Giles Margerison answers Barker’s Dozen

1. What was your first job? My first full-time role was as a chef.

2. What was your first company car? My first company car was a Rover 416Gsi. I was very young and it was not in good shape when I gave it back.

3. What did you listen to on your last car journey? A Radio 4 comedy taking the mickey out of a seaside town on the outskirts of the Lake District. Very funny! 

4. What one thing do you wish you could do better? Manage time better. I also do some video shoots for work for online content creation and would like to be better; I’m fine with public speaking but not so comfortable in front of a camera!

5. What’s your biggest achievement? I run a training, coaching and development programme for my direct team and my channel. Sales have grown significantly since its inception in 2010 and it’s what I’m most proud of in my career to date.

6. Who are your role models? Liz Jackson is MD at Great Guns Marketing, who run our telesales operation. Liz went blind not long after entering the workplace. Having been advised to become a piano tuner or masseuse she started a successful telesales business, proving anything is possible if you want it enough. 

7.  What’s the stupidest thing you’ve done? I have agreed to have the TomTom logo tattooed on my arm if my team hits a stretched annual target. Eek!

8.  What was the most hotly debated topic at your last meeting? It was the business case or ROI calculation for a large food company about to select a provider for their fleet telematics system.

9.  What’s in your garage? I live in a Victorian house so there’s no garage. I do have a shed though. In there, keeping the rodents and spiders company, are the usual garden tools, bikes etc – oh, and all our camping gear. 

10.  What’s the worst thing about your job? Being away from home, I do a lot of travelling, and I do tend to be away a great deal. My family moan at me about this, but they do quite like to have control of the remote when I am not around.

11. What one law would you make or change? This is easy: I would make foreign drivers, both private and commercial, pay to use the UK’s road network, just as we contribute to foreign road networks when we drive abroad.

12. What keeps you awake at night? Light! I like it nice and dark. 

13. Who is your ideal celebrity date? Kirsty Young, from Desert Island Discs. I love that accent! She could spend the evening just reading from a phone directory.