Therapy Cluster Finance Partner (Respi)

Division

Finance

Department

Commercial Finance

Sub Department 1

One India Business Finance

Job Purpose

To Partner closely with the leadership team of the respective business & operations teams (Respi, BLWC, Medtech – ~Rs 3500 crs) and the sales & marketing teams at All India level, driving strategic decision making and delivery of both Topline and bottomline targets. The role will be a key decision maker in all marketing initiatives or other activities affecting the P&L and play a key role in driving Budget/targets, resource deployment and monitoring actual performance on Key Performance Indicators, in order to achieve long term sustainable and profitable growth vs market

Key Accountabilities (1/5)

1. Financial Performance Evaluation - Review and analysis of business with respect to key financial drivers and financial performance of the business in order to achieve the Top line & Bottom line as Budgeted for the year

• PNL ownership: Drive PNL line items, to minimise costs and maximise contribution. Help Business heads and cluster heads to understand their trajectory and course correct. Each PNL line item to be monitored and ringfenced by CFH
• Deliver topline and bottomline targets through financial reporting and analytics and manage contribution improvement initiatives
• Monitor and Evaluate key KPIs of India Rx therapy cluster and share findings and highlight key areas for effective action to Cluster Business Head
• Drive better product mix by identifying and implementing COGS reduction & finding pricing opportunities in order to ensure improvement in Gross Margin
• Provide performance insights and publish monthly dashboards - provide insights to business by in order to drive growth and improve profitability
• Drive every element of P&L and report Variance Analysis Actual Vs Budget in comparison to the Last Year in order to achieve sustainable growth
• Evaluate variance and performance with Therapy Cluster Head in order to highlight the same and frame action plan against the adverse variance
• Implement Pricing as proposed in Budget
• Identify ideal sourcing location in order to maximise the Fiscal and Excise Benefit and minimise COGS

Key Accountabilities (2/5)

2 . Business Partnering - Partner with businesses effectively in order  to ensure long term sustainable and profitable  growth

• Review and finalise the Therapy Cluster Budget
• Drive sustainable future business growth by focusing on quality of topline and understanding drivers of growth for the therapy (PPP products and new launches)
• Analyse and drive competitive insights leading to market beating growth
• Evaluate and drive In-Licensing deals that meets strategic needs of the therapy
• Evaluate new device development and its relevance for any therapy area within India Business and create a robust business case for the product in alignment with Medtech and resp commercial teams.
• Prepare LBE and share revised target with the Management on real time basis in order to communicate the same
• Prepare and implement a mitigation plan against DPCO Loss (Price loss on account of Price control regulation) in order prepare for the market risks
• Propose discontinuation of certain products in order to ensure complexity reduction (5%)
• Drive agenda of Monthly Operations report for Therapy cluster Business in order to study the business situation on a regular basis
• Review effectiveness of major spends and review bonus scheme to ensure effective utilization of funds
• Market Visits– Plan visits to gain market/competition insights
• Drive COPE agenda for the business to ensure minimal wastages on expiries
• Prepare management review decks for various strategy meetings with management
• Lead Business strategic functions and partner on key decisions and growth drivers (mitigate headwinds and push tailwinds for growth and profit)
• Ensure financial metric and goals and compliance are adhered to by business teams

Key Accountabilities (3/5)

3.Stakeholders Alignment – Steer business agenda through ensuring stakeholders buy-in across cross functional teams

• Evaluate new product cases monthly – with Business development team
• Drive Product cost reduction with Supply Chain after analysis
• Lead ROI optimization and identify improvements on marketing spends by reducing the non-beneficial activities;
• Steer along with supply chain on Inventory levels optimization and working capital management
• Marketing initiatives/Incentive allocation – with depot/field force
• Central projects to be taken up and led for Rx
• New deal evaluation and due diligence. Agreement vetting and setting up operational efficiencies to onboard

Key Accountabilities (4/5)

4. Simplification & Controls - Drive business process simplification (including automation) and implement better control to ensure business is done in a simplified and compliant environment

• Drive automation of reports through advanced IT platforms like Power BI, any other analytical tool in order to reduce manual process & save time
• Identify and execute areas of process simplification for therapy to drive improvement in Bias for Action.
• Identify and execute areas of process simplification for therapy to drive improvement in Bias for Action.
• Leverage SAC and other tools to ensure minimal effort on creating new reports and automating existing reports

Key Accountabilities (5/5)

5. Team development - Develop career development plan for the team to achieve best in class organization team and ensure minimal attrition rate

• Nurture Talent through Learning & Development programme and ensure minimal attrition
• Prepare career development plans for direct reports/ temporary workers
• Address queries/challenges on regular basis (bi-monthly activity)

Major Challenges

Dealing with multiple stakeholder including Therapy Cluster Head & marketing/sales/other teams

Overcome by: Conducting regular meeting by communicating the agenda well in advance and assigning responsibilities, regular monitoring of the action plan and follow ups. providing timely MIS reports/regular follow ups/in-person meeting

Dependency on Multiple IT systems

Overcome by:  Coordination with IT team and automating reports in Qlik view through integration of various IT systems.  

Hyper Competitive market leading to challenge in mix improvement/special rate business negotiations

Overcome by: Initiate new/relevant MIS reports to Improve the depth and coverage of analytics (including IMS/ORG/secondary sales analysis etc)

Manage and monitor stock situations in the market

Overcome by: Discussion with supply chain team to manage in market inventory for key SKUs

Key Interactions (1/2)

Internal

• India Business Cluster Head: As and when required to discuss on P&L, Latest Business Estimates, Monthly operational Report, finalising Budgeting, finalising Pricing, finalising product discontinuation, finalising any In-Licensing deals.
• India Business Cluster Marketing & Sales Teams: Regularly discussion on monthly P&L and Latest Business Estimates, Proposing Pricing, Proposing Product discontinuation , Discussion on improving Gross Margin through various initiative , Discussion on In-licensing deals , Discussion on performance of Key KPI’s of business.
• Business Development Team: As and when to discuss and evaluate In-license deals   
• India Business Strategy Head: As and when required to discuss on various projects
• Field force: Monthly interaction during Market visit on territory performance, support required and sharing observation on market visit
• Supply Chain Team: Monthly discussion on Stock Outs and inventory management to maximise the pricing benefit
• Distribution Team: As and when required to discuss on DPCO implementation, Revenue recognition, Distribution Budget Variance
• Peer Team Member: Monthly Meeting to drive objective set by India Business
• India FP&A Team: Yearly on submitting the Budget and Monthly on submitting MOR and addressing any query raised by the team
• Procurement Team:  As and when required to discuss on new SOP, deviation of process by marketing and tracking actual Vs Budget for promotional material.

• Contract Manufacturing Team: Monthly discussion to approve increase / decrease in processing charges.

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  Legal Team: As and when required to discuss on any specific agreement.
• M&A team: As and when required to discuss on probable acquisition and divestment.

Key Interactions (2/2)

External

• Stockiest & Chemist: Monthly interaction to discuss on overall performance of Pharma Market, Cipla’s performance, Performance of New products,  PPP Performance, DPCO impact, Any new initiative by competitor to fuel growth.
• Doctor’s:- Monthly interaction during market visit to understand Cipla’s performance, MR Visit frequency, View on recent regulatory norms, Ideas for growth, Specific Molecule Cipla to focus on.
• External Auditor:- Annually on IFC Process compliance
• Other Consultants –

Seeking Consultant help in driving pricing opportunity, Beyond regular pricing process.

Yearly Discussion with IMS consultant on Cipla’s performance Vs Market.

In-licensing / Third Party Vendor: As and when required on various matters

Dimensions

• Review, finalise and drive budget for India Rx Cluster with revenue of INR 3500 Cr (4 BUs, 1 R&D Commercial team)
•  Geography: All India (40 depots, 100+ mini regions)
•  Product Pricing:  of approx. 250+ SKUs in each cluster
•  Other Key decisions: Costing, Procurement, Supply Chain for Inventory Management, Business Development, Product discontinuation, New launches, ILD partnerships,
• Span of Control: 3 direct reports, 2 off role repor
• Measuring Manpower productivity: ~4500 TM and SOC

Key Decisions (1/2)

Decisions

• Pricing of products
• FG – Destroy Vs Sample, RM/PM Produce Vs Destroy
• Driving Topline and P&L delivery
• Product Discontinuation
• Implement margin improvement initiatives by partnering with cross function teams
• Exception approval of procurement
• Processing Charges approval

Key Decisions (2/2)

Recommendations

• Budget Final Approval
• In-Licensing deals approval
• HR initiatives/activities
• Cross functional project suggestions, Project support for Global CFO or India CEO
• DPCO Mitigation Plan

Education Qualification

MBA or Chartered Accountant

Relevant Work Experience

Minimum 10-15 years of work experience with 7+ years of relevant experience (FP&A or commercial exposure preferably in Pharma or FMCG industry) along with strong financial and business acumen and strong action orientation, analytical Skills, interpersonal Skills, problem solving, influencing and negotiation skills.