European Careers

Finance

Raffaella's story

I’m responsible for the commercial finance for new initiatives in Coca-Cola in Italy. The first thing you have to think of when you have a new idea in your mind is to try to understand at first, at which price you want to sell it, so this is the first thing you have to tell me; and then secondly you have to understand where and to whom you would like to sell this product. And we need to understand together where we can produce this product, and how is this feasible. Is this something already existing, or is this something that we need to develop? And then, based on this, you can have a first idea and a first financial evaluation of the project itself.

What I see that is very much important for me as an attitude when I go to work, is definitely being analytical; so don’t miss any detail, don’t miss any aspect of what I am hearing about, of what I am told about. And then second, what is very much important, is being curious. Being curious, and having the will to understand also about other people’s job.

Coca-Cola has given me the opportunity during these nine years of career, to grow, to change my job and to have a different exposure, so with different levels. The people you find in Coca-Cola are a kind of professionals. You have professionals for each of the areas you work with. You have very well-prepared people that are willing to excel in their job, and they are very much passionate about their job, but that they want also the project they are involved in to be successful. What I am always trying to leave as an impression, is trying to be a business partner for them, so not to be just the finance, but to be the people that with the finance knowledge can be an active player of a team.