Paul Lambert

Dell’s ISG & Alliances are two start-ups centre of competence, part of the new indirect channel strategy, with sales dedicated respectively to OEM customers & System integrators across all EMEA.
Responsible for all finance related tasks: P&L, Forecast, Credit, governance, contracts, services, Business intelligence, pricing, operating expenses…
Objectives: grow Revenue 60% & operating contribution $ 100% in Year 1. Achieve over $1b Revenue in Year 3.

Dell Business operations cover areas from Order management to customer care.
I am in charge of identifying and governing programs and process improvements aimed at driving more efficiency in Dell's operations, making up to $200 M annualised savings through workload elimination, headcount reduction, transitions to low cost location and improved customer experience.
On top of main operatiosn areas (order managelent, customer care, logistics), Programs affected all areas such as technichal support, Marketing and Sales.

Dell Western Europe, headquartered in Paris, is sub-region of 7 countries. With 2.5 Bio USD Revenue, it is the 3rd largest region of EMEA.
Managed a $450 Mio Revenue P&L on Hardware & Services products in the Enterprise lines of business (servers, storage) across 7 countries.
Key Achievements:
•Increased by 7% share of Revenue to Western Europe & by 25% on operating income (respectively 3x & 2x more than EMEA)

Acting as Finance Director, managed all Finance related tasks (P&L, forecast, period-end close, Pricing, Credit, etc…) either self or with support of shared services in Europe.
Key Achievements:
•Supported revenue growth of 23% (profitability by 25%), increasing contribution to Western Europe Region from 10% to 11% on revenue & 11% to 13% on operating income (Belgium was best contribvutor in Profit as % revenue in EMEA)
•Set up bottom up Forecast & outlook processes, with input from sales, increasing accuracy & buyin from sales managements
•Implemented Pricing & margin approval processes

Before it merged with Sonymusic, BMG UK & Ireland is the affiliate of the music branch of the media giant Bertelsmann, but also sites the EMEA headquarters. BMG is the home for major artists such as Santana, Christina Aguilera, Annie Lennox.
Key Assignments:
•Automated month-end reconciliations of inventory & Cost of goods, and inter-company cross charges related journals
•Control, approval & review of the EMEA shared services operating expenses about actual spent vs. forecast

Ocado is a start-up in the online grocery business. Created in 2001 after raising an initial £35 million. It started trading in January 2002 in partnership with John Lewis and Waitrose. It became 2nd online Grocer in the UK in 2004.
As an early joiner, I helped set up offerings & processes around oprtaions & finance.

Key Achievements:
•Implemented Purchase order and invoice approval processes for the company, processing £3 millions of orders per quarter
•Successfully developed & managed relationships with IT suppliers, piloted negotiations with main supplier which lead to £200,000 credit, review of payment terms and schedules
•Modelled and implemented forecasting and reporting of IT and marketing & reported to board of Directors
•Modelled promotion appraisal tool, focusing on global profit impact, succeeding in keeping promotions below 1% of turnover and reducing waste
•Originated and executed reporting to the board on credit to customers and their source in the business, allowing crucial commercial decisions to be taken, and excluding overlaps and duplicate payments

Assistant to Finance controller, I am in charge of all reporting, period-end close, controlling operating expenses (IT, marketing, sales...) as well as supporting new & smaller business units such as publishing, Internet, licensing & video.

Key Achievements:
•Piloted creation of Video & DVD department, which greatly assisted in maintaining global market share and profits, contributes to 6% of Turnover and 12% of operating Profit of the company
•Managed P&L of Video, Licensing and Music Publishing divisions
•Reduced deadline of month end reporting to international HQ from 4 to 2 days, increasing time to decision-making in Paris & International Headquarters
•Set up control and reporting of departmental expenses with directors, building a platform to the organisation to maintain or reduce overhead costs.
•Implemented new forecasting software, and trained Sales & Marketing users to analyse projects by profitability & outlook revenue & expenduitures, rolling up into outlooks & Forecasts

As Junior financial analyst, I supported Finance controller & other Finance analysts.
Key Achievements:
•Implemented & trained sales and marketing on new Revenue/Discount matrix to simulate and analyse sales and margin by product, rolling up in business units or customer groups
•Restructured Accounts payables department, to increase involvement of staff and develop a greater integration of work methods in order to produce higher efficiencies. Lead to headcount reduction
•Modelled new forecasting spreadsheet to report to CEO focusing on key figures: sales, profits, inventory and marketing ratios, trained marketing managers users & reported to CEO and International HQ (Europe, Group)
•Helped optimise inventory ratios by introducing new reporting and assisting in developing staff sales
•Assisted in implementing SAP as new accounting system