In a world under constant transformation — largely driven by technology —, learning new skills and building on existing ones are key to people’s careers. Young Leaders is a nine-month development programme for our younger employees to contribute to Grupo Santander’s strategy, increase their visibility, and grow as a leader through new experiences. We caught up with Chris Poller, a Regional Finance Development Manager at Santander Consumer UK, who participated in the 2024 Young Leaders programme.
Tell us about your Santander Consumer history?
I started with Santander Consumer in March 2020, just before lockdown, so it was an interesting time! My first role was in our Dealer Development Team which I was in for around 4 and a half years, I then took a role in our MG team as a Regional Finance Development Manager in April this year.
Can you give us an insight into your current role?
I currently look after 23 MG dealers in the region and my role is to build and strengthen relationships with our MG dealer partners. We help our dealers on a day-to-day basis with proposal/payout queries, conduct reviews with them to have oversight of their business but more importantly to add value by helping them develop their business by utilising Santander Consumer’s fantastic value-added propositions such as the Customers For Life programme. We also offer coaching and development to sales teams to ensure they are working in a compliant manner and maximising every opportunity.
Tell us a bit about your career background? How did you start and what led you to where you are today?
My career in Automotive started as a car sales trainee in my hometown in Warrington working in a Hyundai dealership. I then spent the next 9 years in dealers working my way up to a General Sales Manager within the Stellantis group. During the last couple of years in my dealership career I studied on a post graduate course at Loughborough to obtain an MSc in Automotive Retail Management, this was to support my goal to work for either an OEM or finance company. However, I never actually thought finance companies took people from the dealership world, clearly, I was wrong!
Can you give a summary of what the Young Leaders Programme is and what your experience was like? How did you end up participating?
The Young Leaders Programme is a Santander Group initiative, I was nominated to apply for the programme by Stewart Grant, our Commercial Director. I had to go through an interview style process to get onto the programme, for me the programme was split into the following three parts:
Global Element
This is the main part of the programme where 200 people from across the world from various parts of the group were selected to take part. There were three main modules that the programme was based around which was Think Customer, Think Global and Think Value. Over the course of the 9-month programme we had various weekly online seminars to help develop our skills in lots of areas, after each of them we got put into teams to work on group projects to put our learning into practice which was interesting collaborating with colleagues from across different business areas and different countries. We were also given internation mentors who we got to spend time with discussing our careers and how to navigate our paths.
To wrap up the Global element, we were fortunate enough to be able to go to HQ in Madrid for a week to take part in some amazing talks, workshops and team building exercises. Each day we had a talk from one of the heads of the global business units including Oscar Prieto of Digital Consumer Bank. Then on the last day they had a Gala where we all got presented with our certificates.
UK Element
As part of the programme, we also got put into a cohort of the people from the UK which consisted of 21 colleagues who got onto the programme. This involved us meeting a number of times at Milton Keynes or London office to work on leadership skills and navigating our careers. As part of this we were split into 3 groups where we were given a real business challenge that the bank is facing at the moment and we had to come up with a solution to the challenge. I was part of the Strategic workforce planning challenge which looked to see how we can future proof the workforce by upskilling people in an effective way to ensure the company can utilise its current resource. We had the 9 months to work on the challenge and then got the opportunity to present our solution to Mike Reigner and the San UK ExCo at Milton Keynes! This was supported throughout with 2 excellent business coaches Natalia Kingsland & Emma Mccann.
SCF Element
This was great opportunity to network with eleven Santander Consumer colleagues from other countries. We had regular coffee calls where we had leaders from the businesses presenting to us, looking at challenges that consumer faces in other countries and how they have overcome them. We also got the opportunity to sit with Vicky Roig while in Madrid one evening to discuss the programme which was fantastic.
What is the most valuable thing you got out of this experience? Did you learn anything new?
I would probably say the most valuable thing I took away from the programme is that there is a bigger world beyond your day-to-day role which impacts everything we do, sometimes we need to look beyond our own four walls and look at the bigger picture to achieve our goals.
The programme is designed to support personal and professional development. Did the programme support you in this way?
Yes 100%, throughout the programme they embedded in us that we need to be fluid in our career paths, not to always think about moving up in a linear fashion but to gain experiences from different areas and perspectives to make us more rounded as individuals. It certainly has made me think differently about my career and how I want to develop.
Do you have any highlights from your time on the programme?
I would say the biggest highlight for me was that week in Madrid, going to HQ really puts into perspective just how big the group is, but more importantly how seriously the group and Santander Consumer takes its people development. It was a surreal moment pulling up to the entrance on the first day as it made me really appreciate the opportunity I had been given. This is one of those once in a lifetime experience that I will carry with me for the rest of my career.
And to finish off…
I would just like to add a side note and thank everyone in the company who has supported me during the programme, especially Mark Golden for allowing me the time to do this while doing the day Job, Nikki Picton who has really helped me with some insight on Santander Consumer which formed parts of the group activities we had to do and Stewart Grant for putting me forward for this opportunity.