Where are they now?
Mark Jenkinson, Head of Customer Service for Regional Business Unit (UK & Ireland)
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I started my career with BOC in September 1988 as a commercial graduate. Although I studied Chemical Engineering, I was intrigued with BOC's offer to join their commercial scheme and so stepped in to the organisation with initial curiosity.
The immediacy of responsibility and accountability was impressive. Following a comprehensive induction, I was tasked with a project to improve the quality of commercial data provided to our field sales force in order to better inform them and improve their effectiveness. After only a few months I was given the opportunity to join the field team and participate in a sales campaign designed to grow our market share in a geography where we were experiencing high competitive activity.
Within a year, I moved to our head office to join the Marketing team where I led the research for a product we were contemplating bringing to market, Dry Ice, which is now nationally supplied. Once the market research was completed, I was also involved in undertaking industry trials, telesales, piloting, business development and ultimately fulfilment!
By my 3rd year I was an account manager for the Special Products business covering the South East of the UK with a customer portfolio providing an annual turnover of £4.5m.
Throughout this period, my various roles were complimented extremely well with a comprehensive graduate programme. This covered personal development as well as skill-base training - from presentation skills and time management through to welding!
In 1992 I became an Area Manager in the Sureserve business, where I had the opportunity to build man-management skills as well as gaining operational knowledge blended with commercial responsibilities. Accountable for 3 service centres in the South West of the UK, serving over 4000 customers with 14 vehicles, the variety of responsibilities were a real challenge, but extremely valuable as a platform to develop my career further. Working closely with my mentor, I identified my aspiration for a 5-10 year horizon and focused on delivering my KPIs to ensure that I built credibility within the organisation. Within a few years I became the Service & Production Manager for one of our sites in South Wales, which was a great opportunity to 'dust off' some of the chemical engineering text books as well as acquiring some production experience.
In April 1997 I became the Planning & Strategy Manager for the Industrial and Medical business in Northern Ireland, where I looked after our Retail operation as well as the supply chain planning function. This role provided the opportunity to substantially build my networking and influencing skills as collaboration was crucial. In 1998 I was seconded onto a Group initiative for 8 months where a core team worked closely with the CEO to redesign our organisational model - a great opportunity for exposure, albeit with a latent expectation for results!
After this opportunity, I returned to the business to become the Sales & Marketing Manager for Sureserve, responsible for delivering profitable growth and providing strategic commercial direction, and in 2002 I became an Area General Manager. The latter role had full P&L responsibility for a £45m revenue stream, managing c.300 employees across 3 main branches and 12 retail outlets in the north of England.
Now, as Head of Customer Service for the Regional Business Unit (UK&Ireland), my core responsibility is focused on our customer service centre activities. This covers the full order-to-cash process, as well as developing our outbound call activity to create revenue streams and build relationships with our customers.
Overall, BOC has provided me with an array of challenges and opportunities over the years. Performance in undoubtedly rewarded, and the support provided for development is first class. Whilst the development programme at the start of my career was extremely comprehensive to compliment the early empowerment, it continues today. Our culture is supportive, especially for those with a passion to excel.