The Consumer Society

AUTHOR: Polly Johnson   DATE: 01.05.05   ISSUE 1, 2005
Do you know what FMCG stands for? FMCG is the abbreviated form of ‘Fast Moving Consumer Goods’.

FMCG is a key sector in today’s business world. As Vinod Kumar, President of the AGSM’s newly established FMCG Club will tell you:

“FMCG represents all retail goods with a short shelf life, either as a result of high consumer demand or because the product itself deteriorates rapidly.”

There are huge employment opportunities in the FMCG sector. Think of all the enormous corporations the sector encompasses: Coca-Cola Amatil, Johnson and Johnson Pacific, Lion Nathan, Cadbury Schweppes, David Jones, Myer and Woolworths to name just a few. This industry is large and growing in today’s consumer driven society.

“We want to craft a link between industry and the school.”
Photo: Michael Frey (Shu Wen Tai and Vinod Kumar)

The FMCG industry is of especial interest to Vinod and Shu given their backgrounds.

Vinod comes to Sydney from India via Dubai, where he worked for four years as a chef at the seven-star Burj Al Arab Hotel, distinctive for its sail-like structure. He hopes to consolidate his experience in hospitality, service and operations with his MBA business skills to go into the FMCG industry or into hospitality consulting.

“We want to craft a link between the FMCG industry and the school.”

Shu on the other hand, hails from Singapore and has worked in the retail industry for a supermarket. She chose AGSM desiring personal and professional development, and thinks the fact that staff and students come from a variety of backgrounds is one of the school’s best features. She says “this [diversity] gives everyone the chance to learn something new from all our interactions both social and academic.”

Especially exciting to Shu, who says she is “quite passionate about this technological development”, is the implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Australia. Companies such as Walmart in the United States and Gillette in the United Kingdom already use technology to track logistical operations and customer behaviour.

It is a slightly controversial issue for a society simultaneously embracing technological advancement and concerned with privacy intrusions. Gillette, in fact, nearly faced a boycott when they first introduced the technology.