The life of Tesco’s online director Rimal Patel and his extended family has been shaped beyond recognition by the retail industry over the past five decades.

His father was among the tens of thousands of British-Indians who were told to leave Uganda in 1973, with nothing more than a one-way ticket to India or the UK to their names.

Rimal Patel

Rimal Patel: ‘There are so many people who have worked their way up from the shop floor to executive roles’

Pitching up in south London and refusing to sign on or take money from the state, retail offered a way for Patel’s dad to earn his keep. He juggled several jobs in his early months in Britain – working in accounts at the Co-op, on the shop floor at Selfridges at the weekend, baking bread in a factory overnight and studying for banking exams in the evenings.

That work ethic was instilled into Patel, ultimately drawing him into retail, too. As a teenager, he would help at his uncle’s newsagent near Millwall and later took a part-time job in Sainsbury’s during his GCSE and A-Level years and to fund his law degree.

After graduating from the London School of Economics, Patel “somehow ended up” in investment banking and advisory roles. It was during his time in that corporate world that a sushi restaurant “trauma” and resulting trip to McDonald’s opened Patel’s eyes to the true meritocracy of retail as an engine of social mobility.

“Going from living in Ilford in a three-bedroom terraced house to working alongside a team of people who were mostly from Oxbridge, alongside clients who were very well-to-do, I felt like a fish out of water,” Patel recalls.

“I remember, a year out of uni, going to a client dinner as a vegetarian, to a Michelin-starred sushi restaurant – it was a recipe for disaster. I felt unbelievably uncomfortable because I couldn’t pick up anything using chopsticks and I remember sitting in this restaurant in Mayfair worrying about making a fool out of myself over dinner.

“One of the other people at the dinner was a retailer. We left the restaurant afterwards and I remember feeling really embarrassed having not had much dinner. But the retailer said: ‘I feel the same, I’m not big on these fancy dinners – do you want to go for a Maccy D’s?’

“It was a nice moment and it reminded me that there are so many people in retail who have worked their way up from the shop floor to executive roles but are just perfectly normal people.”

Authentic leadership

By this point, Patel had already discovered “a magnetism towards retail”. Despite his demanding roles at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and then PwC, Patel had continued to work weekend shifts at Sainsbury’s. “You can tell the mood of the nation just by spending an hour on the checkout,” he says.

Patel joined the John Lewis Partnership in 2007 and spent three years in the strategy team at The Very Group, then known as Shop Direct, before joining Tesco in summer 2012.

Having initially joined the grocer as a senior strategy manager, Patel progressed to head of strategy for convenience and head of strategy for online, before being promoted to the role of online director in 2018.

“The Tesco of old was very hierarchical and you knew which work level you were at, which part of the business you were in – it was stamped into your head”

Rimal Patel, Tesco

Patel has used his own progression to shape his management style and help all members of his team to develop, no matter their background.

He says: “My family didn’t have a lot of money but I was lucky because my mum and dad invested in my education. Not everyone is as fortunate as that.

“I didn’t see a huge amount of my mum because she worked shift patterns and worked in a factory but I was always given the time and the space to do what I wanted to do without any pressure. At the same time, certain values got instilled in me. I was told: ‘Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody’.

“For me, the big leadership journey has been about driving authenticity and making people feel welcome at work. The Tesco of old was very hierarchical and you knew which work level you were at, which part of the business you were in – it was stamped into your head.

“But when you’re not being yourself, you’re not at your best. I’ve taken that with me to this day; I actively encourage anyone I work with to be themselves and give their honest opinion. In my first team meeting as director, I think we talked about Love Island and Eastenders.”

Patel’s journey may have taken him from cash and carries to click and collect, but he has never forgotten his roots, nor the impact retail has had on his life.

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Get involved in No Limits

If you are a senior retail leader and want to get involved in the No Limits campaign, or if you are a retail employee with an inspirational story of how the sector has changed your life for the better, contact Retail Week editor Luke Tugby at luke.tugby@retail-week.com

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