Director/VP Product Development, Sales & Marketing

JOEL C. GUSKIN

**** ** ***** *******, ******, Oklahoma 73012

Cell-Phone: {405} 323-4843  Residence: {405} 340-4456

Email: ******@*****.***

EXECUTIVE PROFILE

Resourceful executive providing a successful track record in sourcing, supply chain management, product development, vendor selection, marketing and people management. Experienced background in creating then implementing departmental efficiencies and process improvement while improving service to a department’s customers.

An innovative leader and manager recognized as results focused with a record of consistent achievement of exceeding goals and maximizing profits. Known for business acumen in fast paced, dynamic environments. A “pragmatic” perfectionist with a capacity for improving business and processes utilizing the criteria "Does it make sense?" along with the desirable trait combination of imagination and reliability.

• Asian Sourcing & Negotiations

• Vendor relations

• Purchasing & Forecasting

• Product & Project Development

• Multi-Channel Sales, Marketing & Advertising

• Logistics

• Budgeting & Expense Control / P&L

• Staff Development, Motivation & Mentoring

• Inventory Control

• Cross Culture Communications

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

JASCO PRODUCTS, LLC, OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Manufactures and distributes consumer electronics and accessories under the GE brand, the #1 consumer recognized brand. Sales channels include every major mass market retailer and home center, most regional chains, food and drug, along with hundreds of independent stores encompassing wholesale revenue of over $180 million.

Director/Vice President, Product Development & Management 5/04 – 4/09

Responsible for developing a comprehensive strategic product line to optimize sales and profit. Supported sales activity with unique products for high volume accounts. Included overall management along with P & L responsibilities.

• Responsible for vendor selection and compliance with corporate social, safety and environmental standards.

• Managed product sourcing, creation and production for all product rollouts including The Home Depot, Target, Office Depot and Canadian Tire.

• Led company with setting profitable sales in managed categories, utilizing continual new product creation along with current product updates.

• In charge of the creation, adoption and production of company’s highest dollar performing product, the GE branded digital to analog TV converter. It also represented company’s first major product launch having 3 major retailers purchasing at inception.

• Strategic personal participation for sales presentations along with product selection, vastly expanded category offerings, costing, market insights to The Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Sears, Walmart and other major retailers.

• Hands-on crisis management covering vendor negotiations and relations, product issues, rush projects, quality issues and recovery from supplier financial issues.

• Selected paginated and proofed assortment of products for B2B catalogs and industry trade ads.

• Provided strategic collaboration and direction for the establishment of a product evaluation engineering and quality assurance office in Shenzhen, China to meet the needs of a rapidly changing market and to fulfill the company’s contractual obligations to GE.

INTERSTATE BATTERIES, DALLAS, TEXAS

Supplies the country’s #1 brand of replacement automotive batteries. Wholesale revenue of over $600 million through 200 distributors marketing to 200,000+ retail dealers. Expanding business model into retail “Power Centers” with independent franchise, company owned stores and nationwide telesales.

General Merchandise Manager / Director Marketing & Advertising 11/02 – 5/2004

Designed and implemented the creation of the company’s first merchandising department. Established a marketing program utilizing direct mail, newspaper inserts and in-store P.O.P. signage.

• Achieved 20% sales increase by sourcing and implemented new product lines to expand the original “all battery” concept into a “power store” model of batteries, adapters, chargers, flashlights, accessories, etc. Thereby improving store traffic and relevancy for the consumer.

• Improved gross margin by 8% by envisioning and creating entirely new pricing models across the entire division from straight formula calculation to market pricing over retail and 6 distinct commercial businesses. Established commercial sales price structures replacing undisciplined environment.

• Managed virtual team of internal resources to deliver in-store P.O.P. Implemented the creation and design of new consumer friendly packaging program for Interstate branded products. New packaging was easier to shop and allowed Interstate to pursue “store within a store” concept with other retailers.

• Initialized critical review to identify obsolete products. Created a reserve and sales plan, thereby, releasing valuable distribution center and store space while freeing up capital for faster growing products.

• Created improved Asian logistics with lower costs, improved scheduling and quality assurance procedures.

RADIOSHACK CORPORATION, FORT WORTH, TEXAS

The nation’s largest retailer and manufacturer of consumer electronic products, with annual sales over $4.5 billion and 7,200 locations.

Vice President, Merchandising 1/01 - 7/02

Charged with developing a comprehensive strategic business model to optimize profit and return on investment while meeting marketing, financial and corporate growth objectives.

• Rejuvenated product line assortments by sourcing and implementation of new product line assortments in core categories that had become stagnant while realigning growth areas not achieving optimum performance.

• Created market research projects for the testing of consumer preferences. Implemented market testing of various scenarios. Results were presented to top management with recommended action plan. Provided hands-on realization of market strategy.

• Turned around sales of high gross margin in the power products business from sales losses to high double-digit sales gains within 4 months.

• Created a new product strategy along company’s market strengths in alignment with market demand and growth patterns. Reduced number of stock keeping units while implementing a plan for a 20% upturn in sales.

• Managed the creation of an entirely new subcategory of mini-radio control vehicles (ZipZaps) from concept, through design, manufacturing, marketing, procurement and sales plan.

• Created and sourced product for multi-channels. Provided unique items and marketing for e-tailing and dealer distribution channels.

• Selected and paginated assortment of multi-channel media for cost and result effectiveness.

Vice President, Product Development 1/97 - 12/00

Responsible for the departments charged with the creation and development of the entire line of RadioShack products: Engineering, Evaluations, Publications, Regulatory Affairs, Product Management and Industrial Design. Included overall management along with P & L responsibilities.

• Created an environment allowing individuals of differing disciplines, from creative artistic people to those with analytical skill sets, to blend and cooperate within their various fields of expertise thereby improving interdepartmental relationships and performance. New teamwork improved overall product performance reliability and time-to-market. Improvements such as technical publication writers reporting product difficulties of operation and feature failures to engineers and engineers working with packaging artists to highlight features. Reduced time-to-market for new product development from 1 ½ years to 7 months.

• Built solid relations with upper management of supplying companies allowing quick resolution of product development issues.

• Established product evaluation office in Shenzhen, China creating efficiencies in testing and further improving time to market while maintaining product quality.

• Strategized with firmware engineers to maintain “customer logic” in multiple consumer products. Worked through a device’s computerized logic to ensure a product functions in an intuitive manner consistent with consumer’s expectations to mitigate consumer confusion and reduce product returns from a device being too difficult to operate.

Merchandise/Marketing Manager 4/92 - 12/96

Responsible for development and implementation of a comprehensive business plan to optimize profit and meet marketing, financial and corporate growth objectives. Implemented by the purchasing, managing and development of marketing, merchandising, product assortment and advertising plans.

• Researched, compiled, and presented to senior management a comprehensive report on company’s declining sales, averaging 15%, in its basic core competency product lines of high margin products. The report’s recommendations were immediately accepted. Successfully led the implementation to turn around sales by creating changes in advertising format, store displays, product assortments and packaging. The plan was initiated as a main focus for the retail stores creating the successful effect providing an overall 10% sales gain in less than a year.

• Created and implemented market research projects for the testing of consumer preferences of battery brands with 3 distinct geographic markets for core battery business. Results were presented to top management with recommended action plan of maintaining private label product with new in-store displays. Provided hands-on realization of market strategy by designing, sourcing and implementing nationwide rollout for displayers. Also led coordination with supply chain management to insure additional quantities of product were available to fill stocking and sales. Increased sales by 20% within 5 months of this high gross margin business.

• Negotiated and implemented the first nationwide program of monitored security systems to be sold through a retail channel. ADT for installed systems and Orca Systems for the do-it-yourself market.

• Realigned business strategy of telecommunications products by increasing market share through expanded promotional products line.

Education:

Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York – B.S, Communications

Texas Christian University - Managing Managers - Certification

Karrass Effective Negotiating

Numerous courses in management, negotiations, diversity, and motivation.

Contact this candidate