Rick Watkins Power Point presentation

I am a seasoned Category Management professional with both retail and manufacturing
experience allowing a defined focus on supplier and retail processes of managing categories as
strategic business units focused on consumer value.

 Extensive experience with the following Retail Planning, Replenishment and Analytical software
– JDA Space Planning Plus, JDA Efficient Item Assortment, Business Objects, Bud Net, Data
Cleansing Tool, IRI’s ILD, Schematic Retrieval Tool, SAS Market Max Assortment
Planning, Arthur Allocation, Arthur Financial Planning and MMS Allocation/Store Planning and
Distribution, IRI Impact and Spectra consumer insights software systems.
 Expert with IRI retail data, experience with Syndicated Scanner data, exposure to Syndicated
panel data.
 Category Management and Category Space Management experience.
 Highly analytical with current experience in a Category Business Analyst role.
 Managed Allocation processes, lead user on initial implementation of Arthur Allocation
software.
 Strong analytical, computer and software implementation skills.
 Ability to take raw data and produce meaningful analysis as well as interpreting and presenting
the data while creating professional grade reports.
 Experience in consulting best practices and improving process flows on task requirements.
 Strong understanding of replenishment, distribution and qualitative/quantitative forecasting
models.
Excellent communication, organizational and problem-solving skills.
Advanced user in Microsoft Excel, can create complex formulas plus general knowledge of
macros.
 Extensive experience in Allocation and replenishment using Arthur, JDA software and Excel.
 Experience working in a Retail environment.

 Currently in the role of Category Business Analyst, my primary functions include retrieving retail account sales history
data through Symphony IRI-ILD(IRI Liquid Data)new technology platform software, export into Microsoft Excel/Access
and DCT(Data Cleansing Tool) where data will be cleaned, any inaccurate information is repaired and all accurate data is
loaded into JDA EIA(Efficient Item Assortment) where assortment strategies are applied based on various sales metrics
and assortment plans created based on various attributes, measures and strategies including the incorporation of
Syndicated Scanner data(market data), subsequently these plans are imported into the Space Planning Plus tool for
category space merchandising and space management to determine the optimal assortment plans by location.
Syndicated data incorporates only one channel-grocery and 7-Eleven is a C store so we utilize the Syndicated data
knowledge based on product selling vs. product package selling.
 Create Business Analysis reports for Field Management team using Business Objects with store groups created in SMART
Analysis tool, store groups created by District for a 1400 location chain, then fed into Business Objects to pull Chain
specific data for each district, lastly exported to excel where formulas and formatting are adding to achieve a professional
grade reporting tool to be utilized monthly.
 Created a departmental Project Tracking report designed to track contractor hours in relationship to each Account and
monitoring the contribution of total hours allocated per account monthly and yearly accumulated. This report replaced a
monotonous and non compliant weekly process and utilizes Microsoft Office Share Point Software which allows multiple
users access to check out report, enter data, save and check in report for others to source, I built in excel starting with
blank worksheet.
 Use Business Objects XI Desktop Intelligence to pull Bud Net data for the NRS 7-Eleven account franchisee stores and
combine along with Wholesaler competitive data and/or 7-11 scan data. This data is cleaned and compiled into individual
store reports including daily movement, trend, average price and distribution. Numerous other standard reports as well as
ad hoc reports are generated to fulfill the analytical request of the 7-Eleven Buying team and Category Management
team.
 Created and implemented an entirely new streamline process for Data Management of a National Retail account in order
to improve the process flows efficiency and effectiveness allowing less hours to be spent completing the task
requirements for this account

 Create and distribute customized assortments for chain, cluster, and store levels demonstrating
the ability to balance perspective, logic, understanding and experience with high-level analysis
utilizing SAS Market Max software.
 Create key item plans utilizing various metrics for specific products to initiate product orders
when needed for 230 brick and mortar locations plus e-commerce and Catalog.
 Forecast competitive analysis and qualitative methods of customer product and market analytics
in order to create assortment models conducive to demand.
Create top-down and bottom-up assortment plans and present to buyers and seniors for
approval.
 Trouble shoot processes and procedures in new system, test for
bugs, modifications, improvements, and eventually script best practices of system to achieve
location assortment planning corporate expectations.
 On any giving day juggling multiple projects with tight timelines and achieving to corporate
satisfaction.
Analyze store specific style/color/size selling and create profile for each location and
class/category.
 Create product assortment plans for Catalog periodically based on circulation launch usually bi-
monthly, and plans would include Beginning Inventory, Sales estimates, average weekly sell-off
and receipt plan.
 Ability to produce analysis on any topic in any format at any level of complexity consistently and
effectively.

 Responsible for managing the flow of merchandise (300-600 SKU’s per Retail location) to meet 300+
stores and e-commerce inventory needs. Maximize sales and minimize markdowns by developing the
team, methodologies, procedures and systems necessary to ensure the right merchandise in the right
store at the right time in the right quantity while contributing to the overall performance of the division’s
cross-functional team.
Ensure improvement in cycle time, in-stock positions and inventory utilization through both pre-buy
analysis and warehouse reserve allocations.
 Identify areas of opportunity for system and process improvement.
 Hindsight the allocation of critical events to gather learning and process improvements.
 Communicate with the distribution center to prioritize and facilitate the merchandise flow process.
 Develop inventory strategies in order to maximize sales and minimize markdowns at global and store
level.
 Work with other business areas to ensure proper support and coordination of Merchandise issues.
 Responsible for supervising and supporting staff of 4-allocation analyst in everyday business of the
Department.
 Produce reports for business analysis using downloads from the mainframe such as purchase orders by
week receipts, store capacity, unit SKU reports and many ad hoc reports.
 Managed all the improvement and implementation of new allocation system.
 Coordinating a size analysis process to be implemented company wide.
 Management style of working along side staff with 100% hands on knowledge of business processes and
analytics with the ability to perform every task.

FilterAdd Macro:
 Dim ws As Worksheet
 For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
 ws.Activate
 Selection.AutoFilter
 Next
 End Sub

Excel users will repeat functions over and over, this can be avoided by writing and/or
recording specific VBA Macros in Excel . Even simple macros can save hours and
hours of time building spreadsheets. The above macro will add filters to each column in
a spreadsheet on every sheet automatically. If one were to do this manually for a 100
sheet file, it would take about half and hour, but with this macro it will take only a few
seconds.

Many Analyst will break up a multi market spreadsheet when distribution or other market
specific analysis is required. With expert knowledge of excel complex formulas one can
do everything needed in one spreadsheet.

VBA MACRO for Freeze Panes:
 Dim ws As Worksheet
 For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
 ws.Activate
 Range("c2").Select
 ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True
 Next
 End Sub

Macros in Power Point, Who Knew? Most do not and spend countless
hours on simple tasks such as fitting an import to page, clicking and
dragging and clicking and dragging. Automation is the key to
efficiency like the Power Point Macro below:
 Sub ALLFIT()
 Dim oshp As Shape
 Dim osld As Slide
 Dim otarget As Shape
 Set otarget = ActivePresentation.SlideMaster.Shapes("Rectangle 8")
 For Each osld In ActivePresentation.Slides
 If osld.Shapes.Count > 0 Then
 Set oshp = osld.Shapes(osld.Shapes.Count)
 oshp.Left = otarget.Left
 oshp.Top = otarget.Top
 oshp.LockAspectRatio = False
 oshp.Height = otarget.Height
 oshp.Width = otarget.Width
 End If
 Next osld
 Set oshp = Nothing
 Set osld = Nothing
 End Sub

 Microsoft Excel could be the most over-utilized underutilized application in
business.
 Many users are not trained or do not have the expertise to utilize excel
functions that could save their organizations time and money.
 Better quality reporting can be achieved with expertise knowledge of the
proper skill sets for more efficient category management and assortment
planning:

1. Expertise knowledge of excel including general knowledge of macros, one does
not need to know how to write VBA, one can easily record a macro and tweak it
for other applications, having a basic general knowledge is key.
2. Retail experience
3. Manufacturing experience
4. Retail and Manufacturing software application expertise
5. Excel advanced formula development skills
6. Automation, Automation, Automation

Rick Watkins Power Point presentation

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