“Doing something that nobody else has done before is actually quite hard,” Tetra Pak founder Ruben Rausing once said. He knew, like any great innovator, that problem-solving requires creativity, experimentation and commitment.
Tetra Pak has been developing innovative food-processing and packaging for more than 60 years, from the original tetrahedron-shaped carton, to packaging for nutritional products for remote, developing locations. The company, which was founded in Sweden in 1951, now employs more than 24,000 people, based in 85 countries. Its packages, containing everything from juice, milk and ice-cream to hummus, now reach consumers in more than 160 countries. The company continually looks to the future to try to understand the changing needs of a diverse array of global clients and consumers. It is now the largest food-processing and packaging company in the world, with more than 5,000 patents across many recognisable brands.
Tetra Pak’s future talent programme, which offers a one- or two-year course in 31 different locations, aims to provide recent graduates with the opportunity to craft new packaging solutions that could save lives and help the environment. From designing hygienic containers to bring fresh food to remote communities, such as for storing milk in the desert without needing preservatives or cooling, to engineering 100% renewable containers with plastic made from sugarcane, Tetra Pak’s programme hopes to nurture the next generation of changemakers.
Stefano Fornasari, development engineer at Tetra Pak, participated in the future talent programme in Modena, Italy, and in the US. He describes how he felt “proud when watching the results of the efforts made in rethinking, designing and improving our packaging solutions” and the “great sense of responsibility in all of our work”, particularly the company’s role in food safety.
He says one of the most rewarding projects he worked on was designing new high-capacity packaging equipment. He helped to develop a virtual simulation of the machine’s behaviour to solve the issues they were facing with the physical prototype: “It was really cool to feel immediately part of the technology development process and actively contribute to finding new solutions.”
Another recent future talent programme participant, Isa Zhang, worked on the commercial side of a project that developed a new low-cost packaging which can transport products that will be sold frozen, such as ice-cream, as a liquid before freezing in store. “My job is to serve as a bridge between [client] account and company, and eventually bring business for the company,” says Zhang. “My line manager let me participate in every important meeting with the team [for the project].”
“The attitude, the way people want to help each other, engage you in tasks, and explain things to you, are things that I really appreciate about the Tetra Pak culture,” says Arnela Tunovic, previously a management engineer and now world-class manufacturing champion at Tetra Pak, who completed the future talent programme four years ago. “You have to engage yourself and step out of your comfort zone, but these are the things that will make you grow both professionally and personally.”
Tunovic wanted to be an astronaut when she was 12, which led her to study science and engineering, and on to the future talent programme. Participants come from a vast range of backgrounds and disciplines, including science, design, marketing and business.
To gain a place on the future talent programme, graduates apply online and applications are reviewed, followed by three rounds of interviews. Once hired, they have a paid permanent position from the start, with the opportunity to work in different teams and travel abroad. The two-year leadership programme helps to broaden business knowledge in an international environment; or the one-year technical track helps to develop graduates’ engineering skills and accelerate technical knowledge. As they approach the end of the programme, they are offered a final position and salary increase.
The rotation style of the programme allows participants to relocate several times within the company, including placements abroad. Not only do they engage with a vast international workforce, both in person and through internal online networks, but they also encounter a valuable variation of working cultures and management styles. Fundamentally, many find they are simultaneously given both support from managers and autonomy during the programme.
“When I was on my first rotation, unsure about a certain approach to solving a problem, my manager’s answer was: ‘Don’t wait for me, I’m supporting your decision,’” says Meike Behrens, who is currently working in marketing on the future talent programme. “The unrestricted support and belief that I would do the right thing gave me a lot of confidence for my future work.”
The varied course content is planned between managers and participants together, depending on goals and interests, to develop competencies while gaining guidance from mentorship. The freedom to make decisions and to experiment enables those on the programme to influence the company’s development, while broadening their own experience.
Through exploring the latest technology and sharing knowledge, Tetra Pak’s future talent programme aims to help realise the ideas of a new generation of innovators, from marketing managers and financial analysts, to industrial designers and automation engineers.
