Shreekanth Kainthaje

MBA in Marketing with 11 years of experience in Marketing Procurement at Global, Regional and Market level

Grab, Singapore - Regional Procurement Manager - Marketing (Aug 2022 - Current)

Super-app of South-East Asia. Responsible for Procurement Strategy and implementation for creative, digital, production, print POSM and employee engagement activities. Across business units of rides, food delivery, Mart, Grocery, Pay, Ads & Enterprise. For the target audience of customers, merchants and employees.

Nestrade S A, Kuala Lumpur - Regional Strategic Buyer - Marketing Content (Apr 2017 - Aug 2022)

• Working across Asia Oceania & Africa markets of Nestle. Transitioned spend from at Market procurement to global procurement & implementing standardized procurement model across markets and 11 product categories. Markets transitioned to above market procurement include Philippines, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Central Western Africa, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. 
• Responsible for Deploying Global agency model for creative & digital, Production consultants, In-housing agency services, Production support like Images, Animatic production & digital deliveries, and legal contracts across agency relationships

Key initiatives across markets leading to consistent savings pipeline

• Philippines - 10M CHF creative & Digital agency spend in 2018. Streamlined, negotiated & maintained at CHF 4-5M over FY19-21.
• >40 films a year production market. In-house consultant model developed. Ensured compliance with Nestle global production model enabling 100% coverage of production spend.
• Brought in Dentsu by going beyond the agency roaster of Nestle to ensure strong creative support for the market. Legal contracts & financial model negotiated & integrated global models
• Pakistan FY18 - 87% of agency fee reported for non-compliance by audit. Consolidated spend with 2 agency groups. FY21-60% spend with Publicis group across 2 agencies & 40% with WPP enabling savings & better creative competence for brands
• Indonesia - 100% agency spend transitioned to above market overcoming initial market resistance. 80% of spend with WPP; process corrections done. In-house Content studio closed with Publicis to drive cost efficiency & balance spend across agency groups
• Japan - Consistently driven change in a market resistance for change delivering savings in line with targets year on year. Transitioned local agencies to global working models with legal contracts. Implemented production consultant for production across all agency partners
• Additional Responsibilities - FY2020-21 - Regional governance SPOC for AOA markets, to resolve differences & issues. Point of contact for Nestle market communication heads/head of procurements and agency leads to raise issues and work on solutions to resolve the conflict
• Mission assignment in Media - standing in for person on maternity leave from December 2021 to August 2022. Responsible for media procurement for Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore - 3 key Nestle markets in SEA
  • Key achievement included resolving annual plan execution for Nestle Malaysia market in a challenging environment of budget cuts, pre-contracted rates and commission and a decreasing TV viewership
  • Conducted Non-competitive media review of incumbent agency in Thailand market and Nespresso brand in Singapore to improve agency performance
  • Overseeing exit audit of previous agency and ensuring smooth transition to new agency of Malaysia market
• Accomplishment - 1 of the 30 managers selected across Nestle group of >250K employees for the Fundamentals of leadership program at Rive Reine, (Nestle’s in-house training centre)

Procurement Tools: Proficient in use procurement tools of SAP, Ariba, Decideware and AgencyMania

Nestlé India Limited, Gurgaon, Manager - Marketing Procurement, (May 2012-Mar 2017)

• Took procurement coverage of advertising & media spend from 27 % to 98%. Spend 18M CHF in 2012 to 42M CHF in 2017. 
• Conducted media agency pitch after 7 years leading to 32% cost reduction for the market. Developed governance model for periodic KPI reviews to ensure attainment of targets 
• In-housed agency services - facilitating faster turn-around times & cost benefit to brands
  • Design services for Packaging
  • Digital film production & 
  • Consumer Engagement centre
• Signed over 15 Indian celebrities from Bollywood & Sports
• Streamlined production spend & created production vendor roster & implemented standard procurement process
• Responsible for P2P process improvement for marketing spends. Managing SAP contract, Purchase orders, GRIR and timely payment to vendors working across cross functional teams
• Exposure to non-marketing categories like Gold buying and Real Estate

Manipal Global Education Services, Bangalore - Marketing Manager (Mar 2007 - May 2012)

R K Swamy BBDO, Bangalore (June 2002 - Mar 2007) - 3 client servicing roles

Lowe Worldwide, Bangalore - Management Trainee (Oct 2000 to Jun 2002)

• Additional experience of a decade in Marketing & Advertising client servicing. 
• Gained experience across multiple business sector like Banking, Consumer Durable, Education, Telecom, IT& ITES & Medical
• This experience helps me understand business situations from Marketing & Agency stakeholder points of views and structure procurement solutions that are beneficial to business in the long run

• MBA in Marketing, NMAMIT- Nitte, Visveswaraiah Technological University, India - Aug’98 - Aug 2000
• Advanced Diploma in Network centered computing - NIIT India - Aug’96 - Jun’98
• BSc in Microbiology, St. Aloysius College, Mangalore University, India - Jun’93 - May’96