Ildiko Toth from Hungary found out about the unibz during a fair and was enthusiastic about the trilingual university. Today, the 26-year-old sports enthusiast is following a career as a product manager at Dr. Schär after a bachelor’s and a master’s degree – Economics and Management, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship – in Bozen-Bolzano.
Could you briefly describe your educational background?
I chose the unibz for my bachelor’s studies at the Faculty of Economics and Management due to the opportunity to study in three languages. This was very challenging for me, because none of the official languages are my mother tongue, which is Hungarian. After attaining my bachelor’s degree I started to work, first as an intern and then full-time. For this reason, I was hesitating about continuing with a Master’s program, but in the end I decided to attend the Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at unibz due to my personal interests in this field.
How did you come to pursue the career path of a product manager?
I remember that once at university we had a presentation of a family firm that focused on the role of a product manager, which awoke my interests in this role. First, I started my professional career at Miele Italia (Eppan-Appiano) as an intern in Product Management. After the intern experience, I remained at the same company and I continued to manage the category of Accessories, a rather dynamic field. Afterwards, I was very happy to find an amazing opportunity at Dr. Schär in the role of Product Manager in Medical Nutrition. This field enables me to unite my passions of nutrition, health, and sports.
What tasks does the job description include?
I am lucky to have a very dynamic and interesting role within the company; the Business Unit of Medical Nutrition is a “smaller” business with respect to the gluten-free business. Therefore, in the department I cover some cross-functional roles: as a product manager, I work hand in hand with R&D on new product ideas and the development of new products, which is very interesting in such a specialized market. On the other hand, I am directly involved in marketing activities, which cover the definition and execution of promotions and there is close collaboration with the sales department.
While you were still studying for your master’s degree you worked with students on a new product idea for a gluten-free straw, which was submitted to Dr Schär. Will this take shape?
This was a very innovative idea and we, as the Project Team, focused on creating a strong business case with the aim of launching a business to reduce the environmental impact of plastic. After the presentation of the project, I, together with another team member, had several discussions about the operative level of the business. These reflections were also taken to a higher level and our coach helped us to understand the next steps of such a business.
Unfortunately, we also had to realize that to make this project real, we would have to work full-time on it. Therefore, we made the decision to stop the project so we could concentrate on our university studies (at that time both of us still had to finish university) and on our current work.
In your experience, how many product ideas generally make it to the implementation phase?
In Dr. Schär there is a big focus on new products and innovative ideas in order to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Within the company, my business unit is a very special one as it is a niche, whose aim is to improve the life of people with rare diseases. So, we could define the medical business unit as a start-up within a large company. Every year, together with the R&D team, we come up with a variety of new ideas during our “Innovation Workshop”, putting a special focus also on nutritional values. Usually, we have around 8-10 new product ideas but in order to ensure a smooth workflow we give priority to only some of the ideas. After this step, we start with the development process, which could take up to more than a year, depending on the complexity of the project. In a year we can launch around 4-5 products, which is quite a good balance for such a small business unit. In 4 years, we have more than doubled our product range.
What have you taken with you from your time at university?
My studies enabled me to see the theoretical part of innovation, processes, and start-ups. This part was very helpful to complement my practical background that I acquired on the job. Moreover, I also learned that without a good team it is rather difficult to reach your goals. My master’s studies confirmed my strong interest in Innovation.
How difficult was it to combine work and study?
Honestly, it was a real challenge to conduct the Master’s studies with a full-time job. Luckily, my company and my direct supervisors were very open to the fact that I was studying, and they supported me a lot during that period. I am convinced that it is essential to have the support of the company, especially during the exam period. Moreover, I made some friends during my studies who helped me with the study material, since most of time I could not attend the lectures. I think the key for managing studies and working at the same time is time management and a 100% focus when it comes to studying for exams.
How important is innovation in your professional life?
Innovation in my job is very significant since I work in a very innovative business unit. Each year we dedicate a great deal of research in order to find the most innovative solutions and ingredients for our products. Innovation itself is very challenging and sometimes in order to launch innovative products we have to make trade-offs, for example with time, as new, out-of-the-box ideas always take more time to develop. On the other hand, this is fundamental to reach more consumers, making them happy, and to compete with our competitors on the market.
What do you still want to achieve professionally?
I only started to work a few years ago therefore I still have a lot of experience to gain, and I am happy that I can learn from my more experienced colleagues. I have high aspirations in the industries which I am passionate about: the food industry and the sports industry. I feel very motivated about issues regarding nutrition and health and I believe that passion is the engine that can take you higher on the career ladder. In my “free time” I promote practising sports and movement as a fitness instructor; at the moment I’m organizing in-house courses for my colleagues and my goal is to extend this activity also to external clients.
Are you still in contact with your fellow students? After all, Covid-19 has shaped your studies quite differently than planned.
I have some contacts with my classmates but as you can imagine the last year of Covid really changed the way we contact and meet each other. I met some special people who have supported me a lot during my studies, so I can be very thankful to them.
An advantage of Covid was the fact that the lectures became digitalized so I was not in a disadvantaged position any more and I could follow the lectures.