Rajeev Rao
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Toptal member since December 8, 2022
Rajeev is a strategy and operations consultant with 14+ years of experience delivering value-enhancement projects across industries for Fortune 500 companies. He drives profitability and cost-saving initiatives by transforming supply chain ecosystems. He specializes in supply chain and operations improvement, M&A day-1 readiness, and post-merger synergy capture and integration. Rajeev is also an expert in data analytics, modeling and visualization, and program management.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Cost Reduction and Margin Improvement
Spend Management and Supply Chain Analytics
Post Merger Integration Support and Value Capture
Expertise
- Excel Expert
- Executive Presentations
- Microsoft Power BI
- Pitch Decks
- Procurement
- Project Management Office (PMO)
- Strategic Sourcing
- Supply Chain
Work Experience
Principal Consultant
Impossible Foods
- Conducted a current state assessment of the supply chain and developed a view of the total spend baseline.
- Identified opportunity areas for cost improvement within the supply chain and prioritized the opportunity areas based on impact and ease of implementation.
- Developed a business case and roadmap for the identified initiatives for the SVP to present to the executive leaders.
Lead Consulting Partner
Cedar Fair
- Executed the cost reduction program (direct and indirect) across the newly formed centralized procurement organization.
- Conducted the operating model assessment and centralized the procurement function.
- Delivered more than $15 million in run-rate savings across various indirect and direct categories.
Vice President
EY
- Led the operations turnaround track of an insolvent non-banking finance company (housing finance company) to the successful resolution and acquisition of the firm. Aided in setting up business operations for the new investor as a PMO.
- Improved the business performance of a distressed computer peripheral and cloud service provider as a part of its insolvency resolution process to make it transaction-ready, leading to the company's successful acquisition.
- Drove the operational turnaround for a cement manufacturing company based in India to improve revenue, manage working capital, optimize the supply chain, and grow the business, along with the company C-suite.
Engagement Manager
Deloitte
- Led rapid and strategic sourcing, logistics optimization, and direct and indirect transportation improvement initiatives, as part of the supply chain harmonization program across the EU and North America for a specialty chemicals manufacturer.
- Drove the analytics team of a large cereal brand manufacturer to identify the root cause of service loss across case fill rate and on-time delivery to reduce penalties with leading big box retailers, improving on-time in-full rate from 56% to 78%.
- Transformed the aftermarket supply chain business of the largest truck manufacturer in Japan to a more agile and responsive digital platform, with supply chain control towers backed with analytics and proactive sensing dashboards.
Engineer
Bajaj Auto
- Engaged as a key member of the design team, contributing across the design lifecycle of 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler gearboxes, including prototyping, finite element analysis, testing, and developing engineering drawings for manufacturability.
- Implemented process improvement initiatives on the steel and aluminum shop floor, such as bottleneck analysis, machine time optimization, and improved material handling.
- Established and documented design reference manuals to standardize basic design procedures within the team. I was nominated to join the core technical program management team in R&D and implement preventive maintenance along with a team of nine.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Indian Institute of Management - Kozhikode, India
Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
University of Mumbai – Sardar Patel College of Engineering - Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Skills
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint
Data & Analysis Software
Tableau, Microsoft Access
Finance
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), Business Intelligence (BI), Value Creation
Other
Microsoft Office, Excel Expert, Supply Chain, Operations Management, Project Planning, Project Management Office (PMO), Pitch Decks, Strategic Sourcing, Project Management, Pitch Deck Consultant, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Analytics, Business Management, Management Consulting, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Performance Improvement, Microsoft Power BI, QlikView, Procurement, Data Visualization, Process Improvement, Operational Efficiency Improvement, Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Information (RFI), Finance, Strategy, Quality Management, Turnaround Management, Distressed/Special Situations, Program Management, PMO, Post-merger Integration, Gross Profit Margin Growth, Margin Optimization, EBITDA, Sourcing, Spend Management, Interactive Dashboards, Costs, Synergy Cost Project Management, Synergy Capture, Planning, PMO Development, Ariba Procurement, Procure to Pay, Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing, Production, R&D, Production & Quality, Quality Control (QC), Supply Chain Operations, Supply Chain Optimization, Logistics & Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Operating Models, Business Strategy, P2P, Training & Training Content Development, Opportunity Identification, Opportunity Assessments, Inventory, Business Cases, Roadmaps, Executive Presentations, Presentations, Organizational Readiness, Sustainable Advisory, Sustainability Strategy
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