On the 2nd of February, the year 10’s were given the opportunity to get a Q&A from Jason Tarry, the CEO of Tesco for the UK, since 2017. Myself, Oscar Y and Sam J were given the chance to interview Mr Tarry and ask him questions to understand more about his job and how he was able to get to where he is today. Also, through-out our 40 minute talk he gave us a brief introduction to his motto “Take every opportunity your given”

He showed us an application of this motto. He revealed that he originally didn’t plan on going to university or even A levels, especially due to him not having anyone in his family who previously went to university and following him failing his maths GCSE. But, he didn’t let this hinder him and followed his motto. He persevered on and got his A levels and became the first to go to university in his family. He then went to get a bachelor’s degree in business studies from Staffordshire University which qualified him for the position.

However he also showed us how important having a work-life balance is by telling us about how he took a gap year to explore the world, in order to honour his Grandma’s death. He was conscious that the memories he would form on the voyage could not be replaced by any grade of degree, so he put himself first. Even though he was aiming to get high grades at the time, he understood the importance of a work-life balance and transferred that message to us.

We also asked him a few questions about his position. He explained to us the complexity of managing his public eye and the supplying, and locations for stores under the Tesco name. Throughout the talk, we were given a glimpse into some of the struggles that Tesco went through like;

Covid
Tesco lawsuit in 2018

Mr Tarry explained how he found ways to overcome them. When explaining, he revealed that they were struggles and situations that he thought he couldn’t achieve at the time, but through resilience was able to overcome the challenges and build a better company out of them, this has resulted in Tesco’s current status as the biggest supermarket chain in the UK.

Personally I think the talk was beneficial and inspiring for, not only me, but the whole year group as it made what is normally seen as an unreachable job, more achievable if we start implementing some of his messages, like going for gold, from now.

Tendai