Luke

Tesco.com (Operations Development)

Operations Development is really process design. So it’s looking at how something is currently done and scratching your head and trying to work out how you can do it better. Then it’s coming up with the solution, talking someone else into actually agreeing with you, and then actually putting it into place.

So my job title is Operations Development Manager and I look after the team that develops Tesco’s Dot.com only store. The surprising thing about working in Tesco.com is, most people have absolutely no idea about how an order placed on the website, manages to get to their door. The really surprising thing when you get into the office is that there are lots of people, worrying about a lot more things than just that. So there will be people in the office working on a project that customers won’t see for years to come. So if you think of something like Tesco Compare, which was launched about six months ago - there’d have been a lot of people working on that, leading up to its launch. The office has a lot of buzz about it because there are a lot of projects going on that no one ever knows about. For the five years I’ve been there, its always been the same.

So I worked on DVD rental by post, which no one had ever heard of, but was actually an idea from the States. Now it’s commonplace and the way it works is commonplace, but at the time everyone was excited about it. Right now there are half a dozen things like that, that people are working on and no one knows about.

For my career I see myself staying in Dot.com for the time being – I’ve quite a bit of unfinished business in my current role. But from here I’d like to move into the main business. There is a massive world of Tesco out there which is not just Dot.com. Dot.com is the fastest growing part of the business at the moment, but there’s stuff that goes on in the business that’s just mind-blowing.