Despite being only 44, the chief executive of Unilever Thailand is a man from a bygone era. A man who joins the company right out of university, builds a career and climbs the ladder from intern to executive in an age when most people feel they have no ladder to climb and either jump ship or sink.
While the trends show that employees are increasingly alienated from the companies they work for, Robert Candelino lives through his work, unironically and without cynicism.
"When I'm at the store, I buy only Unilever products," he says. "Even when my wife is trying a product we don't even have an alternative to, I still try and steer her back to one of our products."
Mr Candelino is a company man through and through. Over a career spanning 23 years, five cities and four countries, he's worn about 10 different hats while managing some of Unilever's most esteemed brands, including Dove. But he wasn't always sure if he was destined for a life at Unilever.
After graduating from university in Canada, he desperately needed a job. As a child of poor Italian immigrants, he was ready to do "virtually anything" as long as the right company would invest in him.
"I was confident enough to know I could make an impact, but insecure enough to know I didn't know anything," Mr Candelino says. Oddly enough, his first interview at Unilever didn't lead to a job. His grades were too low, he says. But a woman at the interview saw something in him and later offered him an internship, the first of its kind in the group's Canadian office.
From there, Mr Candelino began his meteoric rise at the company, working in Toronto, Chicago, London, New York and finally Bangkok -- bringing his wife and two sons halfway around the world to what he calls "one of the great economic ecosystems in the world".
"This job was a gift for me," he says. "Our executives came to me with this role and I love it here. It is the privilege of my professional life to do this job. My kids love it; they can swim and play football all year round, and their dad works for a company that makes ice cream."
Like a lot of businessmen, Mr Candelino would rather talk about anything but business. After a long conversation with him, it's difficult to remember that he works for the largest consumer goods manufacturer in the world and not the world's largest multifaceted charity operation. He feels much more comfortable waxing poetic about Unilever's programme to give jobs to ice cream vendors in rural provinces than holding forth on profit projections and lucrative M&As.
"The cheaper the brand, the more impact it can have on people's lives," he says. "I saw that everywhere I went, from the alleys in Vietnam to the favelas [i.e., shantytowns] in Brazil.
"Sometimes I get a little too passionate about it because I care so much about making an impact. Sometimes that makes me hard to work with, but my employees understand this. I think the role of leaders is to set outrageously ambitious goals, be unreasonable in obtaining them, and attract and obtain the best people to achieve them, then get out of the way."
In a past performance review, he was told that his team members thought he was very tough and demanding but were fine with it because they believed he set a higher standard for himself than he did for his team.
But Mr Candelino still has the problem of onboarding employees with the same passion, or at least retention rate, that he has. Despite his infectious enthusiasm, he still must hire millennials who see their career path as less linear and get antsy after just a few years at one company.
"I wouldn't see it as a problem, I'd see it as a consideration," he says. "It's tough for a company that prides itself on a decades-long training programme. But we've never guaranteed employment for life; we guarantee employability. We invest in our people and give them massively good employment development skills and give them roles to pursue their career."
Still, he says Unilever is the most sought-after company to work for in Thailand across all sectors, enjoying above-average attrition levels relative to corporate peers.
He says the priorities have changed for young talent, with purpose and meaning becoming a much higher priority, above the basic materiality of a paycheck and vacation days. And a sense of purpose is something he is happy to provide his employees.
"What's wrong with a whole generation of young people who demand that companies are more responsible in their sustainability? What's wrong with these people saying I want you to invest in talent and training for me, I want you to send me abroad to get these experiences? My God, there is nothing wrong with that and it has made us better as a company."
Mr Candelino sees himself as the luckiest man alive. In fact, his assistant has called him "good luck man". Luck has followed Mr Candelino throughout his career, from his fateful first interview to his subsequent promotions.
The chief executive of Unilever, Alan Jope, also came up through the company with a posting in Thailand, and he's taken on a mentorship role for Mr Candelino, who says Mr Jope was "invaluable" to his start in the country. But Mr Candelino bristles at the idea that he may be destined for the top job.
"I'm not smart enough," he says frankly. "To get to that position, I would have to have so much luck, way more luck than it took to get to this point. But right now I like having the time to read bedtime stories to my kids."
Seeing the good fortune in the opportunities he's enjoyed through the company, Mr Candelino tries to pay it forward, giving chances to young applicants who perhaps have more gumption than grades, those he sees a bit of himself in.
"I wouldn't be here if Mary Swaffield didn't do it for me 23 years ago," he says. "I've been able to do it myself throughout my career. My message to college kids is to never conform, be yourself, own it, and don't let anyone tell you you're not good enough."