Mark McKenzie – Business Studies
Nestlé Group Sales Director
Mark McKenzie is Group Sales Director for Nestlé UK & Ireland, having spent his entire career working in the retail sector. The past 19 years have been at the international food and drink company, joining the sales team at Nestlé Confectionery UK in 2000 and rising through the ranks ever since.
His previous experience has seen him work at Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Mars and Coca-Cola Enterprises, having graduated from Staffordshire University with a degree in Business Studies in 1991.
He said “The placements we did were really important. I spent time in retail, which felt dynamic, and it’s here I found my passion. I was with Marks and Spencer for nine months and stuck with retail after that. It was a diverse, exciting environment that worked for me.”
Rising through retail
Mark’s start in retail came during his studies at Staffordshire University, when he got a work placement at Marks and Spencer. After gaining his bachelor’s degree, he landed a Graduate Management Trainee position at John Lewis, where he worked for just over two years. He then joined the sales team at Mars for almost two and a half years, before moving to Coca-Cola Enterprises for four years.
At the turn of the millennium, in January 2000, Mark joined Nestlé. In seven years, he rose to the title of Sales Director for Nestlé Confectionery UK, then two years later became Category Director and, after two more years, finally became Group Sales Director.
He said: “I just made the most of the opportunities put in front of me by pushing myself and testing myself. If you keep going, and try harder and try new things, in the end you get somewhere. It’s not genius, just sheer hard work!
“If you put your mind to what you want to achieve you will achieve it. There’s a line in the book ‘Good to Great’ which says of success ‘it turns out success is a matter of choice’. What this is saying is if you choose to be successful and you put the effort in, it will almost certainly happen. If you don’t put in that hard work, it won’t. You have to make the choice.”
Masterclass in business
Mark is now based between offices in York, Crawley and Dublin, and takes time during most weeks to visit the company’s 13 factories across the UK. He is also currently a Trustee on the Board of the IGD, a former company appointed Director of the Nestlé UK Pension Fund, and has recently been co-opted onto the Governing Body of his local secondary school.
Alongside all his responsibilities, Mark found the time to return to Staffordshire University to deliver a Masterclass for business students alongside fellow business studies graduate and CEO for Tesco UK and ROI, Jason Tarry. They covered topics including the food industry, retail, consumer behaviour, customer experience and supply chain management.
He told students: “You need three things: 1) You need to be reasonably intelligent. 2) You need to be personable enough to work with and get on with. 3) You’ve just got to work hard. I wish there was a substitute for not having to work hard but, unfortunately, there is a proven direct correlation with people who work hard and deliver success.”
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