Sally McGowan

Senior Business Consultant Retail @First Friday

Leicester, GB

First Friday is a consulting, change management and training consultancy business with its roots in retail, and a global portfolio of clients in retail and other customer-facing sectors. All of the First Friday team are retail professionals who have become expert consultants as a result of hands-on experience and by supporting world class businesses.Key Assignments include: • EMEA: o Brand Transformation Lead for the regions largest Franchise business o Leading and supporting one of the worlds largest brands on their Oracle / BY transformation journeyo Navigating a complex business structure and diverse cultural backgrounds to deliver a workable and sustainable transformation that enables the business to fulfill its potential• ASDA:o Led major SAP implementation for ASDA’s clothing department, George. Supported development and delivery of training. o Worked with subject matter expert to guide redesign of system to deliver significant improvements on original scope. Provided significantly improved visibility of KPIs, sales and returns and profitability. • Bata (Italy):o Change and transformation project lead, delivering a full restructure of the European buying and merchandising offices of the world’s largest shoe company. o Introduced best practice methods, based upon those of the organisations UK office. This included changes in roles, methodologies, processes and procedures. o Overcame resistance and cultural and language barriers to achieve buy-in and engagement through a diplomatic and respectful approach. • Tesco: o Worked with the general merchandise team to determine best practice covering job roles and procedures and deliver aligned training. o Established an appropriately skilled and effective team, turning around poor results through synchronising the teams and ensuring clarity or purpose and responsibility.