Senior Program Manager, Emerging Markets Group Operations Programs & Excellence
The Nielsen Company
Total years of experience :17 years, 2 Months
Key Responsibilities:
• Manage a strategic departmental reform and reorganization program which aims to improve the clients' experience of the company's core product
• Lead and strategically reform the Emerging Markets group approach towards growth & transformation programs by partnering with the cluster level growth & transformation leads and leveraging cutting edge technology to monitor, analyze and report status to senior executives
• Spearhead the deployment of the LEAN practice in multiple countries in the Emerging Markets group
• Develop and publish the Emerging Markets newsletter which provides information on commercial success stories
• Drive an end to end process improvement initiative which aims to refine and streamline a growing business unit in the company
Highlights:
• Developed an automated and standardized weekly dashboard to give visibility to the leadership on the status of the annual product enhancements across 65 countries.
• Established a weekly tracking mechanism for business growth and transformation projects to give insight to the leadership on the progress and financial status of projects.
Key Responsibilities:
• Work with a multicultural team across 65 emerging markets to develop tracking mechanisms for product enhancements and business growth and transformation projects in order to give visibility of status to the leadership.
• Leverage best practices from the South East Asia region to establish the successful Sales Force Activation business in more than 60 countries.
• Lead the operational part of a multi million dollar project spanning six Asian countries for a client who is a global leader in the FMCG industry.
• Partner with the growth and transformation leads across five regional clusters including Asia, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe to troubleshoot projects and areas that are not progressing as per the quality, timeline and financial targets.
• Champion delivery quality and cycle times in the emerging markets group for the business-as-usual deliverables by understanding the root causes of defects and delays, setting short and long term action plans and reporting to the group level leadership of the status of the same.
Highlights:
• Played a pivotal role in the setup and development of the new business unit of Sales Force Activation by developing and incorporating product quality KPI's, client inquiry systems and other crucial processes.
• Awarded a "Simply Excellent Award" for displaying exceptional leadership and organizational capability in handling critical global FMCG clients' projects.
• Presented with a “Simply Excellent Award” for delighting client with operational excellence in execution of a crucial multi country FMCG project.
Key Responsibilities:
• Partnered with the commercial and operational leaders of the Sales Force Activation business unit in laying the foundations for the development of the business unit.
• Lead critical multi country market research projects by working directly with the clients in gathering the necessary inputs, answering client queries, providing status updates and ensuring that the deliverables purchased by the clients are delivered properly by providing the required information and training.
• Set up and lead projects end to end from their inception to their completion by leading cross functional and multi country operations and commercial teams.
• Worked directly with Nielsen's 3rd party vendor in developing the deliverables for the clients which consist of analytics reports and web based applications.
• Ensured strict adherence and full compliance of internal teams to the developed processes including quality, cost and revenue monitoring of incoming client contracts, among others.
Highlights:
• Displayed highest standards of independence, professional objectivity and technical excellence and merited “Simply Excellent Award” for implementing enhancements for the retail measurements for Egypt
• Successfully accelerated completion for a project which was complex and long standing by employing strong knowledge of complexities and unique circumstances of project functions.
Key Responsibilities:
• Spearheading a team to handle critical aspects of project life cycle starting from strategic planning, initiation and development to execution and follow-up within assigned budgets and envisaged time frames.
• Mediating extensively with key officials at client organization for analyzing requirements and translating the same into highly precise project briefs and striven to achieve client satisfaction by delivering and achieving quality norms.
• Defining project objectives including delineation of scope; observing a policy of open communication and resolving conflicts/ issues at various levels by applying best PMO practices.
• Orchestrating all project operations, scheduling work-flow as well as monitoring actual progress against agreed plans/ KPIs; identifying variations and accordingly effecting adjustments to achieve project objectives.
• Organizing and aiding all resources critical for seamless execution of project operations. Negotiating with vendors/ suppliers and devising strategies in the best financial interest of the organization.
• Fostering a continuous improvement environment to brace up business performance, proactively identifying potential risks and formulating appropriate policies to mitigate the same while ensuring full satisfaction of stake holders.
• Building and developing an effective team, ensuring business growth and achievement of project targets through planning, recruiting, mentoring, training and development.
• Maintaining a strong working knowledge of products/services and respective marketplaces, including regulatory trends, competitor strategies, product growth, general economic conditions, and other relevant information to maintain and upgrade service.
Highlights:
• Bestowed with “Simply Excellent Award” for successfully deploying innovative technology like hand-held terminals to enable retail audit in Philippines.
• Played a crucial role in seamless implementation of purchase plan for Top Clients and merited “Simply Excellent Award” for the same.
• Instrumental in defining core market segment for a client across 11 Asian Countries backed by extensive research and data analysis.
Key Responsibilities:
• Managed and planned the projects for the assigned region, shaped project initiation and set out project strategies, starting from inception and feasibility stages till final hand over.
• Analyzed project needs, established project management strategy and recommended appropriate level of planning, scheduling and control in compliance with organizational policies and standards for excellence.
• Ensured business control metrics, devised cost effective solutions for blockages. Performed resource acquisition, negotiations while maintained requisite documentation, methods and procedures to complete projects in prescribed timelines and budgets.
• Collected metrics data (such as baseline, performance schedule, work in progress and work completed) and reports on project progress and other project specific information, to take curative actions in case of variance.
• Ensuring satisfactory hand-over to clients and undertook post project responsibilities within pre-defined SLA’s to ensure client satisfaction.
Highlights:
• Successfully piloted deployment of the first global client inquiry resolution across the organization.
• Delivered operational excellence and turnkey solutions in implementing regional functional strategy in close coordination with regional and global leads.
• Honored with “Simply Excellent Award” for proficiently executing assigned business functions.
Key Responsibilities:
• Architected an innovative global client inquiry resolution by identifying gaps in the processes, initiated corrective actions that are cost effective and led its implementation to augment automation and internal productivity.
• Mediated with other ancillary departments in the organization, streamlined processes and activities of team members to ensure strict conformance to assigned deadlines and budgets.
• Catalyzed a driving force in development of best practices, standards and codes of practice, led activities from concept to initiation, evaluation, design, project development and stakeholder relationship management.
• Drove end-to-end integration of global client inquiry resolution in the rest of the region. Assisted and resolved any troubleshooting problems arising thereof.
Highlights:
• Established internal preventive KPI’s that minimized client quality escapes significantly.
Key Responsibilities:
• Scrutinized KPI’s and benchmarked index of acceptable metrics for the Middle East and North African Regions. Escalated functional/ timeline and quality issues while conducted root cause identification to minimize recurrence.
• Executed complex process improvement initiatives and reported the results of all observations to senior management, highlighted significant issues and offered turnkey solutions for the same.
• Closely monitored implementation of all recommended solutions/ tools and process across the business, analyzed extensively its effects to verify attainment of desired improvisations.
• Tailored policies/ processes and technologies or operating guidelines to equal changing business needs, industry trends in compliance with organization policies and guidelines.
Highlights:
• Received “Simply Excellent Award” for incorporation of retailer’s chains data in the internal systems.
Key Responsibilities:
• Performed various data acquisition initiatives; collaborated and analyzed all the data structures and actual data to determine its precise meaning and its potential impact to client’s business in liaison with team at Saudi Arabia.
• Synthesized complex information including statistical data to produce client deliverables that facilitate formulation of key business strategies, develop business/ markets and assist with commercial development of products/technologies.
• Generated an array of analytical reports which were clear and concise and exhibited strategic conclusions for significant issues faced by business situations including potential opportunities and industry performance.