Cambridge Judge Letter of Recommendation Example – 1

To Whomsoever It May Concern: Letter of Recommendation for Aadish

Having worked directly with Aadish for over three years since he joined Bacardi’s Global Travel Retail (GTR) Division in 2016, I have witnessed his positive contribution to our division’s growth and been impressed with his progress across different functions and projects. I have engaged with Aadish during his roles in Revenue Growth Management (2016/18), Brand Management (2018/19) as Senior Commercial Director for the business and more recently in his Insight & Strategy role as Managing Director, Bacardi Global Travel Retail.

Aadish’s strengths are

1. Brings a long-term perspective
2. Tenacious, strong work ethic
3. Intellectual curiosity especially around data
4. An ability to collaborate & engage in teams

Aadish supported me in the development of a Purpose & Vision for our business, along with the wider GTR leadership team. He astutely took inputs from a cross-section of stakeholders and distilled these into key imperatives for our business over the strategic plan cycle. Aadish created a ‘walk-to-vision’ i.e. a 10 year horizon plan across categories to set up requirements and milestones for our 10 year transformation plan. Throughout this process, his long-term perspective on factors that could shape the business was impressive – especially since these forums involved senior business leaders. He acted on this long-term perspective by developing a 12 Quarter Innovation Pipeline including future trending product categories like cognac (with D’USSE) or American Whiskey (with ANGEL’S ENVY) to support delivery of the GTR ‘walk-to-vision’.

Aadish is tenacious and brings a strong work ethic. This has been evident in his innovation projects on BACARDI rums ‘label-personalisation’ and GREY GOOSE vodka ‘Destination City Packs’ development. Based on an insight around personalisation, Aadish supported the creation of a program on BACARDI rum that gave consumers access to personalize their rum bottles. As a ‘first-ever’ this project faced several internal regulatory and global brand marketing barriers. However, Aadish tenaciously held firm and was able to successfully pilot it with strong results in 2018. In 2019, this program rolled out in over 40 international airports. Aadish’s tenacity & strong work ethic enabled delivery of GREY GOOSE Destination City Packs where he persevered in identifying the right flexible innovation technology to deliver smaller production runs in order to create this exclusive pack for travelers. 2019’s plan covers seven international airport cities of Sydney, Singapore, Mumbai, Dubai, Paris, London and New York & will be scaled up in 2020. These two projects showcased Aadish’s ability to step-up, be tenacious and persevere with a strong work ethic.

Intellectual curiosity especially around data is a skill that Aadish has demonstrated over the past few years in GTR. It was at its best display when he was Brand Manager PATRON working on the integration of PATRON into Bacardi GTR (Bacardi Limited acquired PATRON in May 2018). A pivotal integration task was to develop a fit-for-purpose consumer pricing model for PATRON’s roll-out in GTR. Based on a deep review of extensive consumer pricing data across different geographical regions (domestic high street retail as well as airport retail), competitive brands and internal data, Aadish created the price repositioning commercial plan for PATRON. This plan is currently being implemented and will support value generation for Bacardi GTR in the context of our commitments to deliver the wider business’ acquisition model for the brand.

Aadish has lived, studied and worked across different geographies e.g. India, Thailand, USA, UAE and the United Kingdom. This exposure to diverse cultures contributes to his unique ability to work seamlessly and collaboratively in cross-cultural teams. Aadish best demonstrated this ability to work in cross-cultural teams when he was leading pricing plans for 2017 in his  Revenue Growth Management role. One particular success was with a key Asian retailer, where he actively listened to the team around the retailer’s needs and then flexed his style in responding thereby, giving the commercial team a more nuanced solution to support a tough negotiation.

Aadish’s development areas are around being more expressive & presentation skills. Aadish often has good ideas and his intellectual curiosity opens up interesting perspectives; however he tends to be reticent in larger forums. The business would definitely benefit if Aadish were to speak-his-mind more often. He would also have far greater impact with improved presentation skills – specifically around simplifying his messaging and delivering it with confidence.  Aadish has had conversations with his line managers on this subject and begun to act on this feedback particularly around presentation skills. I am aware he is now taking initiative to present at the marketing team monthly meetings and in our wider quarterly business review meetings.

Aadish would strongly benefit from a Masters in Business Adminstration (MBA). It will help give him a broader & more strategic business perspective coupled with exposure to wider functional skills – beyond what he has experienced at Bacardi. It will better shape and fast-track his development as he learns from a diverse faculty and peer group at an MBA program.  I believe Aadish’s decision to pursue an MBA at the Said Business School, Oxford University at this point of time is the right one and am delighted to provide this letter of recommendation in support of his application.