Purchasing Profile “The aspect I enjoy most about the Purchasing Leadership Development Programme is the ability to work across different sectors of the business in different geographical locations. This structure has provided me with really broad experience, allowing me to develop a large network of colleagues across the business and has exposed me to a number of exciting projects and roles. Since joining the Rolls-Royce Graduate Programme I’ve worked in Derby, Liverpool and Indianapolis. The work I’ve been involved with since joining Rolls-Royce has always been interesting and challenging. I’ve been given a relatively high degree of responsibility at an early point in my career and have also worked in a number of high profile roles. For example, I recently completed a 6-month attachment based in Indianapolis working directly for the Director of Purchasing Central Quality for Rolls-Royce Corporation. My work involved focusing on implementing a number of key quality processes and improvement activities. This involved a significant amount of change management and strong stakeholder management skills. One of the highlights from this particular role was presenting an aspect of my improvement work to the Director of Quality for Rolls-Royce who was visiting Indianapolis. I also presented at a Supplier Diversity workshop to 40 suppliers on the subject of supplier quality and its changing trends, which also proved to be a valuable and positive experience. Senior Management in Rolls-Royce really value individuals who can take the bull by the horns and assume personal responsibility for getting things done. There’s a lot of opportunity in the business to get involved and make a real difference by implementing something new or adding value by introducing an improvement to an existing process or system. You just need to get out there and do it.” © Rolls-Royce plc 2007 |