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LISTen Up

Posted by Hannah on 16 Aug 07

With only 5 weeks to go until I move to London after finishing my placement in Dublin, I've started making lots of lists.  Here's one that's not to do with work deadlines or packing...

Things I'll miss about Ireland....

  1. Breakfast - Tea, toast and banter at 10 o'clock every morning is definitely the way forward. 
  2. Car park - Being able to park right in front of the office building.  Excellent for lazy people like me. 
  3. Scones & Soda Bread - They just don't taste the same at home.
  4. People - So friendly with the ability to consume extraordinarily large amounts of alcohol and be fine for work the next day. 
  5. Seaside - Living 5 minutes from the beach is bliss on a sunny day. 

Things I won't miss about Ireland....

  1. Lunch - The dodgy vending machine and microwave system in the canteen is (in my humble opinion) questionable. 
  2. Car park - Driving in on a rainy day to find the front car park full, knowing that you've forgotten your umbrella and that the 5 minute walk from the factory car park will leave you soaked. 
  3. Scones & Soda Bread - I've eaten enough of them in the last 12 months to last me a lifetime. 
  4. People - I cannot consume half as much alcohol as the average Irish person (or anyone else for that matter) but I will still feel twice as them bad the next day. 
  5. Seaside - Living 5 minutes from the beach also means constantly finding sand in your shoes. 

What Next?

Posted by Lucia on 13 Aug 07

Have arrived in on Monday morning with lots on my to-do list, only to find the server where all my files are stored is currently unavailable (someone mentioned something about cabinets being damaged - sure that means something in IT world?!). My options of things to do are severely limited -

1) Dig out my performance objectives from the start of the year and load them onto our new online performance management system

2) Update my CIMA log book which records all the relevant experience I have had in Cadbury Schweppes which I need to become qualified once my exams are over

3) Write a blog

So, I have chosen to write a blog - I think the last one I wrote was around this time last year, or perhaps even longer ago, when I had been just about to start doing CIMA exams. Seems like a long time ago - I have just booked my study courses for my third set of exams (after these in November, there will be two more sessions left and then I will be finished!), and have my first day of tuition on Friday this week. My CIMA summer is over - CIMA summer defined (by me) as the period between finishing exams at end of May, and getting results at end of July.

I recently found out what my third placement would be on the graduate scheme - I will be moving to Distribution Finance in October. It will be great to have a new challenge and learn about another area of the business (last year I worked in Sales Finance, this year in Supply Chain Finance). However, there's still lots to do in this role - we are currently setting the budgets for next year, as well as determining what the standard costs for all our products will be in 2008. As it feels like we're only halfway through 2007 at the moment, it's quite difficult to predict what will be happening a year from now and beyond.

Oh well, hopefully the server will be back up soon. In the mean time, I have just arranged to meet one of my cost centre managers to discuss their year-to-go 2007 forecast - luckily I sent them a summary via email last week so I can retrieve it from my sent messages and get on with ticking off some things on that ever increasing to-do list...

 

Nothing Dampens my Enthusiasm

Posted by Adam on 26 Jul 07

This week started late - after a weekend spent travelling through the flooded roads between London and Birmingham and a late night game of American Football on Sunday (returning to Birmingham at 1am) I needed Monday morning off.

The week began by planning how I was going to put together the HR budget for 2008. Trying to predict the future is never easy; however it is particularly difficult with the changes that the business is currently going through.

This took up a large portion of Monday and Tuesday, which were also interspersed with those ad-hoc requests that we all love! Deciding on commodity codes for duty purposes is always a particular favourite.

Wednesday brought together the double whammy of both IT and VAT. A fun filled afternoon was had reviewing the progress to date and ensuring that actions were agreed for the reports completion.

Thursday brought another trip along the M40 - this time there was no waiting around in traffic jams and crawling through standing water. This time I was in one of the London offices presenting my plan for the budget process to the HR Director. After his agreement the majority of the afternoon was spent with the relevant HR managers bottoming out the detail for 2008.

Today is also results day for those taking CIMA (thankfully I finished my exams in March) and therefore we have a lot of tension in the office.  Hopefully we will be able to celebrate a good set of results with a few drinks on the town this evening. Figures crossed!

 

Reality Bites

Posted by Rob on 18 Jul 07

I have been on the Cadbury Schweppes graduate scheme for almost a year now and to try and sum up what I have done in that time in one small paragraph is going to prove extremely difficult to do!!!!

I have been working in supply chain finance at Bournville looking after the spend for Milk Tray and Easter Egg production, as well as the entire indirect spend for the factory.  In brief I have found my time here to be both extremely challenging and rewarding.

My biggest problem initially was learning to get out of bed and be in the office for 8am (4 years of mid-morning lectures at university along with the mid-week partying had not prepared me well for that!). Along with that came a very steep learning curve on how the factory operates and how we support that from a finance perspective. There is a big emphasis on the 'real roles not placements' here and I quickly realised that through the reliance placed on me, by my business partners. This means at first it can be terrifying trying to report financial performance to a group of manufacturing managers, especially when you know that their years of knowledge at Bournville dwarfs what you have learned in two months!!

Having quickly addressed the longstanding relationship with my sleeping patterns, moved most (but not all) of my partying to the weekends and having got to grips with Bournville, I can honestly say that I have really have enjoyed working in the factory. The role requires that you work with so many different stakeholders from different areas of the business, so you meet a lot of people very quickly. One day you can be out in the factory working on finances for Easter Eggs (which is a real life 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory experience, providing you exclude the finance part......), the next day you can be forecasting with the distribution team and the day after that you could be sitting down with the factory engineers.

There has also been loads of other stuff to get involved with - earlier in the year I helped in the finance recruitment drive for 2007/2008 by supporting grad recruitment at Bath Uni (still trying to live the student dream!) and I have recently had a great time on the graduate community project trip in Poland.

Back in the factory, the initially scary thought of presenting financial performance to manufacturing has become a really rewarding experience and it always helps to work in an office where you can enjoy free chocolate... On that note, I think I'd better head to the gym.......

 

Contract Looming!

Posted by Kim on 18 Jul 07

It's that time of the year where discussions begin around 2008 Contract and the atmosphere around the office feels tense!

We have a month to pull together all of the fixed costs that Cadbury Trebor Bassett face with accurate reasoning ready for scrutiny at the end of August.

This means that my organisation skills and time planning will be tested heavily and I have just sent numerous invites out to all the cost centre managers I liaise with to ensure I get enough time to speak to them before the deadline.

Tasks like this mean that you need to motivate cost centre managers to scrutinise their costs and ensure that their Contract for 2008 is solid and can withstand any scrutiny people throw at it. My role is to support them, ensure they meet the deadline and challenge them if their reasoning seems incorrect.

Throw in the fact I have just been told I'm moving to Dublin to do the Ireland Commercial role in September and my head's reeling! There are always new challenges and changes that you need to quickly adapt to and strive to be the best at.

But I definitely enjoy being surrounded by people that expect the best and being challenged daily!

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