Melody, Far East Operations Director

You'll never get bored working for Maplin

Every day comes with new challenges that have kept me with Maplin for sixteen years. Wow! It's never a quiet and peaceful life. Challenge is the positive way of saying problems as we all know. But, when I look back I am amazed with all these achievements?

I always appreciate Maplin's original founder who spotted me as a supplier and offered me the job of General Manager to set up Maplin's Taiwan Office in 1992. I was 26 when I took this position and it all started from one person in one small room. Over the years we built up a solid team: sourcing, purchasing, inspecting, shipping and accounting and we are still expanding.

We went through highs and lows as the parent company refinanced and the trend for manufacturers moved from Taiwan to China for cost saving. I spent 4 years of weekends to get my MBA. The opportunity arose in 2001 when I was asked to run our Hong Kong office. Yes, there are many opportunities as long as you are READY.

In 2004 we set up our Shenzhen, China office and today, the whole Far East Operations includes 3 offices and 1 warehouse with 27 full time staff. We keep it compact but are managing more than 4,000 products for the company and spend £30,000,000 a year purchasing from the Far East - that contributes a large portion of the company's sales and margin.

In 2006 I was promoted to the Director of Far East Operations. This shows that your hard work is recognised and will be rewarded!!

It took a long time to get to this position, but I am not there yet. As a director I am still twisting my tongue trying to pronounce "l" correctly as English is not my mother language. I still cheer with each new English phase I learn. I still get excited when we source a new or unique product, I still argue with my boss when I believe it's right. After all Maplin's theme is, "We need changes and there is always room for improvement."

So I keep rolling...