DOUG
Commercial Expenditure Manager
I started my career with Nestlé when I was 25 in February 1998, working in the York Factory as the Finance Representative for the Munchies and Yorkie production plants. This involved creating a detailed annual budget and then working directly with the Plant Manager and his team to help them meet their Financial targets.
After 18 months in this role I took on the job of York Factory Financial Accountant – consolidating the monthly plant performance reports, supervising five staff on the Purchase Ledger section and covering other reporting requirements for the factory such as VAT, PAYE, NI and Treasury report submissions to Head Office in Croydon.
During my time in Factory Finance I studied for my CIMA qualification. It was certainly hard work doing a full time job and studying hard at the same time. I do think the great support from my manager and the flexible study leave that Nestlé provided me played a big part in my success of passing all exams on the first attempt.
I passed my final exams in the summer of 2000 and was offered a position in Divisional Commercial Finance as a Marketing Financial Analyst. Here I worked principally with Marketing Brand Managers to help them assess the profitability of new product and pack formats and also keep a track on the performance of existing products by Brand and Category.
In 2002 I moved within Commercial Finance to become a Sales Financial Analyst. In this role my focus was on helping the sales teams assess and improve their account’s profitability contribution to the business. Working closely with the sales teams modelling product mix and promotional spend effectiveness by account and channel was a major part of this role.
In 2004 I was seconded on to the GLOBE project as a “Superuser” for Nestlé Rowntree Commercial Finance - working four days a week at head office in Croydon. In this role I tested all the new GLOBE processes relating to Trade Spend and Marketing Spend, developed processes, procedures and trained Nestlé Purina in New Malden and my colleagues back in the business prior to GLOBE Go-live in August 2005.
In my current role as Commercial Expenditure Manager I look after a team of four who are fundamentally responsible for ensuring the Trade Spend and Marketing Spend is accurately reflected in the Nestlé Rowntree management accounts. This involves continuous process re-engineering via liaison with all parts of the Nestlé business to drive efficient administration of all Commercial spends. We also work closely with the GLOBE teams to ensure we are involved at the forefront of change regarding new systems and “Best Practice” procedures.
I have experienced a variety of roles whilst working in Nestlé Finance. Doing a different role every few years has maintained my motivation and enthusiasm. I’ve always been keen to directly relate my work to what people see happening in the business. In all my jobs I have found it essential to get away from my desk frequently and work closely with people in all departments - taking a pro-active approach and ensuring the information we provide is clear, relevant and invaluable to the business’ decision makers. In all my roles I have found that Finance certainly isn’t all about sitting in a room all day crunching numbers and churning out reports!
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