I am a newly appointed Graduate Commercial Manager for Marks and Spencer having passed their graduate assessment process in March. This will now be a weekly record of my achievements and happenings to help with my half and full year reviews.

Prior to the first day, I had an attachment day at the Thurrock store which allowed me and the other grads (there are 3 of us in total) to meet as well as meet those that will become our colleagues and mentors. Here we were accompanied by one of the current BPP Grads for the day and had a tour of the store and met various members of the team across the store including other Commercial and Section Managers. They did not want to give us too much information at the attachment day regarding the department we’d be working in as it was subject to change – especially after they found out that 2 or us had had previous experience working for M&S before.

Along comes the first week – 2 weeks after the attachment day we arrived at the store…
The first 2 weeks of the scheme are a case of meeting everyone (or as many people as possible!) from various levels across the store so not just management. One thing I’ve noticed is how friendly everyone is and how prepared they are to help.

This week has primarily been filled with Trading Safely and Legally (TSL) and Compliance issues and completing the necessary paperwork to adhere to legislation i.e. challenge 25 etc.

We found out which departments we are going to be managing from now until after Peak in 2012 and met our mentors. I have been assigned Ladieswear and will be working with Irfan who is the most senior commercial manager in store. Within LW I will be looking after Knitwear which going into Winter will have a HUGE margin increase.

Though I’ve already used the new POS tills for a number of months prior to starting the Grad scheme, I chose to attend the till training session should there be anything that I had not previously covered. This was particularly useful with regards to Xmas Gift receipts. I found out how to print these for a customer that has already completed their transaction and realised they require them.

As graduates we also sat in on both Section Management and Commercial Management set up Monday meetings.

In order to meet people I have been shadowing 2 of the LW section management team – Pam (whom I will be working with directly as she manages knitwear) and Helen who looks after neighbouring departments.

Pam and I have already been discussing the possibility of a move to increase knitwear’s performance as the Autumn phase 2 policy pack doesn’t seem to be working in the Thurrock store. For this I am going to review Business Best Sellers, Range and Best Seller Line Reports to put a case forward to Irfan.

Thursday of this week I was at a graduate induction day at the Pantheon store in London. This was an opportunity to meet other grads from “nearby” stores, the closest being Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. It also provided a company history and more detail about support networks available and a bit more about the job role that we’re going to have. There were 2 current grads that started in April (the earlier intake) to answer questions and explain more about some of the courses we can expect to go on.

Two projects I have worked on this week are:
- One Day Wardrobe Clearout
- Regional Focus flyer for stores.

ODWC took place when I was at my induction in London, however, Matt and I worked with Chris Coulson to produce the documentation to monitor how many vouchers were given out to customers (as required by Head Office). This information I collected on Friday AM and submitted using the MSW Proforma. We’d given out 466 vouchers and provided Oxfam with 11 boxes.

The Regional Focus flyer project was given to me by Irfan who came to me with a Retail Focus document and wanted me to produce a version that he could edit with relevant text to send out to all the stores in the regional. This was simply enough to produce, though MS Word wouldn’t have been the software program of choice had I been producing it at home…!
The outcome of this is not yet known as Irfan had gone into a meeting when I left for the day.

This project took priority of receiving my assessment day feedback and a week review with Irfan. This we agreed to reschedule to Monday between meetings.

Designed for a clothes designer for a new clothing range launch at Bloomingdales in New York, it is set to chance the way we shop!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=cgjtfsp8qiZWuxTK8Zd97Q_3d_3d

Ok, so I’m procrastinating, if only this could happen to make the time pass quicker!

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-project-natal/50017

Magic Mirror – Social Shopping

Enhancing the shopping experience.
Take the hassle out of shopping.

Just need a name for it now. Hmm.

I wonder if I could make something to combine this and an interest in Africa/HIV and Aids?!?! Strange combo I know, but I went to Kenya at Xmas 2008 and met some amazing children that are surfers of the disease and was thinking of doing a skydive to raise money for them. Hmm.

I thought it was going to be about a digital magazine, but instead its about rescuing failing magazine with effective designs. Essentially I agree with the speak – content goes hand in hand with design – one without the other and the magazine fails.