Consultant in Retail & Strategy. Manager of Treasury, Budget, Pricing & Control.

Retail, marketing & strategy consulting, and treasury, budget, pricing and control management professional with more than 26 years of experience ; in manufacturing, telecommunications, banking and retail sectors. Last 10 years working in sales and implementation of training and consulting solutions to the retail industry and as a consultant to the CEO in a manufacturing company. Holds MBA and Marketing Specialization.

Expertise in retail allows to add great value in the formulation and implementation of best practices in this sector, ranging from strategy, marketing, merchandising, control and logistics. As consultant in marketing and strategy offers the tools to formulate positioning, loyalty and marketing strategies based in a solid background of market research and analytics. Broad experience in strategy, marketing and costs to formulate effective pricing strategies and tactics aligned with the goals of the firm. Finally, experience in budget and treasury allows to planify and follow the performance of the cash flow of the company, required for its survival and development.

Honest and responsible. Able to adapt to whatever company culture and coworkers personalities through a good communication and feedback. Goal-oriented and profits from his analytical skills to identify and implement the best decisions in a specific situation.

https://ve.linkedin.com/in/manuelcastillouzcanga
skype: @manuelcastillou +56) 974976102 [email protected]

English: Full professional proficiency.

Bachelor in Business Administration 1993 UCAB
First place in the promotion.

Master en Administración de Empresas 1997. IESA
Exchange trimester in Germany in the Business School Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung (WHU). Koblenz.

Specialization in Marketing. IESA 2005

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MOLINOS HIDALGO http://www.mohicave.com - September 2015-ACTUAL
Wheat mil that produces and distribute wheat flour to bakeries and industries.

Corporate consultant to the CEO. Treasure: planification of cash flow and conciliation of deposits and cash transfers to validate collections. Budget: development and managing of incomes, expenses and investment budget. Procurement: supervision of analyst of procurement to guarantee fulfilment of rules and procedures. Credit and accounts receivable: supervision of the credit and account receiveable departament to follow the corporate objectives. Optimization of the spare parts warehouse: classification and codification of spare parts, registry in SAP, design of warehouse's rules and procedures. Responsible of the optimization of the managament communication system of the company.

GRUPO NORTE CONSULTORES. www.norteconsultores.com.ve October 2010-ACTUAL
Grupo Norte Consultores is a management consulting and training firm based in Venezuela specialized in retail.

Consulting Manager. Six years of experience in the sale and implementation of trainning and consulting solutions to the retail industry to make more competitive and profitable companies. Consulting customers: Hardware store (C.C. Paramillo, Hidraúlica, Hidroplomería, Importllano, Dimoca); Drugstores (Farmahorro); Drugs distributor (Farvenca); Autoparts stores (Mercantil Gómez); Clothing stores (Kid Cool, XC2 Blue): Computer (Mundo PC); Bath and decor stores (Mil Cerámicas) and Restaurants (Yogen Früz).

Experience in projects of: Strategy and marketing (Analysis and definition of positioning and customer experience, Planification of strategic initiatives, Cualitative and cuantitative market research; Organization (Structure, rules and procedures); CRM (Data mining, customers rankings, purchase indicators); Logistics (Organization of warehouse, warehouse rules and procedures, warehouse capacity analysis, diagnostics of the shipment function); Merchandising (analysis of assortment performance, design of assortment structure); Procurement (Desigf of portfolio of supplier with respective order of purchase for the openning of a new hardware store).

Leading of Retail management workshop in 26 occasions for a total of 208 hours to more than 500 participants.

TIENDA COMPETITIVA C.A. www.tiendacompetitiva.com - February 2006-October 2010
Tienda Competitiva is a management consulting and training firm based in Venezuela specialized in retail.

Consulting Manager. Four years of experience in the sale and implementation of trainning and consulting solutions to the retail industry to make more competitive and profitable companies. Consulting customers:
Supermarkets (Automercado El Campestre); Shopping malls (C.C. Millenium Mérida, C.C. Citimarket); Bath room and decor (Mil Ceramicas Master Franchise); Convenience store (De Una); Shoe store (Marli chain store); Food service tickets (Sodexo); Telecommunication (CANTV).

Experience in projects of: Strategy and marketing (Analysis and definition of positioning and customer experience, Business model design, Planification of strategic initiatives, Cualitative and cuantitative market research; Governance (Design of process of Corporate comittes to improve communication and smart decisions); Organization (Structure, rules and procedures); CRM (Data mining, customers rankings, purchase indicators); Merchandising (analysis of assortment performance, design of assortment structure); Princing and promotions (Pricing strategy, pricing optimization; pricing & promotion diagnostic, optimization of pricing model in Excel).

Leading of Retail management workshop in 11 occasions for a total of 88 hours to more than 200 participants.

Business intelligence: development of market analysis for the firm Euromonitor (www.euromonitor.com). Secondary research (Internet, magazines, newspaper, etc.), sales forecasting, assortment and price audit in stores, interviewes to key market players, new product analysis, trend analysis and development of report in English. Analysis undertaken: Domestic electric appliances (2007), Packaged foods (2008) and Alcoholic drinks (2008).

CASA PROPIA E.A.P. January 2004-December 2005
Casa Propia was a savings and lending business for housing purposes, leading in western region of Venezuela.

Strategic Planning Manager. Two years of experience. Functions developed: Strategy (Development of the strategic plan for the period 2005-2009), leading of strategic workshops for plan development, contract of branding and positioning market research study); Performance management (Bank branches monthly target setting and monitoring, branch profit analysis, development of the semi-annual report & accounts).

Supervision of the Market Research Departament (1 person): customer database update and branding conjoint analysis. Supervision of the Budget & Control department (2 persons): development of the first budget of the bank.

DEZEREGA & ASOCIADOS www.dezerega.com - July 2001-December 2003
Dezerega Consulting is a consulting firm specialized in strategic planning.

Management Consultant. Consultant in leading strategic workshop for development of strategic plans, marketing plans and strategic projects. One and a half years of experience. Projects developed: Mass consumer market (Empresas Polar - Alimentos Polar, Unilever - food and ice cream), Entertainment (Cines Unidos), Tourism (Turaser), Food and service tickets (Sodexo).

CANTV October 1998-June 2001
Leading telecommunication company that originally detented the monopoly of telecommunications in Venezuela until year 2000.
Pricing Consultant. Small and Medium Companies Business Unit. One year and nine months of experience. Development of the pricing strategy of the business unit. Design of pricing models in Excel. Price sensitivity analysis. Extraction and processing of data of telephonic traffic to analyze pricing changes and design new product´s prices. Design of the pricing strategy during the end of the company monopoly in order to face the free market competence.

VENEZOLANA DE PAPELES, C.A. (VENEPAL). July 1997-September 1998
Venepal was a leading paper manufacturing company. The company was developed through the acquisition of several manufacturing companies of paper, corrugated box and notebooks.

Cost & Budget Specialist. One year and two months of experience. Corporate supervisión of the cost information system of the diverse business units in order to standardize cost valuation criteria. Coordination of the corporate budget process.

ESPINEIRA, SHELDON Y ASOCIADOS (PRICE WATERHOUSE) September 1991-July 1995
Espiñeira, Pacheco & Asociados is a leading auditing, consulting and tax firm in Venezuela.

Senior Consultant. Four years of experience in the Consulting Division. Projects developed: Costs: Development of rules and procedures of the cost function in the food mass consumer industry (Mavesa), chemistry industry (Pralca) and automaking (Facorca). Activity-based costing: Food mass consumer industry (Indulac) in order to measure cross subsidies among products; Energy industry (Bitor - manufacturer of orimulsion as substitute of coal) in order to optimize manufacturing costs. Optimization of the government social program Multihogares (Ministerio de la Familia) in order to speed up the payment of governmental subsidies to Non-governmental organizations.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
• Leading of the Retail Management workshop in 37 occasions to more than 700 participants
• Drugstore management workshops with the Venezuelan Drugstore Chamber (CAVEFAR) in Caracas, Barquisimeto, Valencia and Puerto Ordaz (2009)
• Conference Mil Cerámicas´ Business Model in Grupo Prosein in Bogotá-Colombia (2009)
• Conference “Recession proof stores” in Farmacias SAAS (2009) and PROSEIN (2009)
• Conference Business Intelligence applies to Home electrical appliances in the Colombian National Federation of Retailers (FENALCO)(2010)
• Workshop Store pricing management in the Venezuelan Chamber of Shopping Centers (CAVECECO)(2007)
• Leading of the subject Strategic Planning in the School of Economics in the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (February – May 2004)
• Assistant to the professor Victor Dezerega in the workshop Business plan with Balanced Scorecard in IESA (2001-2003)
• Conference Value-based selling to more than 160 participants in Plaza Provision Company, Puerto Rico (2001)
• Coordination of the Efficient Consumer Response Course, led by Tec de Monterrey, with the participation of the main Venezuelan supermarket chains (October-December 2001)

COURSES

• Pricing: Strategies & Tactics. University of Chicago. 2002
• Leading of the Learning Processes. Grupo Inested. 2008-2009