Retail Operations Management

LAURIE A. HAMILTON ******.*.********@*****.***

San Diego, CA www.linkedin.com/in/laurieahamilton 209-***-****

Retail / Marketing / Operations Professional

Customer Service / Sales Maximization / Marketing / Merchandising / Operations / Fulfillment / Project Management / Logistics / Production Workflow and Scheduling / Budget Development / System and Process Improvements / Collaborative Communication / Inventory / Shortage Control / Negotiations / Mergers / IT / Media Relations / Training / Customer & Vendor Relations

A highly effective professional with a proven record of boosting productivity, margins and market share in a retail environment. Consistently integrated process improvements. In depth understanding of the market place complemented by strong attention to detail and excellent multi-tasking abilities. Excellent communication skills with diverse groups. Known as an open-minded, resourceful and highly organized leader with a great sense of humor.

Deliver sales fundamentals, continual improvements, pre-actively develop relationships, optimize selling effectiveness, expert resource request and analyze specific retail conditions

Professional Experience

Hamilton Global Ventures LLC, San Diego, CA 2014 – Present

E-Commerce retailer focusing on home security and emergency preparedness products.

President, 2014 – Present

Developed and manage all aspects of a fully operational on-line business platform for family

security and emergency preparedness products.

Bankers Life and Casualty Company, San Diego, CA 2015 – Present

Founded in 1879, 14.5B in assets under management.

Insurance Sales Representative – License # 0I93384, 2015 – Present

A preferred financial products company tailored to meet the individual investment needs and

unique financial plans of our customers and business partners. We focus on optimizing our

portfolio for stability and to be less prone to market volatility.

Petco Animal Supplies, Inc., San Diego, CA 2010 – 2014

$3B national retailer of animal supplies with 1,231 Petco and 100 Unleashed by Petco locations.

Manager, Marketing Operations, Quality Control, 2012-2014.

Managed production workflow of all creative projects, budgets and quality control functions.

Trending 42% increase in projects, no additional staff or budget to facilitate the

production of projects. Developed and communicated issues through monthly

production report to management. Developed plan to utilize a 3rd party to handle all

template type projects therefore eliminating 20% of the workload from the creative team

without increasing the marketing staff or budget.

Created on-line buyer approval process. Marketing area was using a manual buyer

approval process for ads. Collaborated with cross functional teams throughout the

enterprise to ensure requirements of all areas were met. Led, documented, researched,

trained and implemented new approval system. This resulted in workload being cut by

35% and production time by 30%.

Managed $10M budget, monthly forecasting for Operations with less than 3% controllable variance.

Collaborated with cross functional teams to redefine production process and timing resulting in a more effective schedule. Process was documented and responsibilities mapped out.

Established regular communication with Legal department to review trademark, event names, disclaimers and all other marketing requests. Resulting in quicker turn around times on requests.

Manager, Advertising Media and Budget, 2010 to 2012.

Managed national marketing strategy and executed divisional budget development and forecasting.

Responsible for systemic purchase orders and invoice payment.

Managed and implemented national advertising media strategy and communicated with agency to ensure expectations. Monthly national circulars was the media of choice, able to establish that television was more effective. The result was a change to the strategic media buy to reduce circular spend and reinvest the money in Television. Significant improvement found in brand recognition and sales.

Reduced annual newspaper spend by 15% and reinvested dollars in more effective media strategy.

Managed Marketing budget of $80K. Developed budget training guide and executed training of all Marketing budget owners. This resulted in increased understanding of the budget process and a monthly result of less than 3% controllable variance.

Macy’s West, San Francisco, CA 1996 - 2009

$6B division of Macy’s Inc., a $26B retailer.

Director, Print Media, 2007 to 2009.

Managed all Print Media buys for the West Coast division. Worked with 600+ newspapers and negotiated contracts, developed staff of 6 media planners.

Retained advertising punch while meeting cost-cutting mandate. Challenged to maintain newspaper impressions with significantly reduced budget. Collaborated with Director of Creative Services to reduce size of ads while optimizing color, resulting in maintaining ad’s impact while cutting costs $1.4M.

Negotiated reduction on cost of newspaper ads. Newspaper circulation numbers were down, resulting in fewer readers seeing ads. Reviewed contract volume, rates, circulation information and spending history. Negotiated a contract for more reasonable rate, cutting newspaper advertising budget by 18% - from $130M to $110+M.

Managed and controlled all aspects of newspaper, magazine, on-line, outdoor and multi-cultural advertising process. Ensured company’s sales/profit goals were achieved through effective negotiation of print media rates, placement and other relevant benefits. Managed eight people and a $110M advertising budget. Hired, trained and coached staff to achieve best results.

Restructured ad sizes without compromising impressions, cutting expenses by $1.4M.

Director, Creative Operations, 2003 to 2007.

Managed production workflow of print advertising as well as direct mail. Worked with newspapers on timing and delivery of advertisement. Streamlines process for more effective flow.

Orchestrated merger transition process for advertising. Developed time and action calendar of activities, and co-chaired regular meetings with teams from both companies. Completed transition on schedule and without incident. Garnered two major awards for efforts.

Improved turn-in standards by 35%, and created new Turn-In Standards Guide for merchants and creative to facilitate new ad processing.

Responsible for $100M budget and weekly forecasts and obtained less that 2% variance.

Director, Inventory Control, 1998 to 2003.

Direct inventory planning, execution and reconciliation for entire company, communicating to senior management, merchants, stores and distribution centers the on-line results. Managed mainframe systems and equipment related to inventory.

Overhauled inventory control system. Collaborated with inventory teams to implement a single, corporate wide inventory system. Seamlessly executed new system, cutting inventory reconciliation time 25% and paper/courier expenses $500K/yr.

Developed comprehensive shortage and inventory programs with the goal of profitability, reducing overall dollar shortage results by 35%.

Developed system/equipment verification process, ensuring all equipment was functioning at least two weeks prior to inventory time. Boosted equipment functioning rate from 70% to 98%, saving $10,000 in overall inventory costs.

Education / Affiliations

MA, Phillips Graduate Institute (formerly California Family Study Center) Chatsworth, CA

BA, California State University, Long Beach, CA

California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist – MFT31496

California Licensed Insurance Agent – 0I93384

President, Village at Summergate Homeowners’ Association 2004 to 2010

Macy’s Mentor Program – 2003 to 2007

Building Emergency Director, Macy’s Safety Committee – 2007 to 2008

To manage the successful coordination and implementation of the Petco Demo and Sample Program. This individual is accountable for successfully implementing an internal Demo Program by focusing on tactics that ensure successful program implementation.

This individual runs the day-to-day aspects of Petco’s Demo and Sample Program to include partnering with vendors and merchants to determine the right products and offers for each demo cycle, partnering with field leaders to ensure a high-performing team of store WholePets Demonstration Specialists, gathering bottom up feedback, reviewing, recapping, and preparing presentation to report out on metrics/results, and implementing changes to the program, as necessary.

This position collaborates with vendors and other key leaders as well as with a cross-functional team of agents to ensure proper planning, design, and implementation of the program.

Essential Job Functions

The incumbent must be able to perform all of the following duties and responsibilities with or without a reasonable accommodation.

1.Successfully implements Petco’s Demo and Sample Program to achieve desired results and ensure alignment to our Brand Promise. Develops and indirectly manages people (i.e. WholePets Demonstration Specialists) to ensure program is successful.

2.Implement the process to identify, select, onboarding, train, and schedule of the WholePets Demonstration Specialists.

3.Partner with vendors and merchant partners to align on product selection for each demo cycle which aligns to the marketing calendar/VIP funding, and supports our WholePets philosophy. Leverages historical insights to ensure product selection are relevant and meaningful to our customers.

4.Coordinates and manages the distribution of samples/coupons/educational materials from vendor sponsors to WholePets Demonstration Specialists (in stores).

5.Work closely with vendors as it relates to the Demo and Sample Program. Assist vendor in designing the right product training experience for our WholePets Demonstration Specialists. Leverage proven best practices on executing the right training experiences to the WPDS.

6.Create program guides and other tools that are used to educate the WholePets

7.Demonstration Specialists, engage customers, and align field and support center sponsors with plan so that sponsors can reinforce behaviors.

8.Partners with Visual team to ensure the right brand messaging, signage, and fixtures meet standards/expectations in all demo stores.

9.Leverage metrics from multiple sources to provide insights to Vendors, sponsors, champions, and agents, and create way-forward plans to ensure program implementation is driving results and has effective field sponsorship.

10.Identify process improvement ideas for consideration as the program evolves and is rolled out to incremental stores. Facilitate best practice sharing, provide thought leadership on customer experiences, and evolve the program so that this becomes a differentiator from the competition and creates Petco Promoters!

11.Establish reward and recognition programs to identify top WholePets Demonstration performers, successes and communicate these across the organization; may partner with Total Rewards Department to develop and implement same.

12.Establish and maintain cross-functional relationships with Operations, Merchandising, Marketing, E-Commerce, & Vendor partners and develop strategy recommendations based on analytics to drive continuous improvements. Maintain a high working knowledge of cross-functional strategies and operational practices.

13.Travel to stores to engage with the WholePets Demonstration Specialists and all key field sponsors.

14.Interact professionally and effectively through verbal and written communication with all professional contacts.

Other Duties and Responsibilities

1.Independently prioritize and accomplish multiple tasks within established timeframes and through the work of subordinates and vendor partners. Leverage project management principles to ensure cycle to cycle activities are completed on-time and on budget

2.Partner with team to create immediate and long-term action plans to support the framework and operating roadmap for the Petco Demo and Sample Program.

3.Oversee the implementation of the various communication, documentation and training resources as applied to continued education for the WholePets Demonstration Specialists.

4.Influence the design and implementation of a Demo and Sample Program scorecard.

5.Stay abreast of emerging industry trends and to assess for appropriate fit and adoption at PETCO.

6.Provide on-going coaching and feedback to DMs and GMs, as well as, WholePets Demonstration Specialists and the store teams.

7.Perform other related duties, tasks and responsibilities as required, assigned and directed

Nature of Supervision

This position involves significant independence in developing cross-functional projects. Broad, general instruction is given on vision and project objectives and work is occasionally reviewed during development or implementation phases.

Planning and Problem Solving

This individual will be responsible for trouble-shooting effective hiring and scheduling of WholePets Demonstration Specialists, late approvals, late delivery of samples and/or coupons, incorrect allocation of samples, etc. to ensure this issues are overcome or an alternative game plan is quickly implemented to ensure each Demo Session is successful.

Impact

This position will be instrumental in delivering a Demo and Sampling program that will deliver a customer experience that clearly differentiates Petco from our competition, ultimately driving Pet Parents to choose Petco for their Pets needs over all of their other options, even those that may be more conveniently located. A successful Demo Program should drive improvements in both the Promoter Score of the store as well as sales.

Supervisory Responsibility

This position may indirectly lead the WholePets Demonstration Specialists. Incumbent also provides leadership on cross-functional projects and departmental initiatives.

California

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