Operation Transformation Lead
Marks and Spencer

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My name’s Gemma.

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I’m an operation transformation lead,

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and I work for Marks and Spencer’s, based at

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the Castle Donington Distribution Centre.

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Currently, I’m working on transformation

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here at Castle Donington which is a

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huge expansion of automation on site.

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So that involves new picking stations, new packing stations.

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My school experience was a bit mixed.

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I was very shy.

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The world scared me.

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I was bullied.

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It’s fair to say I wasn’t a natural academic.

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Had to go to reading school when I started high school

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because I couldn’t read, couldn’t spell.

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I just didn’t fit in the classroom.

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So I got average grades.

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But actually, when I left school, I went to

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night school to retake my maths and my English.

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And just being in a different environment

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with adults was a completely different experience.

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I was at college, did small animal care.

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I volunteered at the PDSA, and I got offered

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an apprenticeship to do veterinary nursing.

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And that same week, I had a motorbike accident.

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I was in and out hospital, still am,

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through many surgeries to rebuild my leg.

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So I needed to get a job, a sit-down job.

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So I got a job in a call centre for a credit card company.

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And went from working as a

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call centre operator to managing a call centre

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in terms of the distribution of calls.

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Thought there must be

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something better than this for a

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longer career. So I went to a bank

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and unfortunately that wasn’t a good move.

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So what can I do?

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So I trained to become a driving instructor.

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To keep the money ticking along,

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I got a temporary job as a postwoman

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whilst being a driving instructor.

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So I ran them side by side.

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I got to the point where my leg was too bad,

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so I got offered the chance to go on delivery office manager.

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Unfortunately, my leg gave up completely, so I

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had to retire from working at Royal Mail.

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It’s a very physical job, isn’t it?

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So then I saw the job at Marks and Spencer’s

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for a lead technician within the control room.

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The only distribution now was stock,

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moving around the warehouse, stock coming out the

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warehouse, stock coming in the warehouse, etc.

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So I’ve got all the transferrable elements,

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but I didn’t know the software.

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So I went for the job interview

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and they declined me for the job based on the

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fact that I didn’t know the software.

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So with that, I went home, I researched the

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email addresses, remembered the names of the

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people that interviewed me, and I wrote to them

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and I said what a great interview it was.

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I agreed with their reason for declining me,

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because they were correct, I didn’t know the system,

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but I got all the transferrable elements.

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And I said I was that confident that I could learn

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the system, they could have me free for a month.

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I didn’t get the job that I originally applied for.

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They brought me in as sort of like

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a base level job to prove myself.

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So within 12 months, I’ve got the job that I

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originally applied for and was declined for.

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And within 18 months, I was then the

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shift manager for the control room.

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If someone says I can’t do something – no, I can.

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So there’s always a way, you’ve just got to find it.

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It was that bike accident

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that defined who I am and what I am today.

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Don’t know what it was inside, but just something

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kind of grabbed hold of me and just like,

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the only person that’s gonna get over this is me.

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And it gave me that drive.

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And that drive continues.

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By working hard in my 10 years at Castle Donington,

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I’ve travelled around so many different

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career paths, and gained so much knowledge,

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not because I knew what I wanted to do, but because

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I worked hard and doors naturally opened.

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And I’ve enjoyed every door as it’s opened.