Who are you?
I am Gauthier Lelong, Program Manager, on a Hightech project. To be clearer, I am in charge of the commercial relationship with the client, assisted by my partner Séverine Sarmezan.
How did you get to SIG?
JI joined SIG in internshipI got into the company a bit by misunderstanding, after an internship in food retailing that didn't work out. I looked at the internship reports of former students and discovered SIG.
I sent my CV to .... and one interview later I got to the heart of the matter of the service provision and operational marketing.
Why did you choose SIG for your internship?
The internship really fitted in perfectly with my degree 3 (interface management in industry and distribution). This type of internship seemed very rich, with multiple tasks, which is what I liked. So I did this first internship with the animation service.
For my Master 2, I continued with SIG, but this time within the merchandising department.
I could actually see that the work was very complete, diverse and rich. In addition to that, the cohesion between the employees and the human relations were really good.
What has been your journey since your last internship?
Since my last internship in September 2012, I have been lucky enough to be able to navigate through the heart of SIG and its services.
I was hired after graduation as a Merch Assignment Manager (service Sales Support).
- My mission = to assign merchandisers to different locations of our clients. What I liked => being in constant contact with the merchandisers, the salespeople and the shops.
Then I took part in the follow-up of the "merchandising commandos" by carrying out web conferencing courses.
In parallel, I went into the field to carry out field trips s, the mystery visitss, the locationss, the linear surveys.... It allowed me to be close to our stakeholders.
After 2 years in the merchandising department, I went to the dark side of the force and moved to another division: Sales Forces.
In October 2015, I became Sales promoter for a HighTech client.
- My task = to ensure that the merchandise plans are adhered to at the stores that have furniture.
I had about ten shops to follow, to update the furniture, to make sure that they all worked well, but also that the products were correctly positioned, clean and above all secure.
More recently, since October 2016, I have moved to my current position: Program Manager.
Again, this is a very rich position (I wonder which position is not "rich" and diverse at SIG) and very demanding.
What does this new position entail?
- My objective = to guarantee the quality of our services and to meet the customer's requirements.
Obviously, this is a job that involves all the players in the file, with the entire Back Office team (the Field Managers, the Research Department, our Coach and my PM partner) and the Front Office teams (our 22 BAs).
What do you like about this job?
I like the fact that I can work in depth on a single file (this is a big difference from what I used to do on the merchandise).
I love the human side of this issue (and by extension of SIG).
Juggling between training, team or customer meetings, touring the field, carrying out operation follow-ups (and I am sometimes a sort of "file compiler"), this is my daily routine!
Conclusion...
To conclude, I would like to say thank you! Thank you to the managers, thank you to the staff, thank you to the merchandisers. (thanks to the girls in Aix who saw me grow up)
I can also say that you have to keep working. You have to have confidence, because if I am here today, it is thanks to all the professional meetings (and to a large extent, if not entirely) thanks to the collaborators, to their advice, to their benevolence that I am where I am (well, you have to work hard too!).
I think you have to be 100% invested in what you do, and that in a company like SIG, someone will reach out and be grateful for the work that you do. And that's a real strength of SIG.
