Procter & Gamble (P&G) Malaysia recently organised the local round of the P&G CEO Challenge.

14 students were selected from an initial 200 entries to participate in this annual competition which equips university students with leadership and real-world problem solving skills.

The winning team will now represent Malaysia to compete in the regional stage in Singapore from 11 to 14 February 2019. The P&G CEO Challenge regional winner will get a chance to compete the global round in Dubai on May 2019.

According to Khazanah Research Institute’s 2018 School-to-Work Transition survey, Malaysians are facing challenges when transitioning from school to the working world.

Young workers are required to reskill and upskill through lifelong learning as they need to adapt and innovate to what their job requires of them. Some of these skills are not prioritised in their learning at school.

This includes strong work ethics, good communication skills, creative and analytical thinking, problem solving skills, being a team player, uphold a positive attitude, able to learn from criticism and work under pressure.

In support of empowering and growing Malaysian talents, P&G believes in creating opportunities for students to get a taste of the real working world while studying through competitions such as the P&G CEO Challenge or internship programs.

The P&G CEO Challenge was designed to enable participating students to tackle real business issues and leverage on P&G as a platform to showcase skills that are required in a working world.

During the one-week competition, the participants were trained by P&G leaders on business knows-how and received mentoring as they worked on the business case assigned to them.

The students not only learnt about the diverse career paths available but will also be given priority placements for internships and full-time work placements at P&G Malaysia.

Michael Tan, HR Director for P&G Asia Pacific shared,

“For the past 10 years, we have seen such strong talent from Malaysian students who participate in the P&G CEO Challenge.

“This year’s winning team showcased their aptitude for business strategy and real-life problem-solving throughout the competition and we have no doubt they will shine at the regional stage in Singapore.

“As an organisation that practices a “Build From Within” strategy, this competition is part of P&G’s strategy to nurture young talents.

“We have several employees who have joined us from this Challenge and are now progressing in their careers as business leaders both in Malaysia and around the world.”

P&G CEO Challenge Malaysia’s winning team expressed,

“We are absolutely thrilled to have won the local round and look forward to meeting other winners around the region in Singapore this February.

“Our mentors from P&G have been very helpful in helping us to tackle the case study, with workshops provided to help us understand how to build an executable business plan.

“This competition helped us to understand the ins and outs of sales and marketing, and we can’t wait to see what the regional competition has in store for us.”

Although it has evolved over time, P&G Malaysia has hosted business challenges for over 10 years now.

This will be the first year that students from the Malaysia local round will be taking part in the P&G CEO Challenge regional and global stages.

Aside from leveraging on this competition to nurture talent, P&G also has the Dream P&G Internship Program, which allows graduating students to experience real-world business challenges and provides them with the same kind of learning programs and intensive coaching sessions P&G employees are given.