Steve Graham Email & Phone Number

Ballwin, Mo, Us

Ballwin, Missouri, United States

In November of 2021, Eyecare Partners had a vision to establish a brand new organization to focus on the retail portion of our eyecare business. I was asked to lead this effort. The past 2+ years has been extremely rewarding personally. The goal was to build a best in class team focused on increasing patient satisfaction, improve product sales, improve inventory management, establish visual merchandising guidelines, create measurable performance metrics, and enhance the customer experience inside our doors.As a team, this is a portion of what we have achieved:- Provided comprehensive training on product knowledge, customer service, and company policies to to ensure the team is well-equipped to represent Eyecare Partners effectively. - Developed standardized processes for merchandising operations, including product selection, pricing strategies, and inventory management while ensuring these processes align with Eyecare Partners' brand identity and customer preferences. - Cultivated strong relationships with eyewear suppliers, lab manufacturers, and several other relevant vendors. - Negotiated favorable terms, discounts, and exclusive offerings to enhance Eyecare Partners product assortment and competitiveness. This work has led to over $60M bottom line improvements. - Created a visual merchandising strategy that showcases eyewear products effectively. We were hyper-focused on factors like store layout, display aesthetics, and lighting to highlight our new product assortments. - Implemented technology solutions (SAP, PBI) for efficient inventory tracking, sales analysis, and customer engagement. In 2023, we reduced our working capital in excess of $6M. - Worked closely with the marketing team to align merchandising efforts with promotional campaigns and branding initiatives. - Established key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success and further opportunities. We successfully adapted to market trends and customer preferences along the way.

Ballwin, Missouri

As the Vice President of Procurement, I pioneered the creation of Eyecare Partners' Procurement Department, architecting its structure and guiding its evolution from inception to a crucial component of our business strategy. Key Highlights: 1) Team Creation & Leadership: Built and led a dynamic procurement team, handpicking individuals with diverse skill sets to form a cohesive and agile unit focused on achieving organization goals.2) Strategic Sourcing Expertise: Developed and executed a robust strategic sourcing strategy, resulting in substantial cost savings. 3) Operational Excellence: Instituted efficient procurement processes, enhancing operational efficiency, and ensuring agile and cost-effective acquisition of goods and services. 4) Vendor Relationship Management: Cultivated and sustained strong relationships with key suppliers through effective negotiation and collaboration, securing advantageous contracts and terms for Eyecare Partners. 5) Cross-functional Collaboration: Worked closely with diverse internal teams to align procurement strategies with overall business objectives, contributing to the seamless integration of the Procurement Department within the company. 6) Innovative Practices: Implemented Coupa (Procure to Pay Software) to assist the Department in leading cutting-edge procurement practices, staying ahead of market trends, and driving continuous improvement.

Greater St. Louis Area

Led several cross-functional procurement teams that supported the business objectives in virtually each business area. The key emphasis of the department was to partner and support the business by negotiating and securing favorable contracts with key suppliers, improving overall vendor performance, enhancing the reporting, and managing the vendor partners post business award. In addition, we focused on streamlining the procurement processes, establishing a clear scope with the business and understanding the goals of each initiative. A key focus area was also to support the integration effort between Express Scripts and Cigna. We successfully built a plan to ensure a seamless transition with the two teams.

Greater St. Louis Area

From ideation to execution, established a dynamic analytics group focused on transforming data into actionable insights into $2B+ of indirect spend. Key Accomplishments:• Recruited, retained, and developed talented analysts. • Established a succession plan as I moved to a different role. • Formed key operational metrics to measure performance in Procurement. • Introduced, built & maintained self-user reporting utilizing Tableau.• Created a robust spend taxonomy that created insight to increase spend under management. • Di-sect all major RFPs over $1M (100+ annually) to identify best award scenario.

Earth City, Missouri

• Project lead for all company acquisitions. Responsible for gathering data, analyzing risk, developing a purchase proposal, and presenting the results to senior management• Manage a team of Financial Analysts that provide financial support to the Operations & Real Estate teams• Provide detailed P&L reviews to Senior Staff for the 10 Corporate Business Units every fiscal period• Responsible for preparing annual sales & detailed expense budgets for over 430 corporate stores & 900 license stores that total over $4.5B in Sales Revenue• Prepare & present financial analyses for all new Store locations (Over 100 new stores annually)

Earth City, Missouri

• Manage the new corporate store financial review process that includes detailed analysis of each new site• Analyzed and reported the Capital Spend & Sales progress of new Corporate stores to the Executive team• Evaluated financial risk of entering into new markets & the competitive impact to our performance• Modeled a 5-year plan of strategic corporate store growth of over 300 new corporate stores• Prepared the new corporate store budgets during the annual budget process • Supported the Real Estate team in determining tactical locations that provided the largest financial returns

Greater St. Louis Area

• Responsible for Identical Sales Reporting for both Corporate & License stores • Analyzed & tracked the capital spend for Distribution projects that included 2 new Distribution Centers• Played an integral part of gathering annual trends from business partners to create the annual budget• Developed and reported inflation trends each period to determine the impact on retail prices in the stores• Prepared several financial reports for the closing books each period & presented the results to upper management

Earth City, Mo

• Played a key role in establishing a newly formed Finance group that supported Merchandising & Marketing• Developed & presented sell-through reporting to the Merchants on how certain products performed during seasonal initiatives that allowed for more accurate planning• Evaluated Sales & Margin impacts of strategic priced items & Special Buys• Created reporting that measured the sales lift & margin impacts resulting from Store Ads, Coupons and Mass Media for multiple markets• Finance lead for the strategic planning of items that were overstocked or close dated in the Distribution Centers

Greater St. Louis Area

• Responsible for utilizing referrals and company provided sales leads to sell customers a variety of financial services (District & Region Wide Leader)• Analyze and propose detailed financial plans which consist of refinancing mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, small loans, and cash accounts• Accountable for training, motivating, and mentoring new employees • Maintained a large set of customer accounts and performed compliance audits weekly