ASDA
ASDA has over 300 stores
across the UK and employs
145,000 staff (or ‘colleagues’)
across the country. Since
1999 it has been part of Wal-
Mart, the largest company in
the world. For the fifth year
running ASDA has been voted
one of the UK’s top employers
in the Sunday Times Best
Companies 2005 List. ASDA is
a CIMA Training Quality Partner.
‘The CIMA qualification is
pivotal to both the personal
and professional development
of finance colleagues at ASDA.
We share common values and
attach great importance to
how objectives are achieved by
promoting integrity, ethics and
continuous development.’
Steve Makin ACMA,
Commercial Finance Director,
ASDA
ASDA House sits on the bank of the
River Aire in the heart of Leeds. From the
outside it looks like your average office
block, but from the moment you walk
through the door you realise that ASDA
House bears very little resemblance to
other major retail headquarters. The
central atrium makes it feel – well, like
an ASDA store. Plasma screens, polite
‘colleagues’ (that’s ASDA speak for ‘staff’)
and lots of ‘hellos’ and ‘welcomes’ gives
the impression that you could be arriving
to do your weekly shop - but not on
this visit.
CIMA members and students work in
business and Emma Cawthorn, Lynne
Grandison and Neil Applebee are no
different. Here they tell their stories.
Lynne Grandison
CIMA student
I grew up near Barrow-in-Furness in
Cumbria. I did A-level Accounting but
I didn’t want to do a specific financial
degree at university so I chose to study
Management at near-by Lancaster. During
my sandwich year I worked for the NHS
in Halifax where they were building a new
hospital. Although I didn’t undertake any
finance work, I got some unique experience
in project management; buying equipment,
conducting tours for health staff and
negotiating with construction teams among
other things.
I graduated in 2002 and knew I wanted to
stay in Northern England so I visited my
careers office to assess my options. ASDA’s
graduate scheme was the first application
form I completed and it seemed exactly
the type of company I wanted to work
for. The thing for me about ASDA is that
you can understand what the company
does; everyone goes food shopping and
you already know the competitors. It’s
important for me to work for a company
that I can get my head round.
Finance at ASDA is a fully integrated part
of the business with finance colleagues
working alongside buyers, store managers,
marketers, store developers, HR and logistics
people. Finance colleagues are involved in
day-to-day decisions as well as formulating
longer term strategies which is why they’re
looking for good communicators who can
easily talk to non-finance colleagues.
ASDA’s Finance Graduate Programme
lasts for three years and incorporates
gaining practical experience across several
different finance functions to support CIMA
studies. Owing to my degree I was already
exempt from the Certificate level and one
Managerial level paper. That left me with
ten exams and Paper P10 (TOPCIMA) to
pass before I could submit my logbook and
apply for membership.
I knew quite a few people who had done
other accountancy qualifications but had
left after they got their letters. Most of
them moved out into positions which,
had they joined as graduates, would be
CIMA-sponsored roles! I knew that CIMA
was the right route for me: it remains a lot
more practical and rounded, rather than
being theoretical and specific. The type of
organisations I could work for with CIMA
was impressive too.
The roles at ASDA that I’ve undertaken are
aligned to the different levels that we have
been studying at CIMA. The first year role
was number-heavy, producing lots of profit
and loss accounts. At the same time, I was
studying management accounting papers,
doing debits and credits and financial
accounting papers.
Lynne Grandison, Neil Applebee, Emma Cawthorn
Case study
Lynne Grandison
Emma Cawthorn
Neil Applebee
