Francesca Ashby Email & Phone Number

Peterborough, Gb

Peterborough, England, United Kingdom

Peterborough, United Kingdom

Currently lead the central market intelligence programme at AB Agri. Responsible for designing and managing the development of a new market insight platform to democratise the use and sharing of data across group businesses; and driving out key insights to support the implementation of the 10 year business strategy. As part of the wider strategy and business development team, provide support to central and business unit teams through participating in and leading ad-hoc strategic projects.

Various

Independent strategy consultant focusing on consumer facing industries. Projects included:• New market entry review for a major national retailer and subsequent assessment of potential target• For an e-learning provider: — Assessment of current market positioning vs. digital-first competitors — Multiple new market segment entry assessments — Designed and facilitated board level workshops for prioritisation of digital initiatives• For a major national retailer, analysis of annual survey results and operational data to develop insights for input into the 3-year strategy• For a national newspaper, led the assessment of the long-term sustainability of distribution chain and produced subsequent strategic and supplier negotiation recommendations — Provided a historically operationally focused team with a quantitative assessment of the future of their RTM — Ensured that the whole team understood potential challenges for the future, mitigation strategies and co-operation with other parties that would be required to achieve this• For a third-party holiday provider, conducted a strategic review of the travel market for their consumer proposition, potential business models and team structure• Multiple strategy and due diligence projects for a boutique telecoms strategy consultancy, including the privatisation of a PLC

Promotion into the Premier Inn team from Whitbread Group StrategyLed the planning and delivery of integrated commercial programs, working with a range of stakeholders across multiple marketing channels and business functions to achieve target outcomes. Key tasks and responsibilities: • Defined the campaign plan and targets to drive value against business objectives based on an analytical assessment of previous performance and market conditions• Ensured marketing campaigns fit within the business objective framework, and continually evolved the process to ensure highly efficient ways of working • Engaged stakeholders to refine thinking and arrive at a strategic business case and viable plan• Served as an integration point for cross-functional stakeholders and manage end-to-end delivery of plan • Measured results, identify key implications and report back learnings to all stakeholders

Dunstable - London

Worked within the Group Strategy team at Whitbread, reporting directly to the Group Strategy Director. This was a high exposure role where I gained experience in regularly engaging with our senior executive team including CEO, Group FD and Business MD’s, conducting strategic analysis and presenting back findings and recommendations to them directly. Main responsibilities and projects:• Co-ordinated the annual group wide 5-year business planning process alongside the Group Strategy Director, ensuring timelines were met and plans were produced to the required high quality• Led the 9-month group wide implementation programme for a new customer insight solution, replacing multiple suppliers with a single third party; embedding process and quality control into the ways of working. Main contact point between supplier and Whitbread, as well as all internal technical and business teams • Carried out commercial reviews of several potential acquisition targets across all three of Whitbread’s segments, leading to the successful acquisition of high-street food retailer Pure• Developed the market and business projections for the launch of a new Restaurant concept• Defined the distribution strategy for Premier Inn German market entry (5-month secondment)

I gained a range of experience during my time at Analysys Mason with a particular experience in the following sectors:• Market Analysis• Business plan review• Due diligence• Business plan strategy and development• Regulatory experience and stakeholder management• Project management• Excel modellingI worked in a variety of team sizes across different locations, and have been able to take responsibility for working autonomously as well as managing projects and reviewing the work of more junior consultants. Outside of my project work I was heavily involved in a number of business development opportunities, taking responsibility for the overall production of proposals and project costing estimates and managing small teams of consultants and associate consultants to produce these. I also took responsibility for the maintenance of in house marketing material related to due diligence work, and for the revision and maintenance of an internal benchmarking tool for business plan analysis projects. Whilst at Analysys Mason I followed a programme of consulting and TMT industry training.

As an Associate Consultant at Analysys Mason I followed a month long training program, learning basic consulting skills such as financial analysis and excel modelling.I worked on a range of projects across several geographical markets, supporting the team as needed.