Unilever Future Leaders League 2013

I don't know why, but I'm all in the mood for sharing these days. #Holiday + #FreeTime no?

Anyhoo, this post is related to my previous post #RECAP, where I promised that I'm going to share my experience in joining one of the biggest business challenge competitions in Indonesia, Unilever Future Leaders League 2013.

-this post actually was supposed to be published like, weeks-weeks ago, as a request of my mentor in the competition, Mbak Irma :"). due to some reasons, I finally got the chance to share it just now. forgive me if this post is going to be a bit, long-

So, before jumping into the main part, what is #UFLL2013? (using hashtag to make your point is cool lol). It's a Business Case Challenge given to 30 best selected students from all universities in Indonesia to join the very first league of global future leaders by winning the prestigious country level competitions.

The 30 selected individuals will then be invited to a five day U-Camp in Unilever Learning Center in Megamendung. Once they enter the U-Camp, they will be grouped into 10 diverse teams and compete to represent Indonesia in the Global Future Leaders League.

- Singkatnya, UFLL 2013 adalah Business Case (yang biasanya diranahi oleh anak" Ekonomi, Akuntansi dan Manajemen *ngapain gw disini dong*) pertama kali yang diadakan oleh Unilever Indonesia. Pemenangnya akan berkesempatan untuk mewakili Indonesia di tingkat dunia, keren yes? -

So, what were the processes that I had to complete? Here they are

#1. SUBMISSION and APTITUDE TEST

At first, we were given a task to send 6 Powerpoint slides answering provided questions ranging from 5 different functions that were available to choose. Function disini itu ada lima, antara lain Human Resource, Customer Development, Finance, Supply Chain -dan pilihan gw- Marketing.  Waktu itu kasusnya mengenai salah satu produk dari Unilever Indonesia, yaitu Buavita. Siapa yang ga kenal jus dari buah asli satu ini coba? Nah, pertanyaannya untuk marketing adalah 

"Imagine yourself as the Brand Manager of Buavita, what activity would your create as a part of the marketing activation of Buavita? Explain your answers"

Singkat cerita, with little knowledge of Management (thank God that I got Pengantar Manajemen Bisnis di semester 2 kemarin), dan modal nanya sana-sini, gw nekat kirim slide ke Unilever, hoping to be accepted as finalist. Abis itu ternyata kita dikirimin link where we had to follow some Aptitude Test. Apaan tuh? kayak Psikotest? NOO. Jauh dari itu. Aptitude test ini adalah test angka, tapi bermain dengan grafik,chart, dan istilah" bisnis yang gw buta sama sekali. Coba test di sini. Soalnya ada 20, waktunya kalo ga salah ada 20 menit. Desperate udah pasti lah, kirain udah pasti ga masuk. Eh ternyata, tanggal 26 Oktober, dapet deh emailnya bahwa I was selected as top 30 out of 350 submissions from all across Indonesia. Dan hanya 2 dari Binus yang lolos! yay? belum dulu. Karena the real fight had just begun halah.

My Marketing Slides Submission

#2. THE CAMP

Here we go, to the most exciting part. Jadi ceritanya kita diajak ke yang namanya U-Camp (Maybe it stood for Unilever Camp? I don't really know, it should've been) dari tanggal 10-15 November 2013. We were asked to gather around in Fave by Aston Hotel for one night, karena kita bakal diajak keliling keliling ke sebelah, which is where Unilever Indonesia's office is located. Pas nyampe di hotel, langsung ketemu sama beberapa finalists yang udah nyampe duluan. Terus kita dapet banyak banget goodies! Right after, kita diajak ke kantor Unilever untuk sesi bonding with 30 finalists yang keren-keren dan bikin jiper. Ada yang Abang Jakarta, ada yang sering menang lomba Business Case sampe tingkat Internasional, ada juga yang exchange kemana mana sampe ke Barcelona :o.  Tapi ternyata, they are all nice and awesome in their own ways! #tetepjiper

some finalist yang on time (atau kepagian)

goodies goodies goodies (macbook's not included) 

Right after finalist bonding session, we were grouped in 10 diverse groups, consisted of 3 people in 1 group. Nah, kalo kelompok gw, dapetnya sama Sony Radithyo (master business case dari Universitas Indonesia) dan Widyastuti Kusuma Wardhani (Ibu Lingkungan Indonesia dari Universitas Diponegoro).

9th Team - Irresistible!

Nah, keesokan harinya, sampe tanggal 15 kita diajak ke State-of-the-art Learning Centernya Unilever di Unilever Mega Mendung Learning Center (MMLC) di Puncak. Kirain bakal kayak villa villa gitu kan? I was wrong. Tempatnya kayak buat rekreasi 2 keluarga besar, bahkan lebih. Ada 4 kolam renang, gym, karaoke, hall, lounge dll deh! Pokoknya super keren astaga. Kita bisa makan semua produk Unilever yang disediain, kayak Lipton Tea, Buavita bahkan ada 2 freezer Walls khusus, isinya Magnum, dan eskrim lainnya yang bisa kita ambil sesuka hati, serius. (No, I wasn't charged at all kok haha). Masalah makanan yang biasanya jadi masalah, bukan masalah disini. *apasih* Lots, and Lots of foods, snack, you name it!

kamar sendiri layaknya hotel bintang 3

the hall

lounge section

movie section

karaoke & wii section

Nah, for more than 5 days, we were taught on how Unilever runs its Businesses, yang menyangkut kelima functions diatas especially about Marketing 360. Mulai dari yang namanya concepting produk baru untuk linenya Buavita, mikirin stok buah untuk produksi, marketing activation plans, target pasar, semua-muanya kita pikirin. We stayed up ampe jam 2 pagi, but it was very fun and challenging, jadi ngantuknya ga kerasa sama sekali loh.

Challengenya ga cuma di MMLC aja, kita juga diajak untuk ngerasain gimana sih produk itu dibuat, langsung di Pabriknya. And we were being taken to Walls Factory di Cikarang! Free Ice Cream! Dan kita disana juga ada Factory Challenge, mulai dari Packaging Ice Cream Feast, Tester rasa eskrim, sampe Quality Control eskrim kita kerjain semua. Seru!

infront of Walls Factory - Cikarang

We were also asked to do some selling to test our sales skill. And lucky us, we sold 3 box of Buavita boxes in just 15 minutes after we reached the spot haha.

kapan lagi harus ngerayu mbak mbak centil buat beli Buavita?

Nah, akhirnya tiba pada saat yang ditunggu tunggu, The Judgement Day. On the 4th day, we were asked to do some presentation regarding the product that we made. Singkat cerita, our group didn't make it to the Top 3. Nonetheless, we got great experience along the way. Sudah selesai? Belum! Finalists yang ga masuk top 3, di assign untuk ngebantuin 3 tim yang masuk ke final untuk do some commercial, yang harus dibuat viral di Youtube.

Setelah capek-capekan, we were given treats. With a Super Amazing Tropical Party featuring 2 original Zumba Dancers didatangkan langsung dari Colombia! *no, not Sofia Vergara, no*

The last day, we watched 9 of our friends defended their product infront of Unilever Business Leaders. And my best friend won 3rd place with her team, congrats Natalia!

Arya UI, Natalia Binus, Lintang UGM

And here are the winners that are going to represent Indonesia di Future Leaders League Global! Congrats Iyo, Nasha, dan Tari! Go make us proud!

Nasha ITB - Tari UI - Wisnu Aryo ITB

But we didn't go home empty handed. Our team won Best Factory Challenge and Best Humorous Team! Voucher MAP jadi hadiahnya :") 

We closed UFLL 2013 by taking pictures with all the finalist and committee of the event.

Grateful is the right word to conclude UFLL2013. I never thought that a Computer Science student like me was able to follow all materials yang erat hubungannya dengan Bisnis which I have never heard of. But the committee executed all materials neatly so it can be followed easily by me. It was -hands down- the best competition I have ever joined, ever. Dan ini ada sedikit bonus video biar ada gambaran jelas kita ngapain aja disana

Be sure to catch Unilever Future Leaders' League 2014 next year buat temen-temen yang masih berstatus S1. Gw aja masih pengen ikutan kalo masih bisa. It's going to be Bigger, Better, and Louder! Lastly,

Be sure to believe in yourself, because if you don't believe in yourself, who else would?

Till Next Post

Marcel