Our Commitment to Fostering Growth
At Carrefour Global Sourcing (“Carrefour GS”), we believe that solid work ethos combined with workplace diversity empowers us to drive forward and achieve higher business performance.
Our collaborators come from 20 different nationalities and have the opportunity to collaborate across borders with colleagues from our nine global offices. While fostering diverse culture, together we challenge the status quo to help re-invent new ideas for consumers around the world. We enjoy bringing the best to our clients with high-quality service.
At Carrefour GS, we aim to make an impact through our leading consumer platform, helping both collaborators and clients thrive.
As part of our efforts to bring further insight into the day-to-day of different department of ours, we have interviewed six interns across Human Resources, Textiles, Electronics, Supply Chain, and Business Development.
1. Q: How do you think Carrefour GS has helped to develop your skills and prepare you for the real working world?
H: “Carrefour GS has given me a new perspective on supply chain management, which is far different from what I have learnt from school. With sufficient assistance and guidance from colleagues, I was able to spot the discrepancies and adopted the way of working in Carrefour GS. I have more thorough knowledge about the flow of demand planning, as well as Google Apps Scripts, as I was tasked to complete a few synchronized portals for soothing the demand planning process, via Google Spreadsheets. I acquired the techniques in identifying the KPIs thus it was rewarding to create a project myself like this. I am grateful that Carrefour GS has propelled me to be a more sufficient candidate for the real working world”.
(Henry Yiu, Demand Planning Analyst – Supply Chain & Business Analyst Intern - Electronics)
A: “I have enhanced my data analysis and visualization skills through various programs. As our team collects a large amount of data regularly, it is hard for us to present data without any visualization. To facilitate the operational communication between stakeholders and reporting, my manager assigned me for a task – design and create new dashboards for interactive data visualization by Power bi and think-cell. The visualizations and reports present the data from different aspects and comparisons, which can help us review business performance. This is my first time to learn and make good use of these tools for data visualization. Utilizing various tools based on the situation for data visualization, I am able to contribute and benefit different parties in the workplace”.
(Angela Wong, Business Analyst Intern - Electronics)
2. Q: What do you think Carrefour GS has pushed you to strive for during your internship?
O: “Carrefour GS allowed me to gain deep insight into a new industry and how processes in this industry work. I was able to develop and improve different aspects of my business sense of Business Development, such as understanding the market, the competitors and new opportunities”.
(Olivia Perner, Business Development & Marketing Intern)
3. Q: Describe one of the most fun projects you’ve worked on with other teams during your internship?
O: “During my Business Development traineeship at Carrefour GS Global Sourcing, I had the opportunity to work on a key project to identify new business opportunities for optimizing the existing product assortment. The project involved analyzing general sales data from specific countries as well as benchmarking with competitors products. The Business Development team involved me in their meetings with the internal merchandise and sourcing team and I received detailed insight within other departments such as Logistics or Packaging”.
(Olivia Perner, Business Development & Marketing Intern)
4. Q: What were some of the challenges you’ve faced and how did Carrefour GS mentors support you?
R: “In the beginning, my understanding of textile sourcing operations was quite basic but I am fortunate that every time I am assigned a new task, my mentors take the time to explain to me in detail about the project as a whole and how my contribution helps accomplish the end goals. They are very accessible and experienced and it is very nice that I can reach them every time I have a doubt”.
(Rodrigo Torres, Business Analyst Trainee - Textile)
5. Q: Majoring in such a niche topic, what attracted you to Carrefour GS for your internship in the first place?
R: “I got attracted to the idea of working in Carrefour GS after one of their Virtual Career events. For starters, Carrefour GS operations take place in several locations with people from a diverse range of backgrounds. This is perfect for me since I wanted to be part of a truly global team where diversity enhances business performance as it happens here.
In addition to this, sustainability is a core value for Carrefour GS, you can observe this in the number of initiatives of this kind that are undertaken by the company. I feel like my contributions make a positive and significant impact on the world”.
(Rodrigo Torres, Business Analyst Trainee - Textile)
6. Q: Has Carrefour GS sparked other interests during your internship that is beyond your major?
A: “Yes! As a colleague under EPCS, I receive different electronic products’ information from time to time, which sparked my interest in learning more about how the characteristics and functions of each product correlated to the sales performance. My major is basically focused on hard facts and data. However, the factors driving the outcome of the data are also important and valuable to investigate. Customers’ intention in buying is affected by various issues, for instance, price, brand name, functions, and special selling points. Understanding the features of our products offered, I analyze from the customers’ perspective and create a relationship with the sales performance”.
(Angela Wong, Business Analyst Intern - Electronics)
7. Q: You transferred to another department — what about you? Did Carrefour GS spark other interests during your internship that is beyond your major?
H: “Carrefour GS brings out my potential in digitizing daily tools for business operations, which spark my interest in knowing more about programming languages like VBA and Python. Apart from that, I also find it fascinating to work in a diverse environment, as friendly colleagues are willing to share their own experience in hometowns, which has prompted me to learn French since then”.
(Henry Yiu, Demand Planning Analyst – Supply Chain & Business Analyst Intern - Electronics)
8. Q: What are some of the lessons you’ve had in Carrefour GS that you feel HR professionals could adopt?
D: “We shared our experience, worked on the global projects, learned from each other and solved any problems together. It is precious to maintain such good relationships with coworkers and even other managers who are not in the same country. The teamwork in Carrefour GS is really fantastic and treasurable”.
(Derek Chan, Human Resources Analyst Intern)
M: “I think the culture of the HR team can serve as a role model for all the HR professionals. In our team, we emphasize communication. We value the opinions of all the team members, regardless of their position. Everyone in the team is encouraged to express their ideas and opinions in order to make the best HR decisions”.
(Michael Lee, Human Resources Analyst Intern)
V: “PowerPoint skills. Creating a unique PowerPoint that is fit to your style is a lesson to adopt. When presenting a proposal or even a training module, having that eye catching PowerPoint is important especially, to catch the audience’s attention”.
(Vivian Chau, Human Resources Intern (Remote-based, USA))
9. Q: As a final step to understanding Carrefour GS as a whole, we asked each candidate to name one word that begins with the same letter as their name that sums up our company.
D: “Delightful”
(Derek Chan, Human Resources Analyst Intern)
M: “Motivating”
(Michael Lee, Human Resources Analyst Intern)
V: Vibrant
(Vivian Chau, Human Resources Intern (Remote-based, USA))
A: Altruistic
(Angela Wong, Business Analyst Intern - Electronics)
H: Harmonious
(Henry Yiu, Demand Planning Analyst – Supply Chain & Business Analyst Intern - Electronics)
R: Rewarding
(Rodrigo Torres, Business Analyst Trainee - Textile)
O: Obliging
(Olivia Perner, Business Development & Marketing Intern)
