Erika F20 Review
Harmonized Reporting --> (1) Lead development & training of E2E Category Level Reporting by P6; (2) Lead the development of Allowance reporting for Merchandising by end of Q2.
Improving Efficiency / Reducing Bureaucracy --> (1) Lead the weekly & period package analytics & commenary for Merch (2) Lead the enhancement of analytics trending & visualization views by end of Q3. (3) Lead the analysis of use case for existing & requested reporting to ensure harmonized approach to margin reporting.
Improving Support/Connection with Functional partners --> (1) Lead the implementation of monthly forecasting for Merch into the New Hierarchy by Q1; (2) Lead the quantification & capture of cost harm & category reset in the forecast. (3) Lead the quantification & integration of marketing & merch battle plans into the forecast.
Employee Development (Staff and/or Personal) --> (1) Lead the development of team-led learning share - each team member to share 2 process playback & documentations; (2) Lead the development of process charting of: (a) E2E reporting and (b) cost harmonization. (3) Lead the development of team's ability to use Tableau/visualization. (4) Attend 2 data visualization training opportunities.
Budgeting / Forecasting Process --> (1) Lead the process of pulling data to prepare for the F20 budget for purpose of guiding conversations with Merchants; (2) Lead the integration of Merch feedback into budgeting models & systems.
Merchandising Transition --> (1) Lead the Merch Finance support for validating data in the Deal Sheet tracking for Category Resets.
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E2E Margin Project was delayed due to a change in leadership. I fully led the rechartering, revalidating of the requirements, and will start up again in P8 for delivery in P10. On track to complete for year-end.
This is also not completed to satisfaction yet. We have put into place some CDM Promo Allowance reporting at period end, but it doesn't not tie to our Financial Statements exactly, nor have we gotten to the level where we can forecast and predict off of any Allowance reporting. This will become a greater focus in the back-half of the year.
(1) The period end package has been continuously improved upon to be more concise. Getting the managers involved in preparing Fresh/NonFresh insights is an important and missing step to a quality and sustainable Merch package. The weekly commentary is a work in progress, we are currently harmonizing and working on desk-level weekly commentary packages for each of the analysts to "own" that are consistent and have quality insights. The format is almost completed, but the quality insights is not at satisfaction yet. This will be a focus in the back-half of the year.
(2) The roll out of Tableau was delayed, and the turnover of both Fresh/NonFresh managers really hindered the ability to improve upon weekly insights, but this will start to get more built up in the back half of the year.
(3) On a case-by-case basis existing reporting has been challenged, and new reporting requests have folded into the HRAP process for governance.
(1) We successfully rolled out a new forecasting process in P4F19 at the category director level. The leaders in merchandising have changed, and we have been trying to adapt our processes to still provide meaningful information to the VPs and new EVP around forecasting. Not all of the tools worked perfectly, but we were able to navigate through the tools/processes to achieve the desired reasonable end result. Some lessons learned here that the process needs simplification, however there are so many data points required to forecast at a director/banner level that it is a challenge that needs attention in the back-half to prepare for F20 forecasting.
(2) A significant effort was made around reflecting cost harm, and rebalancing subsidy spend (despite poor data/history) into the YTG forecast to support the "keep it whole" objectives with Operations.
(3) The merch battle planning process has been put on hold with many changes in Merch leadership/direction. I expect as Eric/Liam get up to speed in their roles that this will be replaced with strong links to the promo plan.
I have not made good progress against this goal, and this is a top priority in the back half of the year to improve the capabilities and knowledge of my team.
The role of my team in category resets did not evolve as anticipated. Mike/Alec were appointed the leads in this area, and I haven't been involved in much of the oversight of the Deal Sheet tracking. To be discussed how we want to treat this goal for back-half of the year.
OVERALL
Where is the goal for firefighting? haha. It's been a bumpy Q1/Q2 with lots of changes in Merch leadership and the two key roles on my team leaving in P4, and vacancies on the Fresh Analysis roles. Although I think the team has done an OK job at keeping standard reporting afloat, I don't think we've elevated the team to performing insightful analytics and capabilities to problem solve something from start to finish on their own. I have ended up spending a significant amount of time attending discovery meetings on HRAP projects (Chart of Accounts, Income Statement, Central Finance, E2E Project, Assess & Plan, Governance etc) that are all important projects but have been a distraction from my goals and objectives, and everyday support. The area that I think needs the most improvement is elevating the team and improving insightful analysis, and improving my relationship in particular with the NonFresh team.