Lakshmi Narayanan Lakshmanan

P&L custodian for Sweet Karam Coffee's business across Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto, Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket and other emerging digital commerce accounts

Led the Sweet Cravings and Breakfast & Sauces categories

- Leading the Business Development efforts for the Food & Nutrition category - Marketplace lead for the Seller Ecosystem - Expertise in verticals like Nuts & Dry Fruits, Chocolates, Coffee, Breakfast Cereals, Peanut Butters, Spices, Edible Seeds etc - Driving bottom-line improvement through vendor negotiations and operational efficiency - Building selection and speed across the entire portfolio

- ASM for the state of Karnataka, managing the direct retail business

- Handling Coimbatore, Tirupur and Kerala markets for the Modern Retail vertical; - Leading a team of 2 Area Sellout Executives and 40+ Retail promoters to deliver monthly numbers; - Overall retail universe of 150 outlets spread across 5 key National/Regional Chains

- Led a team of 2 RSOs, 3 SPD ASMs and 4 ASEs to deliver monthly revenues of 6 Mn INR in both tertiary and customer offtake; - Worked with 8 distributor partners in upcountry Madurai markets; - Handled a retail network of 550 stores, comprising of both multi brand and exclusive retail; - Responsible for retail visibility, hygiene and asset audits across the territory to enhance customer experience

The Management Trainee (MT) Program comprised of stints with both the IT & Mobile (IM) and Consumer Electronics (CE) Business Divisions. IT & Mobiles (IM):- Devised a cluster turnaround strategy for a couple of clusters in the Chennai Metropolitan area; Identified visibility, affordability and distribution gaps in the channel and suggested recommendations to turnaround the same. Consumer Electronics (CE):- Worked towards increasing the Market Share (MS) of the Fully Automatic Front Load (FAFL) Washing Machine business in the Chennai Metropolitan region; Identified display and distribution gaps across various retail channels and suggested mitigation measures.

Scope - Development and deployment of effective metrics and tracking mechanisms for various elements used in a marketing mix model and suggesting the most optimal cost effective model. Impact - - Implemented two pilot programs in the key market of Tamil Nadu for a Spices brand in the fields of Door to Door promoter activity and the Independent Shelf Service (ISS) promoter activities - Curated “Cost/Contact” and “Cost/Convert” as two major metrics for evaluating the promoter activities - Modified the consumer interaction process to facilitate more consumer contacts/day by increasing efficiency - Liaised with external agencies to create and collate content for an IVR based consumer loyalty program

Project Scope: Understand and evaluate the current method of operation adopted by the organization towards the implementation of Dharani International Skills Training Center - An initiative to take digital literacy and ICT awareness to the rural people at their doorstep. - Conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGD's) and in depth interviews with over 300 students across 12 Government Zilla Parishad High Schools. - Based on the feedback obtained, restructured the course curriculum and suggested changes to the method of instruction - Created social media presence for the organization to help connect better with prospective volunteers and donors - Created content to be used as pitches for fund raising - Instituted guidelines and frameworks to be used as tools to select prospective schools and locations for computer centers Impact: Awareness of social media; Logical framework to evaluate the impact created at different schools to ensure that resources are spent at the right place

Was part of the Technical Sales & Business Development teams. Worked on Turnkey Assembly Automation and End of Line Testing machine requirements for the automotive sector. Responsibilities included:- - Project Feasibility Study - Machine Conceptualization - Bill Of Material (BOM) Generation - Costing - Customer & vendor negotiation - Project Timeline Allocation - Technical Documentation

Attended a 3 week exchange program at Johnson School of Management, Cornell University as part of the Global Fast Track (GFT) program from SPJIMR; took up advanced courses in the fields of Digital Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Entrepreneurial Marketing.