Musings on an Anniversary

Today marks ten years to the day that I joined Mars Inc. I started in the India Chocolate business, as a talent acquisition manager, way back in 2012, when it operated like a start-up: a massive global company, just dipping its toes into the India market. Zoom forward to the end of 2022, and I have the privilege of leading the People and Organisation function for one of the fastest growing units in the world, one that has ambitions far beyond today, and is challenging itself everyday to reach them even faster. What a ride it's been!

Somehow though, it feels like twenty or thirty years ago, the badge of honour associated with long-term service was an aspirational one. Today, the shine has worn off, with people regularly moving companies, and tenure rates falling every day. So I wanted to use this occasion to bust some myths, and make the case for the long-term career in one place - or at the very least, to explain the reasons Mars has given me to stay all these years.

"Staying in the same organisation makes you lose relevance or grow less fast"

Staying relevant has, in my experience, very little to do with the job you perform, and is primarily about much you're willing to learn. In my ten years at Mars, I'm currently doing my fifth role. Not all the moves were immediate promotions, but every single one helped me develop new skills to put in my toolkit. And - interestingly - four of those five roles never had an incumbent before - I was the first person to do them. This certainly made it tougher - there was often no rule-book to follow - but man, did it make me learn fast. Today, I attribute any ability to deal with ambiguity and shape the future to those experiences: hiring 200 people over two years with no prior experience in hiring, running a greenfield project with no prior experience of manufacturing HR, managing the integration of two entities with no prior experience... you get the drift! So be hungry to learn - put your hand up for new experiences, without care as to whether you're being promoted - and in my experience, where the learning comes, the growth will follow.

"The longer you stick around, the more you become part of the furniture"

I'm a firm believer that the most dangerous sentence in any business is "This is the way we've always done it". As a result, while I'm a huge advocate of this organisation and everything it stands for, on most days, I am also its biggest critic. Having a sense of healthy dissatisfaction, asking how we could be better, constantly benchmarking yourself and your approach to others around you - these are simple tools that can always keep you on your toes. It has helped me tremendously to have a strong external network - like-minded professionals on top of their game, who can widen your perspective and challenge your thinking. And paradoxically, the longer you stay with an organisation, the more influence you cultivate - to be able to actually make the changes the company needs to stay relevant, not just talk about them.

"The outside world has many more exciting opportunities"

If you're in a reasonably large organisation, it's likely that there are exciting roles to be experienced - but you have to go out and find them. I've often observed that if some of my friends had spent as much time looking for and applying to jobs internally as they did outside, their career trajectories may be have been very different. Gone are the days of waiting for the organisation to give you your next role. Enter a time when you have to own your career path. Make a list of roles you're interested in, linked to your career development, and then go after them. Reach out to the line manager, learn more about the context, offer to work on short term projects, and then apply when the role comes up. A little bit of intentionality goes a long way, instead of waiting for a line manager (or a recruiter) to show up with the next shiny object.

In conclusion, I need to answer the inevitable question: What made me stay for ten years? The answer is simple, and it comes down to three things:

1. Some incredible line managers - Phenomenal people, with hugely varying styles, but who all shared a commitment to help me shine and grow. I stand as a leader today on your broad shoulders, and I have learned something crucial from every one of you.

2. Best friends at work -?It's no exaggeration that I've been lucky enough to make some life-long friends over the years from colleagues I met at work and the fantastic team members and direct reports I got to work with. You know who you are - thank you for making the workplace bright, fun and a second home.

3. A unique culture, that has always given me an invitation, every single day, to show up as a better version of myself. I wouldn't be the professional or person I am today without it.?

I'll end with a thought from Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness and productivity. "The days are long," she says, "but the years are short." That's certainly been my experience - there have been many a long and tiring day or week, but before I knew it, a decade has gone by in the blink of an eye. I can't wait to see what the next chapter holds!

Kalpesh R Parmar , Piyush Jain , Neeraj Goel , Varun Kandhari , Sunita Patnaik , Meghal Sheth

Sonal Sodha , Sanjay Gopinath , Denis Beaufils , Hegeler Solomon (SPHR) , Andrew Leakey , Prince SAMUEL , arne eger , Kalpesh R Parmar

#proudlymars #womenofmars #careers #workanniversary