Procter & Gamble (P&G) Philippines believes in developing leadership skills through meaningful work of managing leading global brands that impact billions of people every day. It also believes in honing today’s youth, who are destined to become tomorrow’s business and industry leaders.

The company recently exemplified this through its annual P&G CEO Challenge. This international business case competition invites top college undergraduate students to test their aptitude and skills in business leadership, strategic thinking, and real-life problem-solving. Top teams from each region will compete in a global final round and win the chance to attend the P&G Signal Conference and meet industry executives and even P&G’s CEO Jon Moeller.

“The P&G CEO Challenge gives interested students the opportunity to learn and experience what it is like to become P&G’s CEOs and decision-makers as they develop business strategies to solve the actual challenges of our global brands. We hope to inspire, energize and develop our future brand leaders,” says Vince Dizon, Country Human Resource Leader of P&G Philippines.

This year, P&G Philippines shortlisted 10 teams from the University of the Philippines (UP), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University (DLSU), and University of Santo Tomas (UST).

Team APP, made up of Anika Reanna Go Tian Ng, Patrick Gabriel U. Lo, and Pierce Patek Nielsen Co Dee from UP, unanimously won the national round and represented the Philippines in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) CEO Challenge regional semi-finals.

The APAC CEO Challenge round saw more than 4,300 applications from 8 countries, with 8 finalist teams emerging as the top in their respective countries. The challenge focused on P&G’s hair care brand, Head and Shoulders, and the opportunities of the Metaverse and video gaming that presents immense potential for the brand to grow and win.

Team APP was mentored by P&G Philippines’ haircare team and got that chance to network with some of the company’s leaders, including Raffy Fajardo, President and General manager of P&G Philippines, and Evelyn Ng, Vice President and Regional Comptroller for Asia Pacific, Middle East, & Africa.

Among the eight regional finalists, Team Malaysia took the top spot, followed by the delegates from Singapore and South Korea.

When asked what the team’s message to fellow students who are interested in this kind of experience Patrick Lo shared, “Aspiring young leaders should not be scared to speak up their minds and really explore the limits of their creativity. As long as you are very clear with what you want to happen and have calculated that these would bring value to the company, then go for it!”.

A great place to work

P&G aims to create a workplace culture where employees are empowered and enabled to grow, develop and succeed through intentional career planning, meaningful work and equal opportunities. As a merit-based and grow-from-within company, P&G critically invests in their people through training experiences and hands-on mentorship from local, regional and global leaders.

Aside from best-in-class career growth and development, P&G has stepped up as a force for good and a force for growth by creating industry-leading policies, programs, practices, and citizenship initiatives. They have pioneered flexible work arrangements and provided work-from-home opportunities since the early 2000s and launched their “Share the Care” parental leave policy. This provides a minimum standard of eight weeks fully paid leave 8 for all parents: biological parents, domestic partners, adoptive parents and parents in same sex couples – with an additional six-week physical recovery leave for birth mothers.

P&G’s global headquarters in Cincinnati, United States was recently given a Great Place to Work certification for workplace culture, employee experience and effective leadership behaviors. P&G Philippines was also recently recognized by the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (UN WEPs) Awards as the 2021 champion for gender inclusive workplace.