This issue’s Spotlight star Coral Newby started life at TGP in 2012 within a department that no longer exists and is hardly referred to (in Lord Voldemort-like terms, They Who Must Not Be Named). Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of this team, Coral moved to Utilitywise Sales under the insightful leadership of one Aidan Dempsey, who she assures me shaped her into the person she is today.
From there a move to TPI sales and a final move into Servicing, where Coral is now the Service Delivery Executive for COO, or ‘COO Executive of Glory’, as she insisted on being addressed.
The SME servicing team are the gateway to our colleagues at WNS, with Coral, Abbie Jackson, Katie Hilton, and Syrita Saul all managing respective teams in Cape Town, dealing with work both here and in South Africa.
'Coral Newby (centre), pictured with the team in Cape Town'
A typical working day for Coral involves multiple motivational speeches including “Go Hard or Go Yard”, but this only takes up a small part of the day - the rest is spent tackling the complex world of COO. Coral is driven to succeed and her passion for doing the right thing for TGP is evident in any meeting with her, and she certainly has a lot of meetings! Trying to improve current processes or create entirely new ways to price, treat, or service COOs is permanently at the top of Coral’s agenda, and with contacts all across the business she sets about getting things done.
Communication is key in Coral’s daily life. Inexplicably she tells me her day often starts between 6:30 and 7am where she plans the day ahead. An early morning Whatsapp call with our colleagues in South Africa, further conference calls throughout the day as well as replying to a seemingly never-ending supply of emails tend to fill the rest of the day. To put it into perspective, the SME COO team raise an average of 1330 COOs per month, hitting new highs of 200 in a day this month (yes, really that many!) so every day is pretty full on.
Collectively there has been a huge amount of work done by the servicing team in Redhill to facilitate all the changes in recent years and there is a real push to integrate and improve the lines of communication between the UK and SA, and to continue working together in harmony.
Outside of work Coral likes to bake, or what she refers to as “stress baking”, as well as having to pick up all the DIY related jobs around the house, as her other half isn’t the most co-ordinated or handy. She is also an avid rugby fan, with her South African roots becoming very evident every time the Springboks play (especially during the Rugby World Cup), and she enjoys a healthy rivalry with the England fans in her life.
Coral comes from Durban which apparently shares something of a rivalry with Cape Town, so she is pleased to have been accepted with open arms and very much enjoys working with the teams over there. At the time of writing Coral is actually preparing for a trip to Cape Town to spend some more time with the teams over there and continue the work they are currently doing in order to improve the overall service within COO, and pushing us to be the business we want to be.
Despite the odd grumble about COO (writer sensed deep sarcasm here) Coral is famed for her positive outlook, even her email signature wishes you to have a wonderful day! Her ambition for COO is to aid and support the relationship between the UK and SA, and improve the overall reputation of COO across the business and externally. Her passion and commitment to the cause is evident, as I’m sure anyone who has met her would agree. But if all else fails… JAZZ HANDS!
