Business Relationship Manager
IBM

Gwenyth B

00:00:04 My name’s Gwenyth B. I’m a Business Relationship Manager and I work for IBM. I work with a large customer and my job is to keep customer satisfaction at a good level. So currently I’m running an improvement programme to make sure they’re happy with their service. Primarily, if my customer has any problems or issues or any feedback to IBM, they pick up the phone and speak to me. My job’s then to relay that back into the company.

00:00:33 When I was a lot younger I went to boarding school and so I was very, very active in all sorts of extracurricular activities from music halls to sporting events as well as having to work very hard at GCSEs. They really encouraged that sort of culture at boarding school.

00:00:50 At GCSE level when I was studying business studies, I got involved with something called young enterprise. That’s where they encourage you to create a small company with a group of students and it was your responsibility to run that company and make as much profit as you could. And that kind of gave me a taste of what business was about and it was from that point onwards that I loved business and studied it ever since.

00:01:16 The turning point, if you like, for me was at AS level. I got a B and two Cs and I needed three Bs at A level to get to Lancaster University. I think that was the turning point that made me think I really, really want this and in order to get it I had to really work hard in that final year of college. And when I got that result slip through and it said, ‘three Bs and you’re going to Lancaster’, that pure moment of joy really is what motivated me through the rest of my career.

00:01:48 I thoroughly enjoyed university for the people that I met, the subjects that I studied and I had a great three years. You’re learning new things every day. I mean I learnt how to cook my own dinner and wash my own clothes, which my mother was very pleased about. So it…it’s not just learning in terms of education, it’s learning in terms of developing yourself and all the more thankful for it.

00:02:12 Throughout my final year and my first two years in fact as well, IBM had come up to Lancaster and given several presentations and I attended an assessment centre workshop and the lady who took it was Head of IBM Recruitment at the time and I managed to get 10 minutes with her after the session, had a…a cup of coffee with her and picked her brain about her life in IBM. That conversation with her I think really pushed me towards hitting that application button for IBM.

00:02:40 My family have always supported me in all my decisions, particularly in my career direction. My Dad was an…well is an Air Traffic Controller in the RAF and my Mother is an Officer Manager. Throughout my education they’ve always pushed me towards my exams and making sure I study hard and at the time, I probably didn’t like them much for it, but in hindsight I’m so glad they did ‘cos I don’t think I’d be here today if it wasn’t for them.

00:03:07 My Mum is a marathon runner and whenever I go and watch her run, seeing that sheer determination to get across that finish line after 26 miles, if I had an ounce of that motivation, then I know that I can go far within this company. Outside IBM, I play netball. I play for a local team called Pink Ladies which I absolute love. We train 10 o’clock every Sunday morning which isn’t the most enjoyable thing but it’s…it’s…it’s a good distraction from work and from everything else.

00:03:43 I would love to be an IBM Executive either running my own account, managing a customer or something bigger than that, running my own sector or line of business. It’s really it’s a kind of a who…who knows scenario. I think there’s a few more roles that I would benefit from doing before getting to that point. Training and education is always good to keep on in the background, so to keep developing myself I think and not giving up I think would be the key points.