British amercian tobacco in singapore

[davidtanwei]

Hi,

Anyone already working there or has friends working there.
What is the working culture there? Is it like japanese style?

thanks

[dellysunny]

from the name of the company, it seems like not a japanese style company. :-)

[davidtanwei]

Originally Posted by dellysunny

from the name of the company, it seems like not a japanese style company. :-)

I mean its hard to say. It depends on the internal. If the manager is previously from japan company. He bring along his style too.

Anyone have any information on this company culture and the people inside there

What department you joining?

My sister used to work there in supply chain. Her comments are the pay & benefits not bad, but culture very bureaucratic because the style there is no matter what you do must have agreement from all other related departments.

She was only a small fry manager, so she say even booking meeting with so many stakeholders from different department can vomit blood.

got a couples of friends working there (one is an FC).. it has good benefits (think they are on 13.5 months salary and their CPF employer contributions is higher too > 13%, culture wise .. british/eu ...) ..

If you are good, they will fast-track you. 2 friends went to UK, 1 went to TW on expat terms... (BAT is doing less of this now)... good brand name & experience ... but it is bureau... it is the same everywhere

I worked in US FT500, better pay compare to BAT, but can be fired/lay-off anytime ......

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you are good, they will fast-track you. 2 friends went to UK, 1 went to TW on expat terms... (BAT is doing less of this now)... good brand name & experience ... but it is bureau... it is the same everywhere

Yar, they don't do this kind of international fast track now liao. This was actually one of the main reasons my sis left. During the annual review they told her that she was high potential and they intend to send her to HK where the regional office is.

Then they start to cut cost and she told me a lot of all these international people were all hastily called back and just chuck into smaller jobs in SG. She saw no hope liao that's why left. But from what I hear, the bureaucracy is not the normal kind you see in big MNC, is really very power one like government.

She was running some supply chain process improvement project and no sh!t, she had to call a meeting to get everyone including manufacturing, sales, marketing, HR, Finance, HK, UK and all sorts of strange people. Told me the set up meeting part already take more than 2 months.

To pompipi: What you said is just partially true. There are still international fast track programmes in BAT but like what you said, it has been cut down alot in the last few years due to cost cuting etc. Regarding your sister, all i can say is that she is a good performer but not the best. High potentials are still a class below the 1st tier performers in BAT and that is why their opportunities are still somewhat limited. In terms of bureaucracy, you are right to say that it is not the normal MNC kind. But whether it is as "powerful" as in the government sector, god knows.