Marcus Denison (Chair of Tesco Armed Forces Network)

Current Role: Head of Business Resilience, Group Safety, Security & Resilience

Location: Welwyn Garden City

Joined Tesco: September 2013

After reaching the rank of Captain after five years in the army, I got married, had a child and found it increasingly difficult to balance family and military life. I was looking for a more sensible job, and a friend recommended a role to me at Tesco. Group Procurement were looking for ex-military candidates, and so I started here as a Buying Manager for PR services. It was surprising to see how similar the Tesco assessment process was to aspects of officer selection for the army! Also, the shared Tesco/army concept of keeping values at the heart of what we do helped ease the transition.

Tesco’s core purpose of “Serving Britain’s shoppers a little better every day” is central to my role; as no matter what happens at our end, the customer needs to have the best experience possible. I’m a big advocate of our seven leadership skills, and I make all my team members receive training in all of them.

“The diversity of roles at Tesco is extraordinary.”

I’ve since moved over from Procurement to my current role in Group Safety Security and Resilience with a brief stint in Corporate Affairs in between. Here I look to find the small things that if they were to stop would have a big impact on the business, and what plans we can make to stop anything catastrophic or dampen the impact of what could happen. I love learning new things every day, and it’s fascinating to poke around the insides of a FTSE 100 company: my broad experience is illustrative of how you can transfer across departments.

“There is a job for everyone here.”

I also chair the Tesco Armed Forces Network. Here we look to make it easier for Tesco to recruit from the military, implement policies to enable reservists to serve and have a Tesco career, and support families of those in the armed forces. When I first joined there was no network, but it didn’t take long for things to get some momentum!

It’s great to receive a bonus from time-to-time, to have a target to work towards and gain from. The Colleague Clubcard is a big plus, especially when Double Discount happens – where else could you get such a big saving on an iPad?