From graduate job to globe-trotting retail career: international travels in internal audit

I always wanted to get involved with finance but banking never really appealed because it seemed so intangible. In comparison, I could understand how finance might work in a retail environment: it’s much more concrete and affects everyone – me, my family, and my friends.

Placement in marketing

I started working for Tesco in the marketing department where it was my job to provide financial support to the team. This included two key reporting tasks: presenting weekly reports of key numbers and periodic management accounts (a monthly view of sales and expenses and the profit and loss account).

The placement allowed me to see how marketing works, from advertising campaigns to further developing the Clubcard scheme. I got to see what the company was spending, how it was spending it and the benefit of the company’s spending to the customer. When I switched on the TV or walked into my local store I would see an advertising campaign I had helped plan two months earlier. I found it immensely rewarding to see projects I had worked on come to fruition in this way.

Working on property

My next stint was in property looking at capital spending, which is a very different environment to marketing. I saw which new stores were in the pipeline, how much was being spent on new stores and even spent some time out on site. This role involved providing financial support to both property and finance directors, which was a great challenge.

A secondment in the US

My last placement was a secondment to California for three months. Our business in the US market had only just got off the ground and I was responsible for retail reporting. This involved setting up a reporting capability and the financial measures used to help an organisation define and measure progress towards organisational goals.

Every market is different and it’s crucial to the success of the business that you understand the customer in that particular market: what does the customer in LA want to see in store?

Moving into internal audit

Since completing the scheme I’ve moved into internal audit. The department carries out six-week reviews across the whole business so you really get an insight into how the business fits togther and works in its entirety.

Each review has a planning stage, fieldwork in the country (three weeks) and a report-writing stage. I have to look at the structure currently in place and assess how the process works and whether it works effectively. The planning has to be thorough so I’m clear about what I want to achieve when I’m there and on what timescale.

A cultural challenge in Shanghai

I love travelling internationally, so when an opportunity came up to do an audit in China I jumped at the chance. I was tasked with reviewing the buying operation in Shanghai. This involved looking at how the whole process works, from how we source our goods to getting the goods to the stores.

I had a culture awareness course before the trip, teaching me how I should conduct myself in a business environment… for example business cards are very important in China as they are linked with status. It’s really important to the get a good grounding in the business in the UK before you go abroad. The three weeks of fieldwork are tough – you’re certainly not sent off for a jolly; your job is to add value to the business.

The highs and lows of working in retail

There are many down-to-earth aspects to the job, but there’s a lot of scope for career progression and I’ve been given opportunities that have far surpassed my expectations. The fundamentals are simple – you need;

• the right products
• in the right quantities
• at the right time
• at the right price

It is the scale of the operations that are huge and potentially complicated: we source products from around the globe and have to get the right products on to the right shelves whether in the UK, the Czech Republic, China or the US. A lot goes on behind the scenes that you don’t even think about.

Christopher Gee is a group auditor at Tesco. He graduated in 2005 from the University of Bristol with a first in Physics and Philosophy (BSc) with study in Germany.