Aisle Spy
The blog that goes behind the scenes at Asda.
Meet our graduates
Karl
Business Development Manager
Finance Graduate
I’m Karl and I joined Asda straight from UMIST (the University of Manchester) on the graduate programme 4 years ago.
I was attracted to Asda because I saw it as a company where I could build a long term career, experience many different sides of the business and get the support I needed to study for a CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification.
For the first 18 months I was with the Trading Accounts Team getting to know all about Asda’s financial systems, how to produce all of the core reporting, forecasting trading performance and developing new management information for the business. From there I moved to Logistics Finance, where I embarked upon my first commercial finance position. The work here was much more project based and I was able to go out and visit sites to better understand the complex nature of distribution.
For the last 16 months I have been working in the Business Development team, looking after the financials for our non food business. This role has been a great eye opener to the world of commercial finance, supporting trading directors in the day to day management of their business, signing off business cases for new initiatives and managing financial risk. In the last 12 months it has been extremely interesting as we’ve traded through difficult economic times. The weakening pound, disposable income at its lowest for some years and house prices plummeting – all of which impact on our decisions to the do the right thing for the customer.
Having now graduated from the finance programme, it’s much clearer to see the huge development curve that I’ve been through both on the scheme and since my graduation. There is a great support structure in place to help you progress through the roles and through promotion. There’s no limit to the speed in which you want to develop and there will always be a new and exciting role to move into next.
There’s an amazing team spirit working at Asda. Everyone pulls together to deliver the best support for our stores, and the best value for our customers. As an Accountant, we always keep our eyes firmly fixed on the bottom line whilst being totally involved in every aspect of our business performance in every step of the way.
It’s also a place that’s full of surprises. For example I never thought I would be competing in an "Apprentice" style challenge that was part of the last graduate development day. Based in Asda Living Oldham helping to sell our chosen products was a great way of experiencing the day to day challenges that stores face. A great task and even better that our team won!