Edge Forum

Do you know the name Unilever?  How about Marmite? Dove? Persil?  Well, Unilever owns each of these household brands and Tracey Rogers has been working there for the last eighteen years.  During her career with Unilever, she has lived in Brussels, Milan and Budapest whilst also being a mother of two!  Tracey went to a large comprehensive school ‘which would probably be blacklisted nowadays’, but was encouraged to go to university by her teachers.  She thinks ‘education is important because it gives you freedom and options’. She believes she is ‘lucky’ in a lot of ways, but we think feeling lucky has a lot to do with her positive outlook, which is what makes her special and a great role model.

Hi Tracey, thank you for meeting us.  First of all, we’d like to know what your role at Unilever is?

This job is new to me and I’ve only been doing it for six weeks! I joined Unilever eighteen years ago; I came from working as a buyer in Tesco and previously in Sainsbury’s, then I joined the sales team at Unilever. When I started, we sold Sure deodorants, Dove as well as other exciting products. I then moved to Brussels and to take of the role of European coordination and for three years commuted between Brussels and Milan every week! In 2005, I moved to Budapest where I was the Chair of Unilever Central Europe, looking after all our brands. In 2008, I came back and I am now heading up Unilever Foodsolutions; which is all about selling food to hotels, schools, hospitals and other large organisations that provide food to people.

Which skills have you gained at Unilever that you wouldn’t otherwise have had?

Now I’m a good manager, I’m a good marketeer, a reasonably good leader of people. At Tesco I learnt to negotiate… but all the things that you learn at work are difficult to take home and apply to your kids or your husband!

So what was your journey prior to starting work?

I grew up in Tottenham and went to a very large comprehensive school, which would probably be blacklisted nowadays, and somehow, I don’t know how, I got O-Levels and A-Levels and went to university. There were about a dozen of us who were were the first people in my school to go to uni. Then after that I went into retail, I don’t know why!

Did your parents encourage you to go to University?

My dad was a mechanic and my mum was a dressmaker, which were practical and quite skilled jobs; I was an only child, so I got a lot of attention but they were quite aspirational. I was also lucky because I was quite bright, so both at home and at school I was encouraged by what nowadays you would call mentors.

I’d say I’m lucky, which might be to do with my view on life. I do have a good outlook, because my family instilled a positive approach to life in me, so if something bad happened, I was brought up to think ‘it could be worse’ and I have passed that on to my children. I grew up in London in the Sixties, which was amazing – it was a place where you thought anything was possible. London then had a very special buzz about it.

It’s inspiring that you studied politics, but you ended up doing something completely different – how did that happen?

When I went to uni to read Politics, it was a natural progression from my A Levels and I was indulging in an interest. People didn’t mind then what you did, as long as it was a degree; employers wanted to recruit people from different areas. Nowadays I think young people follow business degrees because they think they need it to get a job in business.

You’ve obviously achieved many things since leaving school – what would you say drives you?

I suppose I am ambitious and competitive, I wasn’t sporty when I was younger but I was competitive.  I found a job that fitted me like a glove – to me it wasn’t work, it was enjoyable. I’ve always had support – I married my husband when I was twenty five, but didn’t have children for ten years and then we decided he would be the main carer of the children. My husband came from Hoxton and he used to be a builder, he’s ten years older than me and it just became obvious when we had children that it would be better for me to pursue my work and for my husband to look after the kids, because building is more of a precarious career and you can only do it for so long – it just made sense.

Many women face the dilemma of choosing between work or family.  It’s inspiring that you’re a woman with a successful career. Has that brought you any challenges?

Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve made the right choices. I am in an industry that suits women, because most consumers are women so we understand more what they want. But I have been in a minority, and have sat on boards where it’s just men in a room, which can be really tedious. It can be lonely, and maybe I have become more masculine to adapt to the situation.

If you had a role model, who would it be?

I had a great sixth form head that identified six talented children, and he motivated us to go to uni. He’s still teaching and I keep in touch with him, and I found out he had been in contact with our parents about preparing us for uni, which we didn’t know, so it was almost like a conspiracy to get us to go. Then at uni, I had a tutor called Major General Clutterbuck! He was so different to me and terribly posh, but he just saw something in me and nurtured me. On the whole I’ve had really good bosses. You’ve got to understand with bosses that nobody walks on water, so you’ve got to look at them and say ‘those bits of you are good, so I’m going to foster those bits, and let the other bits go’, so you become a good leader yourself.

What positive and negative aspects of education do you see?

I’ve only just come back to the UK and I’m getting to understand what kinds of qualifications exist. I’ve chosen to give my children a private education; I’d rather not, and I don’t think it’s fair, but I know that I felt at a disadvantage because others at uni had been to ‘good schools’. I was lucky that I had friends who helped me with things like grammar, which I wasn’t taught at school.

What advice would you give to young people wishing to make it in business?

I would say go back to basics: you need to have good grammar and good maths, otherwise you will struggle.  If you’re not as eloquent as other people, or not as quick on the basic maths it will be difficult.

Really try to have a positive mindset and really try to take the opportunities. A lot of people, especially girls, are too scared to go out and grab it. Growing up I never felt that, because my attitude was always ‘why not?’. The thing that drove me was I didn’t want to be on my deathbed and think ‘I wish I’d done that’. Sometimes people don’t do things because they’re frightened, and I always encourage people to turn that feeling on its head and say ‘what’s the worst thing that could happen if I do it?’

Anything you regret?

I do regret having my children so late in life, and I’d say that to other girls, because you just don’t have the physical energy when you are older. Your fertility starts dropping off dramatically when you get to 30, and girls need to understand that. If only doctors had explained that to me, I would’ve thought about it earlier.

What does success mean to you?

Success is about being happy and having the freedom to do what you enjoy doing, and having a balance. I enjoy my work life, but we have a happy and balanced home life. It’s not about money now, because I’m comfortable – at first it was, because the truth is that money gives you freedom and gives you options. That’s why I tell my children that education is important because it gives you freedom and options.