DEEPAK R. PILLAI

+91-996*******, acsl07@r.postjobfree.com,

Public Profile: http://in.linkedin.com/in/dpillai

Executive Summary

A hands-on and strategic Shopper professional with Retail management and Insights expertise.

An Entrepreneur turned corporate citizen. Highly result oriented retail professional with more than 16 years of cross-functional Retail/ FMCG operations and consulting experience.

Versatile retail champion: Can drive Sales and setup Retail Start-ups. Lead units like Business Development, Operations, Merchandising & Buying, Assortment and Space planning, Category Management and Retail Consulting. Passionate about Training, Business Process Improvements, Retail Analytics and Market Research.

Strong Communicator: Have proven skills across - multi functions, countries, cultures. Both internal and clients.

Business builder: Proficient in independently designing & implementing Retail strategies. Varied experience in exploring retail markets, accelerating growth & achieving desired goals.

Relationship and Team builder: Successfully managed relationships, from largest client accounts, key accounts, multi country teams. Proven record of building highly motivated teams.

Master Trainer: Renowned Public Speaker and Certified Trainer. A Masters in Management Sciences and Bachelor of Civil Engineering

WORK EXPERIENCE

Nielsen Director September 2014 - Present

Presently Director of India Region- Retailer and Category Management Services: Driving key Retailer relationships and Category Management services in India region.

Past and additional responsibilities at Nielsen:

Lead Nielsen’s account team for the largest client in South Asia (5 countries).

Key achievements

1-As Client Business partner- Achieved growth targets through consultative selling across multiple products within Nielsen portfolio. Brought client engagement through more solutions. Managed high levels of client servicing through a highly motivated team.

2-Set up new division of Merchandising Services. Drove business through multiple countries in the region. Gained rich experience in driving collaborative engagements between manufacturers and retailers. Reporting to Global head of Merchandising Services.

-Developed an India based planogram and assortment hub, supporting outsourced space management function for retailers and numerous cat man projects from across the globe.

-Renowned Trainer and speaker: Drove popular Category Management, Space Management workshops for clients and also behavioral training internal associates. Helped Nielsen establish domain expertise through workshops and other thought leadership work.

In the Retailer services role:

Retailer relationships are critical to Nielsen’s business model. Led retailer relationships for top clients including TESCO. Providing analytics and market intelligence solutions and helping retailer clients spot opportunities to grow business.

Achievements:

Drove engagements through C-suite conversations- Integrating multiple Nielsen solutions (Shopper, Category Management, Consulting, outsourcing, Market insights to deliver value to client business

Transformational Process improvements- changing the way retailer clients were serviced. Successful BPI in value measured objectives (delivering insights that provoke and transform client business).

Reliance Retail Asst- General Manager August 2004- Aug 2008

One of the first three hands hired by Reliance’s retail initiative. As Category Manager leader and Buyer (All Reliance Grocery Retail Formats) for the FMCG Non Food (Home Care). Reporting to VP Buying & Merchandising. Played a key role during the startup phase, setting up processes for supply chain, Merchandising and buying and execution.

Previous Assignments at Reliance Retail:

Non Food Category Buying and Merchandising coordinator for Reliance Hyper and Mini Hyper formats.

Merchandising Operations Lead for FMCG at ‘Sahakari Bhandar’,(acquired chain of 20 super markets)

National Trading and Category Head for petrol station convenience stores - Qwik Mart’ was the first grocery retail format of the Reliance group. Key member of the startup team, responsible for ‘Trading and Category management’ for all Convenience store categories.

Creative Mobus Fabrics Pvt Ltd’ Retail Manager October 2003- Sep 2004

Retail Manager at the domestic division of Creative Group, for the launch of ‘Portico- New York’ brand of premium home furnishing products. Heading the Retail sales for a part of western region. Reporting to the CEO- Domestic Business Division.

Raymond Apparel Ltd Assistant Manager Sales May 2002 – October 2003

Area Sales Manager (Central India- MP & Chattisgarh) for Formal (Park Avenue/ Manzoni) and Casual (Parx) apparel Brands. Product sub-categories included Suits, Jackets, Shirts, Trousers, Denim, T-shirts, Winter Wear, and Fashion accessories.

Raymond Retail Ltd Asst Manager May 2001 - May 2002

Raymond, the market leader in worsted suiting and among the top 3 readymade men’s wear brands then. This division managed a franchisee network of 300+ exclusive ‘The Raymond Shop’ retail outlets offering fabrics, men’s fashion accessories, made to measure and ready to wear garments. Reporting to the Director, Retail.

Unicorn Trading Co Entrepreneur 1997- 1999

Successfully drove a start up, ‘Unicorn Trading Co’ as a sole proprietor. This company offered Office automation and IT peripherals and trading services to corporate and retail clients. Made hay while the IT hardware market was in its prime.

Other activities:

Conducts retail courses as visiting faculty in Management Institutes

ACADEMIA: Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from University of Pune

Masters in Management Sciences (MMS)-Marketing from University of Mumbai

References: Available on Request

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