Regional Finance Director
Ecolab - United Arab Emirates
Total years of experience :20 years, 10 Months
Regional Finance Director for Downstream business for India Middle East and Africa (inc. Europe for 6 months).
Regional Finance Director for Downstream business for India Middle East and Africa (inc. Europe for 6 months).
Managing a business with high growth potential in development stage. Most of below projects are work in progress with positive traction.
• Setting up the Corporate Account Finance structure for the region implementing policies, enforcing discipline & working closely with the business to drive focus on ‘Big Deals’.
• Established strong business partnership with key stakeholders to work closely on strategic initiatives such as structural margin improvement in low margin markets, route to market changes, right sizing loss making markets.
• OI phasing focus to balance profitability across the year via distributor orders management offering phasing based incentive plan & end customer focus to improve local sellout.
• M&A projects to accelerate growth in key white spaces. One key project went up to due diligence but recommended against the deal due to deal dynamics restricting growth & profitability.
Managing a broad region with 14 legal entities, team of 34 spread across the region inc. P&A, Accounting, Credit & SC Finance.
• Merging Nalco and Ecolab finance teams, setting up the market finance structure and establishing the P&A & Credit control teams for MENA.
• Established strong business partnership with Divisions and Country managers to drive focus on loss making businesses and future investment projects.
• Drove strong GP and cost control focus in difficult business year to deliver OI above Plan.
• Turnaround of the control environment from inadequate across almost all the entities to 100% adequate status via standardizing accounting practices, implementing policies and enforcing strong balance sheet review discipline.
• Developed a strong talent pipeline growing both internally in the market as well for regional opportunities.
Managing the region from Pakistan to South Africa for the Power / Hand Tools & Household business.
•Business planning of current / long term vision of the company, including restructuring plans.
•A variety of analysis projects including product / market mix analysis to improve profitability, price discounts analysis & promotional analysis.
•Managing legal and commercial portfolio for the region, customer rebates structure & legal matters.
Key Accomplishments
Led the plans for restructuring in 2009 and delivered the Fiscal Year with improved gross/operating margin, based on 1) detailed analysis of different cost elements & setting targets with team leaders & 2) focused analysis on product mix to deliver better gross margin.
South Africa business reactivation plan and Distributor termination, by 1) thorough distributor stock analysis and proposing a stock buyback compensation model & 2) analysis of new distribution options to reactivate a declining business.
Managing a versatile portfolio of Hair Cosmetics, Styling & Snacks businesses
•Business planning of current year & ensuring the right investment choices.
•Long term portfolio management & aligning the business strategies in line with the company strategies.
•Representing the category as the Finance Manager with responsibilities including distributor projects, competitive studies, cost saving & sourcing projects.
Key Accomplishment
Revamped the declining styling portfolio, developing into a growing and profitable business, based on 1) co-developing strong commercial plan, which included reducing half the portfolio keeping only fast moving sku’s & 2) redesigning a new price point of products with price reduction on entry level sku’s and introducing high margin products, delivering market share growth and improved profitability.
Cash forecasting & management for the existing business year & next 5 years, including dividend plans.
•Working capital management, including lowering the inventory levels of two major plants, planning reduction of Accounts Receivables & working with purchasing on increasing DPO.
•Monthly balance sheet review & analysis of four major legal entities.
Key Accomplishment
Led regional cash management to be the benchmark in CEEMEA region (Central Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa), based on 1) the highest level of dividends ever paid in company’s history with minimal external financing & 2) enormous improvements in working capital delivering record cash conversion of profit.
• Leading a team of technical & business experts for implementation of SAP (A/R module)
• Managing the closure of old system, ensuring continuity of business & high levels of internal controls.
• Led the regional cash flow forecasting integration of Gillette business, including mapping of balance sheet & transformation to P&G standards.