Merchandising and Strategy Executive- Partner in Total Retail Group, a consulting and services agency focused on bringing hardlines products to retail. Building on my experience at Home Depot and McKinsey & Company, my partners and I work with manufacturers in the US and abroad to understand customer needs, develop products and solutions and get those products sold into a through retail channels. We offer end to end services from strategy, market research, product development support, day-to-day account management, sales tracking and even product demonstrations and placement on the shelves.At Home Depot, I ran corporate strategy for two years allocating over $5 Billion in capital spend annually. Managed competitive intelligence and quantitative consumer insights.Managed strategic projects including introduction of Home Depot branded gas stations, Professional Painter affinity program, International M&A activity and analysis, due dilligence on a number of distribution acquisitions, and de-SKUing of low volume stores that resulted in a 30% turn improvement.Led a group that developed and executed Home Depot's category management approach including space reallocation in the stores.Led a group called Orange Works that developed new proprietary branded product for Home Depot. The group started with ideation using inside and outside experts. Followed up with internal screening of concepts and external screening based on consumer research. We developed the concepts to high level engineering drawings and selected manufacturing partners based on those specs. We worked with manufacturing partners to deliver the concepts for retail at the target cost and timing. In parrallel we developed the branding, the retail placement and signage and the launch "buzz" to jump start sales. Our first product was the first innovation in fire extinguishers in 50 years. We won a Business Week gold award and the product is the #2 SKU in the category.