MANISH KULKARNI

A1/ 12 - 1, Millennium Towers, Sector 9, Sanpada. Navi Mumbai-400 705. India

E mail: [email protected] Cell: 90043 57275

Profit Center Head – Strategic Purchase in USA & India

* Planning & Budgeting * MIS * Purchasing Activity

• MBA (Finance & Marketing) from New York, USA - 2002. Top grades in subject “Consumer Behavior”.
• An effective leader with strong analytical skills and demonstrated ability to drive, direct and capture
efficiencies and cost reductions at every stage of operations through innovative thinking.
• Multilateral & Multi Industry exposure including Strategic Sourcing, Inventory management, Vendor
negotiation, MIS, Purchasing, Supply chain management, Forecasting & Replenishment for Retail,
Service industry and Project Management industry.
• A keen planner, strategist and implementer with expertise in devising policies & plans for improving
business performance, streamlining operations, and achieving overall organizational growth
• Outstanding success in building and maintaining Vendor relationships and establishing strategic
alliances to ensure increasing sales revenue and customer satisfaction levels.
• Sourced Lifestyle merchandise worth Rs.180 crores for 43 Hyper and Super markets. Developed,
evaluated and qualified vendors, Developed quality standards for purchases, implemented processes/
criterion for vendor development and RFI & RFP.
• Worked with Wal-Mart, USA integrated application of Merchandising, replenishment and planning to
take care of $250 million sourcing Budget assigned.
• Saved operational cost by 8% by a combination of management of Inventory Fill rate for new store
opening, Scheduling replenishment, monthly and periodic stock takes, analyzing inventory ratios to
determine optimum level and Movement of excess inventory intra store.

Organizational Experience
Reliance Retail Limited, Mumbai November 2006- Current
National Manager Sourcing & Budgeting: Lifestyle National Headquarter (NHQ)
Responsibilities:
• Responsible for planning, implementing and controlling annual sourcing budget of Rs. 180 crores for
Lifestyle products for 43 Hyper stores covering area of 1 million sft. Quarterly review with CEO for Net
and Gross margin; Communication and implementation of sourcing plan at state and store level.
• To forecast sales of merchandise at different selling prices, plan for discounts and other promotional
events; estimate merchandise requirement based on customer profile.
• Inventory: Management of fill rate for new stores, forecasting merchandise requirement. To forecast
and control inventory based on season, return to Vendor, Ageing analysis; analyze Book stock variance
with PI. To consolidate demand by various departments vendor wise to initiate sourcing interaction.
• To Manage supply chain from Vendor to DC and allocate merchandise to stores based on sales.
• Devise and develop strategies for cost control using standardization, new suppliers or merchandise,
supplier collaboration, PO and delivery location optimization.
• Creating & benchmarking performance parameters in a Dashboard Style & discuss variance with state.

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• Analyzing various performance indicators based on frequency viz, daily, weekly and monthly, discuss
the performance with peers and subordinates, take corrective action.

Achievements:
• 3% Improvement in gross margin of Lifestyle products by managing promotion & Goods return policy.
• Increased revenue per sft by 10% in 3 months from same shelf space allocated to lifestyle category by
increasing merchandise density & improved on shelf availability of merchandise.
• Reduced time to shelf by up to 70% by harmonizing major vendor lead time to match delivery
schedules at warehouse and stores, increasing shelf availability of core merchandise to 65% and
ensuring overall on shelf product availability of more than 80% during each quarter
• Improved order fill rate by vendor by an average of 4% n 3 months by optimizing Minimum Order
quantity based on criteria such as distance, rate of sale and forecasted demand.
• Strict adherence to SOP regarding inventory management, treatment of known & unknown loss
resulted in decrease in inventory holding costs by 5% over 3 months.
• Current quarter performance: 105% of sales target with 108% of margin achieved compared to overall
same store sale increase of 103%. Quarterly overall sale increase of 200%.
Zoom Developers Limited Mumbai May 2005- Nov 2006
AVP- Corporate Planning & Strategy Development.
Responsibilities:
• Explore new business opportunities synergistic to existing business.
• Explore gaps in current strategic business portfolio and suggest suitable alternates.
• Evaluate strategic options & recommend roadmap for top and bottom-Line growth
Achievements:
• Presented Detailed Project Report and pre-Feasibility study including Techno- Commercial aspects on
7500 TPA Aluminum Alloy Wheel Casting plant for acquisition and relocation from Thailand to Sohar,
Oman, worth USD 200 million to the Board of Directors.
• Compiled standard operating procedures for dismantling; codification, transport and reconstruction of
any Plant and Machinery which is still being used internally.
Wal-Mart Inc USA Dec. 2002- May 2005
Assistant Buyer – Lifestyle USA
Responsibilities:
• End to end responsibility for new product introduction at Annual Thanksgiving and Black Friday
Holiday sale season, including vendor negotiation, product testing, order tracking, warehousing and
store display.
• Tracking and maintaining optimum inventory levels in the warehouses to meet sudden spurts in
customer demands.
• Order and conduct Vendor Audit check at Warehouse level; Manage Book loss, certify known and
unknown losses of merchandise through appropriate heads of accounts.
• Merchandizing, creating Planograms, in stock and replenishment schedule, analyzing & reporting sales
trend, taking corrective action by planning for specials and festivals.
• Product pricing and control by getting feedback from Store operations, customers and vendors.
• To lead efforts of an inter-departmental team at district and store level to ensure adherence and
implementation of company’s policy of great customer service.
• Coordinating with Toys Department Managers in the recruitment, induction and growth of employees
by observing behavior and providing feedback to improve performance.
• Generating and maintaining MIS business information reports to facilitate decision-making for future
policies, in compliance with various Federal and Local statutes.
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Achievements:
• Within a Buying budget of $250 million; exceeded Sales targets by 48 %. Thanksgiving and Black Friday
sale for our products was 230% over estimate.
• Reduced breakage and theft by 18% within 6 months by monitoring sale and in stock data at warehouse
and district/ store level.
• Increased on shelf availability to 80% from 70% in 4 months by monitoring trucking schedules.
• Increase in customer satisfaction level from 5 to 6.5 on a scale of 10 in 6 months.
• Independently handled “Valentines’ Day sale “event, generating 30% more sales and 35% more profit
than previous year; using innovative display of Merchandise, stocking and shelving schedules and
strategies to increase footfalls and reducing wastage, theft and breakage.
• Received2 “Best Employee Award” for outstanding performance

Small Business Development Center (SBDC), NY, USA Jan 2002-May 2002
Strategy Consultant
• Preparation of Detailed Project Report including risk factors , technical specifications, cost estimations,
listing of major plant and machinery & vendors for the $42 million project to manufacture Ethanol from
corn in Broome County, New York, USA.
Achievements:
• Organized two “Business Start up Information” meetings with small-scale entrepreneurs with the
objective of helping them start new ventures.

MBA (Finance & Marketing) Binghamton University, NY, USA. Aug 2001- Dec 2002
• Received 100/100 points in marketing subject titled “Consumer Behavior”
Finmart Ltd. Mumbai Aug1997- Aug 2001
Director
A Boutique Financial services company offering Strategic consultancy to medium sized cooperative banks
on investment planning, credit control & expansion strategy.
Responsibilities
• Business Promotion and Generation, Client acquisition and retention.
• Coordinating with the co-operative banks in assessing the repayment capacity of clients, working out
repayment schemes-suitable to clients, identifying potential reasons for non-repayment of loans.
Achievements:
• Introduced Investment Management and Stock Broking Services to high net worth clients like
Individuals, Trusts and Co operative Banks and Small scale industries, generating profits of 20 million
on a business of 100 million.
• Generated business of Rs.125 million during a period of 5 years, highest in the District.
• Generated investment in Government Bonds to the tune of Rs.12 million.
Other Assignments in India:
• From August 1995 to August 1997 Chartered Capital & Finance Limited, Bombay as Finance Manager.
• From May 1994 to August 1995 with Premium Capital Markets, Mumbai as Finance Manager.
• From August 1991 to May 1992 with Savita Chemicals Ltd, Navi Mumbai as Shift Supervisor.

Academic Qualifications
• MBA (Finance & Marketing) from Binghamton University, New York, USA, 2002.
• B.E (Polymer Engg.) from University of Pune, India.1991

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