Day in the life

Carphone Warehouse Ireland general manager Peter Scott talks to Conor Keane about his busy working day

MORNING:

I get up at 6am; one of my earliest jobs was as operations manager for a chain of wholesalers who were based on fruit and vegetable markets — the earliest of which opened at 3am. So early mornings became a way of life and have stuck.

I am at my desk at 7am — the first person into the office — and find that time of day really productive; answering e-mail and considering larger projects. I like to be available to my team as often as possible and genuinely have my door open most of the time, some days it’s like a revolving door.

Mornings are spent in a variety of meetings and I could be planning our Christmas Launch to Retail (Carol singing, santa and all !) one hour and the next I could be reviewing our financial forecast for the year.

I have always thoroughly enjoyed how different every day in my job can be. This morning I have been reviewing the performance of our Endless Summer Marketing Campaign — what it has done to our brand awareness, sales and PR.

AFTERNOON:

The afternoons are all about meeting our business partners — in our case other networks and manufacturers; it is vital to our business that we understand their focuses and aspirations regarding our business, what they would like us to sell and how they want us to sell it.

It is a challenge, ensuring that we deliver what is required for each partner and very rewarding when we achieve our joint targets and goals.

We’re all working on Christmas at the moment — there is an incredible amount of work involved in making sure that everything comes together for this important season... this is my 32nd Christmas in retail and I can honestly say I still get really excited by the busiest and best time of year.

I also try and get out to stores as often as possible — it’s important that I ensure that our plans translate to the retail teams where it really matters.

There’s no point in decisions being made that can’t be delivered in store; also stores are a great place to find out what is really going on; get views on what they need to help the business and, most importantly, what our customers think of what we are doing.

EVENING:

I’m lucky to work in a very sociable industry and at least one evening a week involves something industry-driven, from the launch of the latest product to attending an awards event.

On other evenings I enjoy tennis and play 2-3 times a week either in singles or doubles competitions; I enjoy a good read... always fiction but from a wide author base.

And I love all the business orientated TV like the Apprentice and Dragons Den... finally I’m reasonably early to bed and am usually out for the count by 11pm.