Nicholas

Supply Chain

Supply Chain is all about reducing waste and improving availability - both on the shelf and in our distribution centres. We need to achieve this whilst balancing stock holding as Tesco obviously don't want to be holding too much stock because it costs us money to actually hold it. So if we can deliver great availability, with minimum stock holding and reduced waste - then that's the perfect situation for Tesco.

My expectations of the grad scheme were that it was going to be very fast paced and very exciting. I knew that they'd be a lot of customer interface. Where I was surprised was the responsibility I received for managing a project. I expected to play a bit part within each team, but actually I was responsible for leading projects and rolling them out.

When I joined Tesco I didn't have a set career path in mind. I knew I wanted to progress, but I didn't have a great understanding of the different areas. However since I've been with Tesco I have come to appreciate the opportunities they have and I now understand that you can have a completely multi-channelled career path, just by understanding different areas and you can actually move from one department to another really easily. I find that everyone's different, with different career aspirations. The one thing that's for everyone is that they know about Tesco through their everyday lives - whether they shop there or they have just heard about it through the media.

The training that Tesco offer is really fantastic. They've offered all of the different training around the systems I use, even the basics around Outlook and Excel, and also around leadership skills and the Tesco values. So I'd say that the training really is quite endless.