Shubham S.

Brand Manager at Dole Singapore-Malaysia | Consumer Goods Marketing | Helping new marketers grow in their careers

A believer in the power of brands to influence sustainable lifestyle choices, I love scaling brands from 1 to 10 rapidly. 

-------- Current Role:----------

At Grab, to grow key QSR brands’ reach and revenue in SEA. I am handling end to end enterprise services on Grab for them. 

-------- Past Roles:----------


I was building Kind Kones, a plant based ice cream brand with no palm oil or negative additives. 

Whether it's door to door selling to presenting in board rooms, I donned every hat with humility. 

I helped a team of 40+ people to expand the business in SG/MY/Middle East. 

Before that,  I expanded Dole's business through in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia and Brunei. 

I also led Dole juices launch in Jollibee, Fairprice and 2600 7-Eleven stores, apart from regular retail listings and marketing.

Previously, I was leading marketing and BD for India business where I helped Dole reach $1M + revenue in Year 1, including co-branded partnership with McDonald’s in 150 stores.
 
I also love to distill interesting marketing and startup concepts to help young folks grow.  

Hence, I write on LinkedIn. 

-------- Japan experience:----------

Previously, I was the youngest Project Lead in Japan in Energy sector but soon realised my heart was in marketing. 

To confirm that my heart's voice isn't a quarter life crisis, I conducted food tours in Tokyo, dabbled in own sandwich business and consulted in food industry. 

The love for marketing was confirmed!  

The issue of sustainability is also close to my heart. 

-------- Student life:----------

So, prior to FMCG life, I published research papers in the field of Sustainable resources and technologies like Bio-fuels, Bio-Lubricants, Gas Emission control and also filed a patent related to Fuel Oil Storage. 

I have also developed a sub-$100 Solar Dryer for rural community which can work beyond sunset.

My outdoor interests range from Copy Writing, Geo-politics, Snowboarding, Mountain Trekking.  Food-trotting in groups and other times I can be found writing and creating food recipes.

Chief Operating Officer

I buy the same eggs, bread, and red pineapples 🍍 every week. 

Yet, the price I see can change based on data I don't control. 

The person standing behind me in the grocery line might have bought the same bread for 20% less...or more, who knows?

Thanks to flex-pricing, we will now have personalized grocery prices. 

🍍 In the UK, Sainsbury's uses "Your Nectar Prices" for personalized app deals. 

🍍 In the US, Walmart uses digital shelf tags to change prices in seconds, 

🍍 Instacart shows upto 23% different prices to different people. 

🍍 Target also uses sophisticated algorithms for offers in their Circle program.

Ultimately it is about maximizing the profit pool and taking price transparency away from consumers. 

Nothing wrong with that...

But grocery staples evoke very raw reactions. 

There is something primal about not being able to get the same price as my neighbor. 

Stores can charge you more based on your distance from the store, desperation, frequency, and buying behavior on other apps.

Not sure how I feel about this yet. 

What's your view? 

#shubhamspeaks

Shubham Sharma 🍍

Grab | ex-COO Kind Kones | Bain Advisory | P&L Management | QSR

Limited authority, high accountability

When I started franchising, I hit a wall: 

I couldn’t just "roll out" marketing ideas like I did in my own stores.

In my own shops, I had total control. If I wanted a "Tuesday Special," it happened. 

But it was rather hard to implement something with franchisees. 

The same dilemma is faced by regional managers in QSRs or corporate; 

🍍 most have limited agency but high accountability. 

They "feel the heat" from corporate to hit aggressive growth targets, yet they have zero power over a franchisee’s final decision to participate. 

🍍Whether it’s a project manager without direct reports or a Public Health Official without legislative power, the result is the same - Inefficient work. 

In these situations, I have 2 solutions that helped me: 

1) Do a pilot with brand money first. 
2) For long-cycle innovation, co-create with the franchisees or local teams. Once they are cooking with you, they will eat as well. 

If you don't have innovation budgets or ideas, you are screwed. 

PS: If you were in this situation, how would you mitigate it?

I always felt Pizza Hut had better ingredients among the QSR Pizza Brands. 

But over the years that message was missing. 

Until Pizza Hut decided to change it, 

🍍 the brand invited acclaimed chef Yanis Yahoui to hand-pick from their every-day ingredients, 

to craft and serve a fine-dining tasting menu to 8 culinary experts. 

The guests arrived expecting a curated gastronomic experience from the chef. 

Needless to say, the chef turned the Pizza Hut's ingredients into beautiful dishes. 

Then the reveal came.

🍍I just wish Pizza Hut showed a behind the scenes footage too where the chef picks the 'true' ingredients. 

The intent is great but the outcome leaves something to be desired. 

Watch the video, what do you think?

#shubhamspeaks

Dole Sunshine Company

Procurement
• Led an indirect procurement project to align and tighten Global Travel Policy, consolidated travel spends and sourced for a Travel Management Company (TMC) to support our integration efforts. TMC costs reduced by 60% and travelling costs reduced by 30%. The recommendations made to tighten Global Travel Policy was supported with strong data analysis which reduced resistance from stakeholders.
• Led the UAT and implementation of Taulia, a Supply Chain Financing tool that provided our vendors with financing options that they would otherwise be unable to obtain. This reduced financing costs by 20% and improved operating cashflow.
• Given the volatile operating environment due to supply chain disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a need to assess the resilience of our supply chain. I created a framework to measure the resilience of our vendors/partners and developed mitigation strategies using innovation and creative sourcing solutions.
• Created an incentive programme to increase the usage of iValua (Dole’s sourcing platform) with the potential to reduce procurement costs by 10% through competitive bidding.
• Led the end-to-end process of strategic M&A projects which generated US$2.5 million in cashflow. There are further cost reduction opportunities in the procurement of healthcare services of at least 30%.

Finance
• Managed weekly, quarterly, and yearly cashflow by ensuring BUs stay within loan limit, identified opportunities for costsaving and forecast potential credit crunch. I was tasked to propose loan application to Head Company and consolidate BUs cashflow forecasts to develop overall company view of cashflow needs
• Financial Planning & Analysis – Developed multiple financial templates that are being used to track SMG&A, MTM of FX hedges, BUs Overhead Cost, etc. These templates are used to gain insights into the business and recommendations are made to BUs on how to better manage their expenses.

Procurement and Finance Manager

Rotated across 10 departments in 1.5 years, embarked on 18 projects. Key highlights:
• Business Development – Grew the revenue of Dole India by 33% in the span of 1 year through New Product Development and effective marketing while dealing with significant headwinds such as supply chain disruption, social distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Sustainability – There was no system to track projects that are contributing to the Dole Promise. Led and completed the development of Monday.com to effectively track efforts across the company towards Carbon Neutrality, Zero Processed Sugar and Zero Fossil-Based Plastic. Also worked with Deloitte and external accreditation companies to create the GHG Emissions Collection Template, the data contributed to accreditations from Rainforest Alliance, EcoLabel, etc.
• Innovation – First project team within Dole Sunshine Company to adopt AGILE methodology. Led an innovation project to develop a lower cost non-fossil-based plastic packaging for our Frozen category, en route to 100% recyclable and compostability.
• Strategy – Led a strategy project on Competitor Analysis. Learnings were shared with markets/sources and senior management to develop route-to-market strategies, product portfolio and long-term asset-light strategy.
• Finance – Internal consolidation system was outdated, often resulting in delays and inaccurate reports. Initiated and completed the business case for Business Planning & Consolidation System
• Procurement - Bunker oil purchase were decentralized, making it difficult to negotiate for bulk pricing. I was tasked to relook at the bunker oil contracts and led an in-depth research into Commodity Supercycle, Learnings were shared with senior management to develop bunker oil hedging strategies.

Management Associate

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

•	Managed USD20 billion in loans to China’s commodity firms operating in Singapore.
•	Checked, negotiated and issued Letter of Credit to over 80 Multinational Corporations operating in South East Asia.
•	Liaised with Risk Management and Relationship Managers to clarify client’s contractual terms, obtain approval for import loans and regularly conduct compliance checks.
•	Prepared monthly reports which attained 100% compliance with Monetary Authority of Singapore’s regulations.

Trade Finance Analyst

DBS Bank

•	Checked, validated and processed import bill documents for over 200 Small-Medium Enterprises operating in Asia Pacific.
•	Processed payment and financing for Development Bank of Singapore’s corporate clients with 99% recovery rate.
•	Liaised with local and foreign banks via SWIFT to resolve conflict and clarify uncertainties pertaining to terms negotiated between Development Bank of Singapore’s clients and their suppliers.
•	Started a process improvement project which upgraded security and enhanced processing efficiency by 15%.

Trade Operations Analyst

Temasek

•	Integral part of the project management team for the development of the Investment Portfolio and Management System.
•	Transformed business requirements into functional systems through system enhancement, User Acceptance Testing and Train-the-Trainers.
•	Worked with investment teams to consolidate, understand and validate 40 years of investment related data to be migrated.
•	Upgraded the Performance Management System to better reflect SGD300 billion worth of investment.

Data Analyst

Hao Zhi, with 7 years of experience in the FMCG and banking industry, has developed strong abilities in Procurement and Financial Planning & Analysis. He underwent the Management Associate programme at Dole Sunshine Company, where he rotated across various functions. Armed with strong connections and new exposures, he embarked on major projects such as implementing cost-saving procurement strategies, developing sourcing frameworks and, leading merger and acquisition deals. His analysis and stakeholder management skills have been honed through operating in a dynamic and global environment.

Hao Zhi is also passionate about giving back to the community and is a strong believer in developing values through sports. In his free time, he volunteers as the President of Todaks Touch Football Club. He is well versed in people management and is a leader who leads by example and displays resourcefulness in problem-solving.

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Shubham S.'s LinkedIn Performance

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