Post by Christine Janosa

My 6 months in a new role, new company, new team and even a new industry. These initial months were incredibly precious. Still with a fresh & non-biased perspective, full of excitement, a steep learning curve (for me especially around the industry & brushing up my French skills), while slowly building credibility with people that don’t know you yet and finding a common way of working as a team. Looking back: These first months are not about proving you can do everything. They’re about building the crucial foundations that let the team move faster later. Understanding the data, challenging assumptions & hypotheses, digging into what the Pharmacies BENU SA consumer actually cares about. For me it was all about finding a good mix between keeping the running business going, delivering initial quick wins & working on setting the base, while not being on my usual efficiency yet. These months were intense, exciting and exhausting at the same time. A constant exercise to keep the important balls in the air. There are so many ideas and projects I’d love to tackle right away, expectations are high (especially my own) and time is limited with a family & life running in parallel. One thing that helped me immensely in hindsight: sparring with external partners and peers. Sometimes having an outside perspective helps accelerate clarity much faster than trying to solve everything yourself. The routine that helped me stay focused most: every Monday morning (after coffee of course), I would set 3 topics I wanted to have meaningfully moved forward by end of this week - and plan time for it. Another simple but powerful habit I learned from someone much smarter than me years ago: blocking dedicated time for emails and other people’s priorities, instead of letting them define the entire day. This is it for today. More to come soon around data foundations, putting the consumer at the center of decision-making, how to infuse AI in the process & how to actually apply these insights in day-to-day. As I’d like to say: exciting times ahead. Curious to hear how others experienced their first months in a new challenge and what helped you most.