This years International Women’s Day is to help achieve gender parity – whether to help women and girls achieve their dreams, call for gender-balanced leadership, or develop more inclusive and flexible cultures.
To celebrate International Women’s Day here at EziBuy, March 8th we’ve asked our CEO, Andrea Scown a couple of questions about her role within the company. It’s great to hear prominent women share their experiences and give feedback on how they have personally been able to succeed in business – and no better than Andrea who started as a Office Junior at 16 years old.
What do you do at EziBuy? What’s your job title and department?
I have the pleasure of leading an amazing team of people who source, sell and deliver awesome products for our customers. I am EziBuy’s CEO and love my job!
What is a typical day like for you?
My day starts with a sales scrum. Retail is detail so we discuss our sales targets, promotions, customer feedback and channels. I have lots of meetings with the leadership team and might talk budgets, marketing campaigns, system issues, project progress and the weird and wonderful such as “we’ve made a decision to close our Distribution Centre because the internal temperature has reached 40 degrees and we don’t want the team working in that heat”.
How do you balance your work to life ratio?
I’m very lucky that I love what I do so I’m happy for the lines to be blurred. I do have rules such as no phones at the dinner table.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
In tough situations, always give someone ‘the out’ so that they can save face and both parties reach an acceptable result. It’s not about being ‘right’ – it’s about resolution.
How would you advise someone to start his or her career in your role?
Don’t say no to any opportunity to learn something new – even when you’re busy or it looks scary and you’re not sure if you can do it. I never have… starting out as an Office Junior at Kent Heating aged 16.
List 3 skills you need in your position
Influencer/Collaborator – achieve your goals with the power of the team
Driver – energy, passion and commitment to execute the plan and get results
Focus – need a clear agenda. Every morning I write down the five most important things I need to accomplish today. Whatever else I do, I get those five things done.
Are there any perks to working at EziBuy?
We get a fabulous staff discount on all products we sell. I also receive lots of job envy when I tell people where I work.
What do you enjoy the most about working at EziBuy?
I can very easily get close to our customers – either through the store, reading the daily feedback through our website or by listening at the Contact Centre. This isn’t always easy for CEO’s in businesses to do.
What are you lusting over at the moment from our collection?
I already caved! I bought the Manhattan bed pack in the Blue Marl colour with all the matching pillows for my daughter who has just moved away to University in Wellington. She loves it!
Do you have any inspirational advice to share? Has someone you know influenced you for the better? Let us know in the comments below.
Check out job opportunities at EziBuy here and read more inspiring Q&A’s from EziBuy here.
