Tahir Khan, Founder

Tahir Khan

Founder

SA Business Consulting

Location
Sweden
Education
Master's degree, Strategy
Experience
17 years, 7 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :17 years, 7 Months

Founder at SA Business Consulting
  • Sweden
  • My current job since September 2014

Founder of own Consulting firm

Focus areas are Business Consulting, Profitability Improvement, and Interim Financial Management through Management Consultant, Business Controller, and Finance Manager positions in small, medium, and large multinational companies

Services provided are Interim Management, Data analyses, Process mapping, and Bottom-line enhancements by identifying and implementing Top-line growth and Cost reduction initiatives

ASSIGNMENTS
- Interim Finance Manager via SA Business Consulting for Unilever, one of the largest companies in the Consumer Goods industry

Assigned to Unilever Production and its Ice Cream factory in Sweden to develop a new methodology to forecast costs which vary considerably across the year because of seasonality with the intention to significantly improve the forecast accuracy

- Interim Business Controller via SA Business Consulting for Infratek, a mid-size firm in the Construction industry

Other than to coordinate the Month-end closing and Budget process, the main assignments were to monitor project cost development, and increase the financial awareness in order to achieve or surpass project cash flow and performance goals.

Identified and presented 30+ profitability improvement actions that would increase profits with more than 50%

Nordic Corporate Controller at Sonepar
  • Sweden
  • My current job since September 2015

Nordic Corporate Controller for Sonepar, world's largest Electrical wholesaler with 40 000+ employees and €20 B revenue

During the closure and transition of the Sonepar Nordic head-office from Denmark to Sweden, the main task is to set-up a new Controlling function across the 8 Nordic subsidiaries, ranging from 20 to 800 FTEs and 10 to 600 million Euros in Sales, and to establish new financial processes and analyses methodologies

Other main tasks are to coordinate the Month-end closing and Budget process across the Nordic region, provide financial support to the Nordic Management team and Board of Directors, and introduce a Controlling attitude and approach in the subsidiaries

Advisor to the Pricing project team in Elektroskandia, the largest subsidiary in Sonepar Nordic

Financial Controlling Manager at Statoil Fuel & Retail (BU Sweden)
  • Sweden
  • May 2011 to August 2014

SFR is a leading fuel retailer with network across Northern and Eastern Europe, 17, 000 employees and €9 B revenue. I worked for Sweden, the largest business unit in SFR, reported to the Head of Controlling Sweden and managed and coached the Financial Controlling team, consisting of 3 highly skilled Controllers

Main responsibilities
- Team management
- Overall responsibility for the month-end closing process, financial and KPI reporting
- Streamlining work and financial processes related to fuel purchasing (€300 M monthly)
- Business planning and forecasting for the organisation

Main achievements
- Streamlined work and financial processes related to fuel purchasing by initiating smaller projects with key stakeholders to solve crucial issues. Realized a €10+ M reduction in the company’s financial risk exposure
- Reduced reporting complexity in the month-end closing process by implementing time management tools, such as the Quadrant II method and the Time Inventory Gap Analysis. Achieved a 25 % time reduction, equivalent to 1 Full-Time Employee (FTE)
- Promoted at age 29 in a country with the lowest proportion of young managers of all OECD members

Business Controller at Statoil Fuel & Retail (BU Lubricants)
  • Sweden
  • April 2009 to May 2011

SFR is a leading fuel retailer with network across Northern and Eastern Europe, 17, 000 employees and €9 B revenue. I worked for Lubricants, the smallest business unit in SFR and reported to the business unit CFO

Main responsibilities
- Responsible for the month-end closing process incl financial and KPI reporting, streamline reporting procedures and reduce complexity, business planning and forecasting
- Analyse financial performance to evaluate underlying business development, cost optimization, provide recommendations based on analyses
- Businss partner to Sales Director
- Scrutinize sales performance per segment, country, customer etc. Recommended solutions to improve sales, such as which key customers to target and how to improve the product mix

Main achievements
- Led a project, focusing on standardizing margin and cost follow-up, and coordinated activities with 50+ managers across 8 countries. The new cost follow-up structure increased profits with appr. €1 M/year
- Introduced strategic sales activities to increase profitability, such as Pocket Pricing and price leakage reductions, which had direct bottom-line effects of €1+ M/year
- Conducted detailed operational and administrative analyses, scrutinized cost level and purposes, which increased profits with 10+ %

Market Controller at Outokumpu Stainless
  • Sweden
  • October 2008 to April 2009

Outokumpu Stainless is a leading producer of stainless steel and high performance alloys, 16, 000 employees and €5 B revenue. I reported to the VP Sales & Marketing for the Tubular Products business unit

Main responsibilities
- Responsible for the month-end closing process, Sales and KPI reporting, budgeting and business planning
- Business partner to Sales & Marketing Director
- Head of the local Credit Control group consisting of 4 people in Sweden and Finland
- Perform benchmarking and competitor analyses

Main achievements
- Streamlined the credit process and identified improvement areas, thereby reducing overdue days with appr. 50 % over 4 months
- Managed a cross-country project to implement RIBA in Italy, an electronic payment system, to facilitate customer payments and reduce the overdue days

Business Controller at Arla Foods
  • Sweden
  • October 2006 to September 2008

Arla Foods is a global FMCG company with production in 12 countries, 18, 000 employees and €8 B revenue. I reported to VP Finance for the Swedish business unit

Main responsibilities
- Provide management and departments with detailed quantitative analyses and decision making materials, such as customer performance, competitor analyses, distribution and production cost optimization
- Conduct product costing and business case presentations
- Perform ad-hoc Logistics, Production, and Sales analyses
- Month-end closing, incl KPI reporting
- Business partner to Supply Chain Director

Main achievements
- Conducted data analyses and recommended actions which enabled Arla Foods to regain one of the largest Swedish food retailers (€3 B revenue)
- Provided analytical support and coordinated activities during closure of a factory with 190 FTEs and production transfer to 2 other factories, new product launches, and changes in activity-based costing principles
- Worked closely with the Sales and Marketing departments and supported them with analyses in strategic revisions of product concepts, markets to enter, and go-to-market strategies
- Enabled easier customer order assembly by recommending process changes in several intermediate warehouses, thus reducing 1 FTE per shift per warehouse

Education

Master's degree, Strategy
  • at INSEAD
  • July 2014

Elective focus on Strategy and Pricing Project Manager of a 2 month long consulting project with a leading consulting firm to identify new markets and develop go-to-market strategies for a French industrial firm in the energy sector

Master's degree, Business Economics
  • at Stockholm University
  • March 2006

Master’s Thesis: IFRS 3 & IAS 39: Financial effects when transferring to the new accounting standards

Master's degree, Material Engineering; Polymer
  • at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
  • April 2005

Master’s Thesis: Investigation of polymer degradation, at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Specialties & Skills

Leadership
Analytics
Process Mapping
MS Office tools
ASSEMBLY
BUYING/PROCUREMENT
CLOSING
GAP ANALYSIS
INVENTORY
TIME MANAGEMENT
MS Office, such as Excel, PPT
Process Improvements
Cost optimization

Languages

Hindi
Expert
Urdu
Expert
English
Expert
Swedish
Expert
Norwegian
Intermediate
French
Intermediate

Memberships

Mensa
  • Member
  • August 2002

Training and Certifications

New as Manager (Training)
Training Institute:
Agentum (Sweden)
Date Attended:
May 2011

Hobbies

  • Math Tutor/Coach
    Self-Employed. Pro Bono, helped Upper Secondary School students struggling with math.
  • Disaster Relief, Volunteer
    Helped Pakistani people suffering from natural disasters by collecting clothes and funds through collaboration with local Swedish communities and sending them to Pakistan.