For career switchers, transferable skills are key

Working on social responsibility initiatives is not the only path to entering a multinational business from the nonprofit field — at least not at Procter & Gamble Co. At the global consumer products company, career switchers may end up marketing the company’s brands in the developing world, according to Greg Allgood, director of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water program. For global companies eager to explore new markets, the developing world has been gaining in importance. International development professionals may help them comprehend the needs of potential consumers in those regions. That’s why some firms like P&G are eager to hire former aid workers and nonprofit staff. The key is to match transferable skills with the right position, regardless of whether a job seeker previously worked at a for-profit or nonprofit, Allgood told Devex in an interview that also touched on how corporate social responsibility initiatives may boost a firm’s bottom line even during an economic downturn. P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water program actually operates as a nonprofit, but it is staffed with P&G employees that have traditional business specialties like supply chain management. The program provides clean drinking water to poor communities with a product called PUR. Allgood pioneered P&G’s flagship CSR program, which partners with more than 70 nonprofits in Africa and beyond. What advice would give to a person who is interested in CSR or philanthropy work? Can you make a career out of it, for instance at P&G? I never intended to work in philanthropy and I don’t even actually consider myself working in philanthropy. I consider myself working on leading a not-for-profit business within P&G that provides a huge amount of total shareholder return to the company, and I guess I look at my little not-for-profit company as proving its worth and therefore getting donations from our P&G fund, our P&G brands, our employees, now our company is matching that. Our past CEOs are contributing significantly to the program. So, I don’t look at myself as working in philanthropy as much as running a not-for-profit business and as the leader of that business, trying to get donations from a variety of different sources, including from outside the company; USAID is supporting us. We want other groups to help support the effort with their funds. So, I guess the advice that I would give is to develop core skills in areas where you can contribute that are connected to your strengths, whether it’s communications or research and development or marketing, and be able to apply those. And that will suit you well, whether it is a nonprofit effort or a for-profit effort. Does P&G hire people to just to work on CSR? No. If someone said I would like to just work on this area, it would be tough. I would develop broad skills that can be applied. My background was in R&D, and I worked on a lot of new product launches. I learned about the things that it took to run this not-for-profit business. A lot of the work is communications to our employees, so I have had a lot of work in communications as well. Those skills are what enable me to do what I am doing. My colleagues, the people that help me run the CSDW program, one of them has a very strong background in product supply, and that’s a lot of what our program is. You know, figuring out how to make enough of the product, getting all the raw materials in the plant — we’ve been in over 50 countries now worldwide. So, figuring out how to get it everywhere when it’s needed and on time. It’s a strong background in project management and product supply is what enables him to be so successful in that. So, it’s developing skills that could be used and as I see through my partners that are humanitarian groups, they have core skills that would be re-applicable in the public sector as well. They understand development, which maybe a bit different but understanding development is also extremely critical to for-profit companies. We have a strategic interest in growing our business amongst low-income consumers. And we have, over the last seven years… We believe we are reaching 1 billion consumers now that we weren’t reaching seven years ago, by having lower-priced products and products that are uniquely suited to their needs. It’s not so much about cost, you know, it’s about what meets their needs and that’s going to continue. A lot of our future growth will not be from the U.S. and Europe but from the developing world. If one works in the international development field, do you see those skills as being transferable to working for a company like P&G? Definitely. Our purpose as a company is to improve the lives of the world’s consumers, and to improve their lives for us [means] developing products and services that meet their needs. To do that, you have to understand people and you have to understand what meets their needs in one part of the world isn’t going to be the same in another part of the world. So, understanding those things is going to be really important in developing and marketing new products. It’s not just the products either: Low-income consumers and particularly very-low income consumers, their needs are going to have to be met by different approaches and different partnerships. The partnership piece will be really critical and won’t be business as usually, but we are going to have to set up different ways in meeting their needs to reach them. 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