Niloufer Afzal, MBA, CM
Verified Expert in Finance
Management Consulting Expert
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toptal member since May 4, 2022
A growth strategy expert with tier 1 companies, Niloufer led the transformation of a $300 million pet business that was acquired for two times EBITDA. Her areas of expertise are strategic planning, innovation, customer strategy, and eCommerce transformation. She is an award-winning architect of iconic brands across North America, Europe, and Asia; J.M. Smucker, Reckitt, Philips, Kraft-Heinz, McCain, GSK, Tetra Pak, and Mars. Nilo joined Toptal to help organizations unlock and accelerate growth.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
- Business Transformation
- Customer Service
- Digital Transformation
- Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)
- Future-Proofing
- Innovation Management
- Marketing
- Strategic Planning & Execution
Work Experience
Lead Consultant Strategy and Innovation
G2G Impact Group
- Designed sales effectiveness and customer strategy solutions for a personal healthcare business, helping optimize trade spend, resulting in over 3% margin improvements in year one.
- Facilitated the North American reorganization of a food service and retail business through the visioning and five-year strategic planning that resulted in annual roadmaps and breakthroughs for each functional area.
- Led the end-to-end innovation strategy for a pet food business, spanning process audits, articulating the fuzzy front end, shrinking the product development cycle, and developing a launch blueprint.
- Headed omnichannel development for a healthcare company, launching a digital pharmacy based on consumer digital journey research that clearly articulated the moments of truth.
- Conducted training and coaching workshops to sharpen skills and boost capabilities–facts to insights and strategic decisions, visioning and strategy articulation, storytelling, creative briefing, and agency management.
- Directed the website restructuring of a large not-for-profit organization to represent their DEI vision, where inclusivity also covered disabilities like vision and hearing.
- Spearheaded the culture transformation for a large global business as a certified culture coach, implementing the culture operating system that focuses on creating parity and mitigating unconscious bias.
- Drove segmentation and demand space research to uncover high-value beauty segments and need states, then defined the innovation strategy and articulated innovation platforms across horizons.
Senior Marketing & Innovation Lead
Groupe SEB
- Designed and delivered strategic transformation of the Kitchen Electrics portfolio by leading net revenue optimization across customers, resulting in the growth of net sales by over 22% and operating income by 4+ points.
- Led multi-brand white space mapping and new product development within key segments, delivering gross margin improvement of 16+ points across the Kitchen Electrics portfolio.
- Created the brand architecture for Lagostina Electrics, focusing on channel management to drive retailer differentiation.
Senior Brands & Trade Marketing Lead
J.M. Smucker Foods
- Led the creation of a 5-year business roadmap, crafting the business vision, governing strategies, and plans; year one resulted in over 3% growth in OI.
- Revitalized the channel mix by adding branded e-shops and e-tailers, i.e., Amazon, PetSmart, and Shopify, delivering 10% incremental NSV.
- Created an ‘Always On’ innovation mindset within the organization, building a 3-year innovation pipeline that grew topline sales by over 6% within dog treats, while boosting profitability by more than 5%.
- Delivered margin accretive omnichannel strategies through customer resource management and trade spend optimization.
- Led the creation of a central unifying idea for each brand to anchor creative development across all consumer touchpoints–TV, radio, print, in-store, digital, social, experiential, and influencer campaigns, effectively managing agency relations.
Senior Marketing Manager
Philips
- Oversaw the systems and process integration, harmonized pricing, and transitioned the customer base, gaining over ten share points.
- Maximized portfolio profitability, driving topline sales and optimizing marketing and trade spending to grow profits by over 2%.
- Launched five SKUs to increase the share of the shelf at retail by more than 5%, supported by media and CRM initiatives.
- Delivered trade marketing effectiveness by balancing short and long-term business goals, step-changing trade spending across key retail partners, and delivering mutual value and profitable growth.
- Led the new product development process for the epilators' range of beauty devices.
Trade Marketing National Accounts Lead
Reckitt
- Developed a cross-category shopper conversion model, creating new key promotional periods that drove more than 6% growth.
- Initiated the distribution and placement strategy for dish detergents driving category growth by more than 5% and brand growth by more than 9%.
- Built a customer portfolio strategy to maximize resources and investment and boost customer profitability by more than 13%.
- Led the GTM strategy and execution for the skin care brands Clearasil and Veet.
Marketing Manager
Tetra Pak
- Grew profitability by more than 7%, identifying the highest impact investment areas and managing portfolio margins.
- Repositioned Tetra Pak as an environmentally conscious company, delivering 5% category lift and 5% brand lift.
- Launched Tetra Pak in three new categories; coconut water, wines, and smoothies, creating multi-million dollar new segments in North America.
Account Manager
NielsenIQ
- Created business performance dashboards to help clients plan and evaluate key metrics.
- Delivered consumer and shopper analytics to support go-to-market plans and optimize customer strategies.
- Exceeded budget target in 2004 by more than 7% and 2005 by over 6% respectively.
Education
Master of Business Administration Degree (MBA) in Marketing & International Business
University of Karachi - Karachi, Pakistan
Certifications
Certified Culture Coach
Waterstone Culture Institute
Coaching for High Performance
Queen's University
Portfolio Management
Tetra Pak University
Project Management for Innovation
Tetra Pak University
Skills
Finance
Portfolio Analysis, Fundraising, Data Analysis, Financial Modeling, Market Research, Revenue & Expense Projections, Budgeting, Total Addressable Market (TAM), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Pricing, Revenue Modeling, Forecasting, Three-statement Modeling, Blockchain
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word
Industry Expertise
Health & Wellness, Health, Early-stage Startups, Real Estate, Hospitality, Logistics, Sports, Software, Financial Services, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Venture Capital
Geographic Expertise
United States, EMEA
Data & Analysis Software
Tableau, Salesforce, Looker
Other
Innovation Management, Coaching, Team Leadership, Marketing, Porftfolio Strategy, Portfolio Reporting, Innovation Strategy, Strategic Planning & Execution, Future-Proofing, Digital Transformation, Innovation, Brand Marketing, Trade Marketing, Strategy, Market Insights, Consumer Trends, Strategic Planning, Business Transformation, Marketing Mix, Branding, Brand Positioning, Stakeholder Engagement, Go-to-market Strategy, Business Strategy, Marketing Strategy, B2B, B2B Partnerships, Business to Business (B2B), Management Consulting, eCommerce, Pitch Decks, Pitch Deck Consultant, Design, Pitch Preparation, Launch Strategy, Idea Validation, Growth, Sales Growth, Go-to-market Plans, Analysis, Business Analysis, Large-scale Projects, Business Cases, Business Planning, Wellness, Growth Strategy, Growth Strategy Consultants, Sales Strategy, Product Strategy, Workshop Facilitation, Workshops, PowerPoint Design, Presentations, Executive Presentations, Knowledge Management, Product Development, Market Research & Analysis, Business Plan Consulting, Opportunity Identification, Product-market Fit, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI), Consulting, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), SWOT Analysis, Growth Marketing, Paid Advertising, Advertising, Go-to-market Optimization, Advertising Campaigns, Price Positioning, Market Sizing, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Human Resources (HR), Company Strategy, Business Consulting, Excel 365, Consumer Insights, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Competition Research, Market Research Analyst, Beauty Products, Communication Strategy, Employee Experience, Communication, Change Management, Project Management, Stakeholder Management, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Business to Consumer (B2C), B2C, Market Segmentation, Sales, Nutrition & Supplements, Marketing Leadership, Customer Service, Customer Segmentation, Product Management, Market Demand, R&D, Operating Models, Target Operating Models, TOM, Consumer Health, Revenue Strategy, Organizational Design, Organizational Strategy & Design, Data Analytics, FMCG, Industry Analysis, Employee Engagement, Onboarding, Agile Project Management, Integration, Program Management, International Growth, Marketing Plans, Instructional Design, Training, Training & Training Content Development, Training Content, Business Development, Customer Acquisition, International Projects, Value Innovation, Sprints, P&L Management, P&L Responsibility, Customer Journeys, Category Management, Research, Client Management, Planning, Brand Guidelines, Digital Marketing Strategy, Business Modeling, Financial Statements, Business Models, Startups, Drop Shipping, Marketplaces, Solar, Fintech, Fintech Consultant, Medical Devices, HR Tools, Subscriptions, Subscription Pricing, Technology Trends, Revenue Analysis, Slack, Finance, Manufacturing, Customer Success, Sustainable Advisory, Business Validation, Portfolios, Cultural Operating System, Facilitation
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