Role of People skills in FMCG sector

Just think of a fresh graduate, 23 years old, entering into FMCG company like ITC, HLL, Nestle etc. What type of responsibilities can you expect? Most of us think that in sales in FMCG, its going to the outlets under the sun, sweat out etc. Thats not wrong !!

Its just for a induction period mainly, because any manager should be sensitized with the working of different people in the hierarchy as mentioned in my last post - "Hierarchy in FMCG organization". Its approximate half a year. But once you learn the hard realities, you have to manage the above mentioned people.

Lets take a role of a manager at the entry level. He has around 4 circle heads, with each of them having 4 section heads. That means around 20 people. Apart from that you a huge sales force of around 500 people and 100 supervisor (Figures are mentioned just to give you an idea).

Dont you require people skills?