CD Finance Business Partner at Unilever

The CD Finance Partner’s primary responsibility is to provide management decision support to ensure we maximize the return on our CD investments and to contribute to value creation through Customer Development Function.

The National CD Finance Partner works primarily with the CD Leadership Team (composed of channel and customer/channel marketing directors) and from time to time with Area Managers, Customer/Distributor Managers, Group Customer/Channel Marketing Managers, Customer/Channel Marketing Managers, and Field Execution Managers

The National CD Finance Partner is also responsible for oversight of the Order to Cash Process and working with various stakeholders to drive efficiencies and transparency in the O2C process with the aim of keeping overdue debt levels within targets.

Main Accountabilities

TRADE, CHANNEL & CUSTOMER STRATEGY AND BUSINESS PLANNING:

Partners with CD to ensure CD plans are aligned to the Integrated Business Planning process of Unilever.

• Brand, Customer & Channel Audits – Leads and consolidates CD Finance audit inputs to be incorporated into the overall Finance Audit for BMP and for CD Finance inputs to Channel, Trade Category Plans (TCP) and Customer/Distributor Business Plans.  CD Finance inputs to the audits are: trade marketing investment (TTS+TA&P) analysis, promotion and customer/trade marketing activity effectiveness evaluations and learnings, customer/channel profitability (Gold, Silver, Bronze), trade/retailer profitability, competitive trade profitability, trade value chain, CCFOT analysis, debtor days performance and summary of opportunities and issues to help shape channel and overall brand/category strategies.   Ensures customer & channel audits include insights from shopper research and retail trends.
• Jobs-to-be-Done (J2BD) Setting – participates in the J2BD setting process of trade/channel strategy planning to ensure objectives are measurable and aligned to financial targets in the Annual/Stretch Plan, CD SIA and alignment to the BMP/NCBP.
• Think Big & Think Tight – Ensure proposed channel and customer proposals are strategically aligned, deliver brand, customer and shopper benefits;
• Integrate – Aligns with BB Finance partners and with the Integrated Business Planning team to ensure that channel, shopper, and brand inputs are integrated into a common plan for action. Once the BMP & TCP are finalized and fed into the Annual/Stretch Plan, reviews consolidated budgets and approves per area/channel and/or customer budgets before CD budgets are released to Field; Ensures CD’s annual budgets have clear priorities and KPIs.

SETS THE TONE OVER TRADE TERMS AND TRADE MARKETING INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

• Strategic Alignment: Ensures CD promotions are integrated and aligned with the category and channel J2BD;
• Effectiveness: Ensures trade marketing investment create value for Unilever driving accountability and deliver of business results (Win with Customers); Includes driving differentiated trade marketing investments across the channels (Strategic Investing for Growth)
• Efficiency: drives opportunities for spending efficiencies to ensure accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of trade funds management processes; Ensures minimal to zero write-backs and promotions are fully funded; Includes establishing avenues to provide CD with visibility over status of spend and budgets.
• Technology Foundation & Delivery: Ensure full utilization and improvements to OPSO Light Plus (promo funds management system) deliver timely and relevant trade terms spend monitoring and visibility over effectiveness of trade/ customer marketing spend.
• SCOA Compliance: Drives compliance of activity terms and promo spend to Customer Standard Chart of Accounts (CSCOA) and Global Trade Terms Policy.
• Forecasting: develop CD and CD Finance’s capability to forecast CD-led TTS and TA&P spend (from quarter to 6 months to 12-18 months); Accountable for ensuring forecast accuracy and zero bias (at aggregate category and brand spend level)
• Dynamic Resource Allocation: Ensures monies are available to channels/customers/categories which need it the most; Regularly reviews and aligns spend to category performance, especially variable terms/investments.
• Budget Control: Approves budget addendum (add, reduction, transfers) and facilitates budget asks of CD to S&OP and/or Category Boards
• Training: accountable for step changing CD capability in SIFG and (finance-related) WwC agenda.  Drive development of training programs/material on Global Trade Terms Policy Awareness, CSCOA/Customer P&L, Promo Evals/OPSO framework, ROI Training, and Trade (retailer) Profitability Training.

ENSURES CD DELIVERS A POSITIVE RETURN ON TRADE MARKETING INVESTMENT BY ESTABLISHING THE OPSO (OPTIMIZING PROMOTIONAL SELL-OUT) FRAMEWORK IN CD:

• KPI Setting: Promotions contain clear measurable qualitative and financial KPIs linked to Business results (ie. TO growth, ROI, Forecast Accuracy);
• Evaluation: Establish formal avenues and processes that enable regular review and approval of promotions, fully supported with a clear business case (pre-evaluation); Ensures 50% to 90% of promotions (TTS Business Building, CPP & PE spend) are evaluated regularly and that a minimum of 10 percentage points improvement in ROI is delivered year-on-year;
• Technology Foundation & Delivery: Ensures consistency of the use of a common tool for evaluations and properly documented through a common platform (e.g. OPSO Light Plus) used by finance partners and all relevant CD functional teams (e.g. CMD and CMD);
• Sharing of Learnings: Drives a common process across CD to to review and share learnings.
• Continuous Improvement: Drives improvement in execution of future promotions based on learnings drawn from past promotions.

INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLAN & TARGET FRAMEWORK

• Drive annual Integrated Business plan working across function and stakeholder to champion financial translation of multiyear plan.
• Support Financial input required centrally and globally to arrive at business unit target framework for the year.
• Determined Financial modelling by category which will support in year growth and profit ambition FGM (Financial Growth Model)
• S&OP and Financial Forecast cash up
• Own end to end financial forecast cash up for the full P&L as part of monthly S&OP and Financial Forecast submission.
• Coordinate and ensure timely and qualitative cash up for all P&L lines.
• Ensure adequate review, accountability and alignment between each data and process owner consider in the financial cash up.
• Prepare and share S&OP Financial deck with assumption opportunities and risk consider in the forecast (ARO), also variance analysis current Forecast vs Previous and prior year.
• Month end closing and performance management.
• Coordinate Month end closing activities in collaboration with support team – Global Management and reporting team (GMR team).
• Consolidate and lead actual performance analysis and provide documented insight to the business – (General Manager, Finance Director )
• Support overall performance reporting submission as part of the month end closing activities.
• Control and governance
• Enforce cadence and governance around end to end Financial forecast process with aligned S&OP calendar, handshake meeting and sign off as per standard process.
• Overall GFCF (Global Financial Control Framework) Record to report compliance for (RTR C4.3b; RTR C4.2b)
• Business partnering and value moment.
• Champion GM for any Gap closing activities and risk and opportunities management
• Provide insightful analytics for decision support and report requirement to the NFD on demand
• Drive Top SKU and material performance focus under pareto lenses to have impact on profit.

PRICING

• Supports overall price setting process by incorporating trade profitability insights to pricing decisions.
• Reviews compliance of CD to pricing actions.

RESULTS REPORTING AND ANALYSIS:

• Prepares and analyses Trade spend on assigned categories and channels on an accurate, relevant, and timely manner to provide visibility to the Board and CDLT over trade marketing spend against budget and forecast.
• Reports to the CDLT (and to the Board as needed) customer performance, including distributor profitability.

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

Works with IT and business partners to support development of systems and technologies that will enable key innovative business partnering processes.

ORDER TO CASH PROCESS OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT

• Drives efficiencies in A/R Management process through process change by working with cross functional process owners and stakeholders.
• Interface with Customers and CD on key A/R matters and agree with customers on ways on working with respect to A/R reconciliations.
• Ensure that like to like matching of promotions deductions v. commitments.
• Drive transparency of key KPIs in Order to Cash Process and hold stakeholders accountable for the delivery of KPIs.

Relevant Experience/ Skills        

• University graduate
• Minimum 3 to 5 years’ experience in Performance Management/ Management Accounting
• Experience in working with SAP, Oracle PBCS GCUT or similar accounting software
• Experience in FP&A, Factory Accounting, Supply Chain Finance
• Storytelling, data visualising and presentation skills
• Strong Excel and financial Modelling skills (PowerBI dashboard developing will be a plus)
• Professional accounting qualifications (CPA/ACCA/CIMA)

Key Interfaces

• CD Leadership Team
• Finance Leadership Team
• BB Finance
• Category Team(s)

Leadership Behaviours

• Have passion for high performance and ability to drive business performance using insight to drive decision.
• Have strong process design and optimisation skills, being able to design and re-engineer core process flows with effective control.
• Have demonstrated stakeholders’ management skills to ensure maintaining great relation with people having impact and interest in your job.
• Have ability to clearly prioritise work for effective job delivery.
• Have effective communication skills enabling to produce creative, compelling content that engages the audience to make impact and influence.