1The Challenge
What was the challenge?
Haleon was significantly revamping its Management Trainee programme, with direct sponsorship from its India President and cross-functional leadership, to build a high-performing pool of future leaders. The cohort — 13 trainees hired from top Indian business schools, destined mostly for Sales and Marketing roles — was about to begin a one-year journey, and this full day at the Gurgaon head office was where that journey started.
The brief was layered and deliberate. Haleon wanted four things at once: to immerse the trainees in the company's purpose and "Win as One" culture; to build genuine belief in its consumer health portfolio and the cause of preventive healthcare; to support the transition from campus to corporate with practical workplace skills; and to forge a strong sense of cohort identity and belonging. This was a fresh, bright group straight out of B-school — full of capability but new to corporate life, and forming their first impressions of what Haleon would mean to them. The opening had to do something specific: connect them to purpose and brand before the day moved into workplace simulation and skill-building, so everything that followed had a foundation of belief to stand on.
2Our Solution
What solution did we design?
The Vision Board was designed as that foundation — the first step in a carefully architected day. Rather than presenting Haleon's purpose to the trainees, it asked them to construct their own relationship with it. Each participant created a vision board exploring three questions: Who am I as a Haleon MT? How do I contribute to "better everyday health with humanity"? And how do I build belief in Haleon's brands and its preventive-healthcare mission?
The choice is a deliberate one. Purpose that's presented tends to be nodded at and forgotten; purpose that's personally articulated tends to stick. By having trainees make their connection tangible and visual on their very first day, the Vision Board turned Haleon's mission from a corporate statement into something each person had defined in their own terms — building the consumer-first mindset and ownership of their own growth that the rest of the programme would draw on. It mapped directly to Haleon's strategic drivers of superior brands and full-potential people, and to the "consumer first, always" and "grow myself and others" behaviours.
The Vision Board opened a four-part journey, each stage building on the last: AI Movie Making translated consumer-first thinking into a real innovation challenge; Bridge the Gap simulated cross-functional workplace collaboration; and Radiant Mosaic closed the day by uniting every trainee's contribution into a single "Health in More Hands" artwork, cementing cohort identity and the "Win as One" idea. A Growth Mindset Quotient quiz and VUCA-focused debrief elements ran through the programme, tying the experiential work back to Haleon's leadership behaviours.
3How We Did It
How was the programme delivered?
The day was structured as a progression from inner belief to collective identity. It opened with the Vision Board: the 13 trainees each built their personal board around who they are as Haleon MTs and how they connect to the company's purpose and brands. Facilitators then led a debrief drawing out how each person connected personally with Haleon's purpose, what consumer-first thinking looks like in their role, and how they'd take ownership of their own growth journey from day one.
From that foundation, the programme moved through its subsequent stages — consumer-first innovation in AI Movie Making, stakeholder navigation and collaboration in Bridge the Gap, and belonging in Radiant Mosaic — with each activity explicitly mapped to Haleon's strategic drivers and "Win as One" behaviours, and each debrief connecting the experience back to what it looks like in practice at Haleon. The day closed with trainees articulating a personal pledge: to put the consumer first, take ownership and act proactively, and collaborate to win as one. Throughout, the whole design was delivered in Haleon's own language and visual identity, so the trainees experienced it as an authentic part of joining Haleon rather than an external workshop.
4Key Outcomes
What were the results?
The Vision Board gave Haleon's incoming Management Trainees a personal, self-authored connection to the company's purpose on their very first day — the foundation the rest of the immersion was built on. Rather than being told what Haleon stands for, each trainee defined what it meant to them.
As the opening of a fully mapped campus-to-corporate journey, the Vision Board set exactly the right tone — connecting a bright new cohort to purpose and brand before building the skills and belonging that would carry them through their year as Haleon MTs.