In honour of Women’s Day on 9 August, meet Symrise’s Bettina Bicknell.
Bicknell recently joined the Symrise team as marketing manager sub-Saharan Africa, flavour division. Here are some of her passions, expertise and what unique vision she brings to her new role at the international flavour and fragrance powerhouse!
Q: Give a brief history of yourself and your career.
Bicknell: My career has been an amazing journey that spans across a wide remit of FMCG categories. Every single one bringing their own sense of wonder and opportunities to learn and challenge myself.
Q: What are you passionate about?
Bicknell: Doing good. (Whether it be in a personal capacity for the small NGOs I support or from a larger corporate perspective where I get to work on longer-term more enabling projects that help on a much greater scale). That, photography and before lockdown – growing my South African Craft Gin Collection.
Q: What is the biggest challenge for you in your new position?
Bicknell: Learning fast, becoming an expert in a multitude of fields in a short time space. Symrise has been wonderfully supportive and onboarded me beautifully. My pressures have been purely self-inflicted.
Q: What do you think the role of women is in a major corporation?
Bicknell: Besides a different perspective, the way women act, interact and behave is different so this brings a different dynamic to a business which can assist in given a more balanced view or different strategic perspective to the current view.
Q: What do you do for fun?
Bicknell: This has changed quite a lot since lockdown. We’ve definitely bounced wholeheartedly into the ‘treat your home as sanctuary/ improve your home’ trend that lockdown has brought along, besides walking our dogs, cycling (I have two children under 10 so most of our activities are family-based), we’ve grown our own veggie-garden and done numerous DIY projects which take up most of our weekend time.
Q: How do you feel about the role of women in the F&B industry?
Bicknell: The industry is evolving and its fantastic to see how women are growing as the industry involves, not only in their prevalence in the workplace but also within senior management and exec-level roles. This is core to Symrise and it’s great to be part of a supportive organisation that encourages female development, diversity and work-life balance the way they do.
Q: What do your personally do to make women feel more included.
Bicknell: I’m a strong advocate of “Real Queens Fix each-other’s Crowns” and female empowerment. Inclusion is critical. By this I mean engaging with all peers as equals and building trust and respect by showing respect and kindness yourself.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share for Women’s Day?
Bicknell: As women we often suffer from “Imposter Syndrome” where we doubt our own capabilities and self-belief. As a wonderful mentor once said to me in one of my moments of self-doubt. Think about all the things you’ve actually done, the actions you have taken that have led to accomplishments, you did that. No-one else. Ladies, don’t let fear inhibit you from reaching your true potential and goals. Look at what you’ve done and what you are capable of. You are worthy, you can do it. Go for it. If it doesn’t challenge you, you will never grow.
