Zoran Grabovac, MBA's Email Addresses & Phone Numbers

The essence of who I am and what I strive to achieve can best be captured in following quote by legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden, "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of...

The essence of who I am and what I strive to achieve can best be captured in following quote by legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden, "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming." My goal is continuous improvement that is driven by persistent pursuit to better myself through learning opportunities, projects, professional organizations and other mediums with an ultimate purpose to achieve mastery.Project Manager, Communications @ From October 2014 to Present (1 year 1 month) Moline, ILSupply Base Manager, Business Process Transformation @ • Develop and align Global and Regional sourcing strategies for Business Process Transformation. • Establish and integrate cross functional teams across Regions and Business to identify global business requirements, develop regional market intelligence, and develop global and regional strategies. • Assemble and analyze data to arrive at Request for Proposal (RFP), a final list of suppliers, and a negotiations strategy. • Negotiate, long term managed service agreements with key suppliers for multiple units, regions, divisions, or the enterprise, as required to achieve the lowest total cost of ownership. • Manage high level strategic supplier agreements with key or high impact suppliers as they are selected and integrated into the business operations. • Ensure consistency in engagement models across multiple functions within Business Process Transformation (engineering, supply management, finance and accounting, marketing, etc). From July 2012 to October 2014 (2 years 4 months) Moline, ILGlobal Production Planner Consultant - Cardiovascular Division @ • Partner with cross functional team including engineering, quality, marketing, IT and manufacturing to improve and create new tools and processes for product planning, launches and maintenance. • Create quarterly sales forecasts for existing and new product launches to accurately plan product manufacturing and material purchases to ensure inventory goals are maintained. • Develop demand requirements based on sales forecast to meet target inventory while optimizing manufacturing work order efficiencies. • Reconcile demand requirements with feasible build schedules and communicate inventory availability. • Identify raw material supply opportunities and in partnership with purchasing team implement strategies to mitigate risk, improve costing and delivery. • Monitor global demand consumption patterns and recommend inventory replenishment actions. • Analyze inventory position, prepare demand-planning reports, and develop supply chain performance scorecards. • Develop Sales and Operation Plans to ensure that customer demand and supply chain business management objectives are translated into a detailed set of operational plans which can be reviewed, measured, and adjusted on a regular basis. From August 2011 to July 2012 (1 year) Global Sourcing Product Manager @ • Lead, coached and developed a team of direct reports to ensure business objectives are met. • Assessed specific training for direct reports to gain additional knowledge and experience through on the job training to provide professional and personal development. • Sourced, developed and maintained an optimal vendor matrix for $200M business while utilizing costing expertise to deliver profitability goals and achieve both short-term and long-term business objectives. • Partnered with internal and external teams to ensure vendors are compliant to established standards, processes and procedures to eliminate potential negative impact to business. • Gathered, analyzed and interpreted global market intelligence and trade benefits to prepare strategic sourcing recommendations for costing and negotiation events. • Partnered with IT to improve and develop tools and resources enabling sourcing pyramid to analyze costing, profitability, vendor performance, and gaps in strategy in order to meet business needs. • Developed strategies to mitigate potential sourcing disruptions that may include political instability, labor shortages, inflation, anti-dumping potential, natural disaster proclivity and changing country economics. • Managed communication with Cross Functional Team, Overseas and Business Partners and other stakeholders to ensure flawless execution in both product development and program implementation. • Explored, developed and maximized opportunities to reduce costs through material, downtime production, and supply chain management resulting in annual savings of 5%. • Guided timely and profitable business decisions to achieve desired quality, design, trend, delivery, and pricing objectives. • Leveraged internal resources to provide specific and actionable feedback to vendor partners and created specific action plans for continued improvement on both objective and subjective measures. From June 2010 to August 2011 (1 year 3 months) Global Sourcing Senior Business Analyst @ • Gathered, researched and managed vendor matrix for a business of $150M in annual sales to ensure business needs are met and to manage potential risks. • Developed quality improvement strategy by partnering with IT to establish reporting tools and standards enabling Cross Functional Teams to partner with vendors to analyze and implement specific actions steps to improve quality and ultimately maximize guest satisfaction and profitability. • Developed trend right product assortment in partnership with Cross Functional Teams, quality assurance, vendor partners as well as overseas sourcing partners to ensure efficient service, minimal handling and lowest manufacturing costs. • Created in-depth inventory contingency plans to minimize the impact of global economic factors. • Executed sourcing plan to support strategic opportunities, achieve global balance and financial goals. • Managed negotiation and communication with vendors to reduce supply chain and production lead times to assure first to market exposure. From June 2009 to May 2010 (1 year) Merchandise Senior Business Analyst @ • Analyzed market trends to create and execute product strategy to satisfy guest needs and wants, increasing total sales by $120M and market share by 10% over previous year. • Managed $400 million business by maintaining strong vendor partnerships via accurate joint business plans, leading to 8% sales increase in joint business partner related businesses. • Negotiated costing by collaborating with vendors on sales forecasts and inventory purchases to maximize sales and profits, resulting in 15% Gross Margin increase over previous year. • Prepared and reviewed monthly and seasonal sales, markdowns, profit and contribution plans for six product categories. • Created and implemented product end of life plan decreasing markdowns an average of $1.5M and maintaining profitability. • Implemented segmented assortment strategy for six product categories to support company strategy and increase guest satisfaction ultimately leading to $15M in incremental sales while reducing inventory by $2.5M. • Assisted in development of Target Circular inventory allocation by partnering with IT to create tools enabling Business Analysts to allocate inventory based on sales patterns resulting in increase of sales and guest satisfaction. • Partnered with IT to create tools and process resulting in a comprehensive expense reduction strategy enabling Electronics Division to evaluate and improve supply and storage expense, and vendor terms, resulting in $4.5M planned expense decrease. • Formulated in-depth inventory forecasts while maintaining $600M budget to ensure appropriate inventory distribution to stores nationwide. • Managed and trained incoming business analysts through extensive class and on the job guidance. From April 2007 to May 2009 (2 years 2 months) Graduate Assistant - Economics Department @ • Gathered, analyzed and compiled materials used for research and publications. • Evaluated, recorded and managed class materials. • Tutored, motivated and developed study plans for students in group and individual environments. • Assisted in development of "The Economic Development of Telecom Reform in Indiana", Missouri and Michigan with The Digital Policy Institute at Ball State University. Research promoted economic benefits of competition that persuaded legislation of Indiana to vote in favor of deregulation of cable industry. From August 2005 to May 2006 (10 months) Family Recruiter - Summer Intern @ • Recruited host families through marketing and open house activities with goal of finding host families for International Students. • Assisted in maintaining complete and accurate student records and files. • Aided in organizing American Overseas pre-departure orientation. • Conducted orientation sessions to prepare foreign and domestic students for departure and experience in new country. From June 2005 to August 2005 (3 months) Master, Business Administration @ Ball State University - College of Business From 2005 to 2006 Bachelor of Arts, International Business @ Ball State University - College of Business From 2001 to 2005 Zoran Grabovac, MBA is skilled in: Contract Negotiation, Expense Management, Team Training and..., Budget Forecast, Sales Forecast, Strategic Market..., Inventory Control, Risk Management, Sourcing Development, Vendor Matrix..., Forecasting, Management, Budgets, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Management, Pricing, Marketing Strategy, Cross-functional Team..., Process Improvement, Project Management, Marketing, Retail, Customer Service