Unilever Future Leaders' League 2016 Indonesia

After more than 3 years of blog-post-absence, finally I'm back!

So here I am, now already a 3rd year student of BINUS University, taking Mobile Application and Technology major. I still remember my last post here was talking about me wanting to lose weight because I was going to turn 17... My God. Time does fly so fast. But if I review my life during these 3 years, there are so many things happened - sad, happy, disappointed, love, etc. However, I would like to dedicate my first post after 3 years of absence to this amazing event I just attended which is... *drum rolls*

Unilever Future Leaders' League

See a familiar name there? Yep it's an event by Unilever, one of the largest FMCG company in the world. Every year since 2013, Unilever makes a business challenge event for undergraduated students in Indonesia. There are 2 phases of this event, which are:

1. Entry Phase, in which each individual need to send a 1 page CV and case challenge (can be in form of video or maximum 5 slides of Powerpoint in PDF format)
2. U Camp - the top 30 students will go to a 5 days camp. In this U Camp there will be training, coaching, business challenges, etc. 

Honestly, I just found out about this event a week before the deadline of entry phase submission, which made me really really really in a hurry to do the task given. (By the way I got the information from my organization - BINUS English Club's LINE Group! Kindly follow BNEC's Instagram for useful informations) This year, the Unilever Future Leaders' League (I will call it UFLL from now to be short) is all about Dove, especially Dove Conditioner. So in the Entry Phase, each of individual need to answer 1 from 5 questions in form of slides or video. I chose the 1st question which is I need to think about a new campaign about Dove Conditioner. The reason on why I chose the 1st is because... I didn't understand the 2nd-5th question :') they were all about specific things like market segmentation, supply chain, etc. My campaign's name back then is "Conditioner is for Everyone", because I want to break the myth in society that conditioner is only for certain types of hair.

One of my slides for the entry phase

The announcement was on October 28, and I still remember that day I felt so uneasy. I regularly checked Unilever Careers Facebook (by "regularly" I mean almost every 10-15 minutes) and finally at around 7 PM I checked Unilever Careers Facebook and *surprise* my name was on the list of top 30 UFLL participants who will go to U Camp! I can't even describe my feeling here, because I was way too happy back then. 

But then a new problem approaching. The dates for the U Camp was the same as my mid term exams, which means I must get a permission from my university to not attend my mid term exams. I am really grateful to have such a very kind and supportive Head of Mobile Application Major, Pak Afan Galih Salman, who always supports me in everything I do even though it is not too related with my major. Because of his help, I finally get the permission and can go to the U Camp! Yeay!

The U Camp

The U Camp was located in Unilever Learning Centre Megamendung, which is a super comfy place. It has swimming pools, billiard, karaoke, and the best part - FREE ice cream! Finally I can eat ice creams as many as I want here, and I ate minimum 3 ice creams a day!

Cute entrance 

One of the swimming pool!

Okay now forget about the free ice creams because during these 5 days we will face many business challenges, and the highlight is on the 4th day and 5th day - the semifinal and final round of campaign plan challenge. For the challenges, the 30 of us were divided into a group of 3, and I was so lucky to have Eric Wilson from UPH and Adi Purnomo from ITB as my team mates! My group's name is No Limit.

No Limit Team Candid Edition

On my first days in U Camp, I feel a little bit not confident because the other participants are so amazing. There is someone who just got back from a business case competition at South Africa, someone who already published a book, someone from YLI, and the list still goes on. But turned out everyone was so kind and humble! When I saw them I remember the Indonesian phrase "semakin berisi semakin merunduk" which means the greater you are, you need to be more down to earth - and they are the true definition of that phrase. 

The 1st until 3rd day were full of many sessions and challenges: Finance, Customer Development which required us to go to the traditional market for selling Dove conditioner, Factory Visit (we visited the skincare factory in Cikarang), and so on. We were also "injected" by many self development sessions which are very helpful to develop ourself as an individual. We were even challenged to make our own vlog!

Customer Development Challenge! *tired but happy face*

But the most memorable session for me is a session on the 3rd day at 11.40 PM. Yep it was D-1 semifinal round and we were called for a "sudden" session at almost midnight. In this session, Ka Irma and Ka Arya were not acting as their own role in Unilever - Human Resource and Marketing, but they are acting as a life coach (yep again, they are a certified life coach!). They reminded us to not just focus on the challenge because UFLL is not just about challenge! It is about building connection and developing ourself, which we were lack of those parts in these 3 days. I feel like their words slapped me right on my cheek, because I realized these 3 days I have been missing my opportunity to know great people and their stories, and merely just focusing on the challenges. When one of my friend said she really wanted to make a connection and ask many things but she's afraid that the person she's asking to is busy and bored with those kind of questions, Ka Irma and Ka Arya told us to not live for our own assumption because we will never know if we never try. They taught us to see the things we never realized before. Truthfully, I never know that a company can be so caring like this to their people (we were not even their employees yet!)

Me with Ka Irma, the one who makes me learn so many things in UFLL

After that very memorable and impactful session, I feel like the gap between us has gone. We are more open to each other and can laugh together for so many things. But still, the show must goes on and we were continuing our preparation for tomorrow's semifinal. My team finished our slides at 5 AM and we only slept for 2 hours that day :')

5 AM in the morning, ready to go to bed!

The semifinal round went smoothly and I was so happy to know that my team will go to the final round to compete with 2 other amazing teams! After the announcement of semifinal result, there were a party and Unilever invited a DJ and a Zumba dancer from Colombia. We partied all night even though tomorrow the top 3 teams need to present again BUT it is not a problem because we appreciate togetherness more than the challenge! (just an excuse to party all night)

Long story short, on the final day the top 3 presented their campaign and No Limit team is the 1st runner up! *yeayyyyyy* 

Me featuring the 1st runner up trophy & medal

No Limit Team (again!)

Also, congratulations to the 3 individual winners that will represent Indonesia for the Global Round of UFLL in London: Albert, Hanie and Khanza! To me, they are very inspiring because not only smart, they are very down to earth and very caring to the people around them. I'm sure you guys will do well in the Global Round and can make Indonesia proud!

To end this post I would like to share things I've learnt during the program:

1. Use our common sense and don't overthink because "What's the worst that can happen sih?"
2. We should know our "end in mind" a.k.a goal first before deciding what we want to do
3. Start to think disruptively, change the common!
4. Don't be too focus in something and lose many great opportunities
5. and... many more!

So for the students out there who's reading my post right now.. I strongly suggest you to join this UFLL next year!

Nothing is worse than missing an opportunity that could have changed our life, and I believe UFLL is an opportunity that can change YOUR life!

Unilever Future Leaders' League 2016 Final Day Blast!