the UK.

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