Connie Walsh (Jacobs) Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis, Mn, Us

Woodbury, Mn, Us

Woodbury, Mn, Us

Responsible for management of Vendor Relations, Retail, Procurement, and Distributions Teams.

Bloomington, Mn, Us

Provided consulting and advisory services for clients, focused on business improvements around people, process, data, and technology.

Port Washington, Wisconsin, Us

Led retail/e-commerce planning and inventory teams on strategy, assortment analysis, inventory management and financial planning. Recruited into the role to implement new software technology and help teams adopt an innovative way of looking at the business and how technology was used. Worked across the organization to organize forecasting and utilize new technology to support cross functional teams in maximizing efficiencies and driving profitability. ► Designed best practice tools for retail sales planning, inventory planning and operational opportunities, including SIOP.► Provided strategic and detailed analysis, with recommendations for improvements in the business.► Partnered with production, manufacturing, e-commerce, finance, wholesale, information technology and retail operational teams in optimizing sales and inventory.► Led implementation of TM1 – IBM Planning Analytics to allow greater visibility to breadth and depth of information. Resulted in at least 50% time-savings on reporting, therefore allowing more time on recommendations and reactions to the business.► Rolled out to cross-channel departments for greater efficiencies.► Presented at IBM Vision 2017 and University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management FARCON Event. Shared journey of leading company in successful implementation of Analytics and Planning tool, used across entire organization.► Planned and forecasted sales at category/style level, location and channel level. Experienced over 95% forecast accuracy.

Collaborated closely with retailers to understand their use cases and how to maximize promotional and pricing optimization in their business. Wrote up use cases and requirements while working closely with the technology team/engineers to develop and implement innovative technologies. Developed new software features that increased usability, visibility, and functionality for our current and potential customers.► Strategized with internal and external partners on determining key feature opportunities. Built conceptual designs and detailed stories. ►Worked with Agile Team to ensure on-time delivery of features.►Utilized retail background to lead strategic direction of integrated system that supports end-to-end promotional planning processes.Keywords/Specialties: Analytics Roadmap Creation | Process Improvement | Program Leadership | Managed Services | Performance Management | Budgeting | Line of Business Modeling | Financial Reporting | Analytics | Data Cleansing | Data Warehousing | BI | Visualization | Data Science | Relationship Building | Cost Reduction Strategies | Business Process Improvement | Competitive Analysis | Business Intelligence | Business Transformation | Financial Analysis | Financial Reporting | Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) | Forecasting | Financial Modeling | Consolidation | Data Visualization | Business Process Re-engineering | SaaS | Operational Efficiency | Pricing | Cross Functional Team Leadership

Lincolnshire, Illinois, Us

Gander Mountain is an outdoor retailer with an annual revenue of $1B and 116 store locations plus online/catalog business.Developed and led new Merchandise Planning, Reporting, Pricing, Promotions, and Space Management teams. My leadership of strategic initiatives resulted in sales increasing from $450M to nearly $1B while improving margin rate by over 450bp and increased turnover by >25%. This was a new role created for me by Gander Mountain to retain me within the organization while I grew and tended to my young family.►Led the development of business requirements, design and process for SAS Financial Planning and Assortment Planning. Implemented overall SAS business planning tool.► Drove the merchandise financial planning process. Leader of forecasting process to achieve company financial/merchandise objectives.► Designed and executed Merchandise Financial Category Plans to support Company Initiatives. Partnered with Merchants, Finance, Store Operations, and Inventory Management monitoring success of overall strategy.► Created merchandising reports and tools in collaboration with other key management and perform ongoing merchandising analytics and trend modeling. Made recommendations in the business to support company initiative or propose refining strategy.► Supported and managed Space Management team - full implementation of JDA rollout within one year.Keywords/Specialties: Merchandise Planning | Process Improvement | Program Leadership | Managed Services | Performance Management | Budgeting | Financial Reporting | Analytics | Relationship Building | Cost Reduction Strategies | Business Process Improvement | Competitive Analysis | Business Intelligence | Business Transformation | Financial Analysis | Financial Reporting | Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) | Forecasting | Financial Modeling | Consolidation | Data Visualization | Business Process Re-engineering | SaaS | Operational Efficiency | Pricing | Cross Functional Team Leadership

Lincolnshire, Illinois, Us

Recruited to Gander Mountain to build out an entire inventory management and planning system, as well as teams to support both functions. ► Developed and trained Inventory Management team to a whole new level. Defined roles and responsibilities while implementing best practices for greater effectiveness.► Created and executed strategic roadmap in building tools and process. Achieved goal of greater efficiency and consistency through a more disciplined approach.► Designed merchant planning/forecasting tool to monitor financial performance to align company goals and objectives.Keywords/Specialties: Inventory Management | Merchandise Planning | Strategic Planning | Process Improvement | Program Leadership | Managed Services | Performance Management | Budgeting | Line of Business Modeling | Financial Reporting | Analytics | Relationship Building | Cost Reduction Strategies | Business Process Improvement | Competitive Analysis | Business Intelligence | Business Transformation | Financial Analysis | Financial Reporting | Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) | Forecasting | Financial Modeling | Consolidation | Data Visualization | Business Process Re-engineering | SaaS | Operational Efficiency | Pricing | Cross Functional Team Leadership

Chicago, Il, Us

Directed and managed Special Size Apparel assortment strategy, vendor partnership, marketing and visual presentation. Led the analyst/inventory team within the Home Division.

Created, led and developed Inventory Management Team. Promoted to Buyer Women’s Active Apparel.

Minneapolis, Mn, Us

Generated a solid foundation of the retail industry, financial analysis, inventory allocation, managing a team and planning.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Merchandising

Mini Masters, Project Management