Did you enjoy our recent culinary journey through Latin America? We hope you did!
Before we wrap up our special Latin America week, we’d like you to meet Carlos Resende, Category Management Specialist for Latin America at Retail inMotion, who has allowed us to peep into his daily life, as part of our #ADayInTheLife series.
Speaking of #ADayInTheLife, check out the rest of the interviews here:
- #ADayInTheLife: Meet Coca Pitzer
- #ADayInTheLife: Cora Culleton explains how Retail inMotion’s culture shapes employee motivation
- #ADayInTheLife: Ever wondered what it’s like to be a Crew Engagement Manager?
- #ADayInTheLife SPECIAL: Putting the spotlight on Retail inMotion’s new Mission, Vision and Values
| Name | Carlos Resende |
| Position | Category Management Specialist for Latin America at Retail inMotion |
| Location | São Paulo, Brazil |
| Team Size | Product & Marketing team has 3 members |
| Experience | 6.5 years in Sales, Marketing and Trade Marketing. Three years at RiM, working in Product & Marketing. |
Describe your typical work day
My name is Carlos Eduardo (as known as Cadu) and I’m 27 years old. I have been living in São Paulo for nine years now, but I’m from the countryside of Minas Gerais State (from a town of only 3,800 inhabitants) where I was born and raised. I LOVE dogs and can’t wait to adopt one!
I work as a Category Management Specialist for Latin America at Retail inMotion. I analyze sales performance and everything that impacts it (passengers, crew, topics of Operations, Procurement, Finance, IT, etc.) and then build business cases and action plans on product selection, promotions, prices, distribution, communications and menu design in order to help the business grow.
I usually wake up at 8AM and arrive in the office around 9AM, where I start my day with a cup of coffee and I check my agenda and tasks for the day and rest of the week. In such a dynamic company, it’s not so uncommon having to reprioritize tasks during the week or even during the day. Right after this, I start working on them.
We have flexible working times and I take advantage of that to go to the gym during lunchtime, but I need to confess that it’s been hard to keep this discipline of working out every day. I don’t like it very much.
As I mentioned before, my job is very dynamic, which means no day is like another. There are days when I have lots of meetings with internal and/or external teams, and also with our client LATAM. There are also days when I have to focus and analyze a bunch of data in order to propose action plans for the business to thrive. There are other days when I have to keep track of operational tasks of my area and there are even these days when I travel around South America looking for new products and trends and supporting colleagues on photo shoots for our four menu cards.
I love the office atmosphere because it’s very fun and informal and people are very supportive and respectful.
My working day ends around 7:00 PM, when I go home to rest, watch some series or movies, check the news and finally sleep.
What makes your job exciting?
The most exciting aspect about my job is having a voice (your ideas are taken into account), autonomy and room to create things. Being part of an international company and experiencing different cultures is also very motivating.
I’m very excited with our approach with other teams around the globe. For example, in October 2019, we had our first Food & Beverage Global Meeting in Cologne, where Product Managers from almost all teams gathered to introduce ourselves and our airlines/programs and share experiences. This happened during the world’s biggest F&B fair (ANUGA), where we could check out many innovations, trends and categories.
We -the global team- keep in touch through our different communication channels that we established.
But there are also challenges, such as working with people from four different countries and consequently four different types of behavior, ways of buying and selling, etc. (Latin America is very multicultural). Another challenging part is that things happen very fast and that makes us frequently work under tight deadlines.
Despite all this, the most rewarding part of my job is seeing that what I do really makes a difference in the company and it’s recognized by other colleagues and leaders. My job here really matters.
