Philip Mwandikwa

In my current role, I’m a strategic Finance Business Partner to Africa Supply Chain Director, responsible for providing financial insights and driving decision support on key initiatives in line with business objectives. Below are the key priorities in delivery of my role:

• Leading preparation of 3 year Financial plans, review and refresh annually on a rolling basis.
• Performing extensive financial analysis, bringing out insights on performance and trends, with focus on cost, variance analysis, Inflation, Productivity, operating leverage and gross margin, and recommending ways to optimize financial performance.
• Leading preparation and submission of Annual Operating Plan, coordinating with supply function to ensure integration of financial and business strategies.
• Leading Cost of sales P&L Financial Performance Management reviews and outlook focusing on Risks and Opportunities, recommending ways of risk mitigation and seizure of opportunities.
• Championing productivity and cost management, challenging cost divers and assumptions during annual operating plan preparation.
• Identifying areas of improvement, presenting business case for approval and championing continuous improvement across supply chain.

In this role, I was charged with implementing and executing governance, risk and internal control framework for Africa Supply and Supply Finance, with reporting to regional Finance Director and Region Supply Directors. I won an award in the Category of Pioneering controls Globally while in this role: I,

• led improvement of overall risk and governance capabilities across Africa Supply and Supply Finance by leading implementation of a set of operational and financial controls successfully.
• Drove a pro-active, integrated and forward looking (short and long term) risk management and risk mitigation environment by creating, promoting and maintaining a culture of risk awareness and clear accountability.
• Conducted deep dives on problematic areas, identifying control gaps and providing solutions to maintain a robust control environment.
• Supported Global Investigations team in confidential and high priority assignments/investigations, with corroboratory evidence, questionnaires, exposure identification to the business-both internal and external, including regulatory.
• Conducted spot checks on market processes to ensure Finance Director checklist is impactful, and that risks are managed to acceptable levels.

In this role, I was tasked with delivery of cost of sales for beer business and management reporting for cost of sales and a Finance Business Partner for Supply Chain Director.

• I prepared annual operating plan for supply chain, tracked actual performance and outlook latest estimates, providing insights and recommending ways to optimize performance.
• I prepared brand cost of sales monthly by allocating all components of cost to sales volume, using various criteria, margin analysis and loading into the reporting tool.
• Provided decision support to Supply Chain departmental heads by providing insightful reports, trends, variance analysis and actionable insights, financial benefits from Improvement task forces to reduce inefficiencies and drive out cost
• Supported working capital management by reviewing inventory levels, SLOBS, provisions and accruals and recommending business actions to maintain optimal working capital.
• I led reviews of the trial balance, investigating high movements, flagging risks and opportunities in the balance sheet.
• Supported CAPEX projects by ensuring spend is as per approved budget, holding procurement to account for any controllable risks.
• I computed transfer prices ensuring that they are within arm’s length ensuring no tax exposures.
• Prepared Depreciation vs Maintanance trends, in relation to Capex injections that provided valuable insights on asset re-lifing and retirement or impairment.

I joined Diageo as a Cost Accountant, In this role my responsibilities included:

• Analyzing data on production, Logistics and procurement price variances, identifying, and reporting all cost variances and root cause, and advising on appropriate actions.
• Monitoring compliance to BoMs, waste scrap factor, generation and provision of production usage variance reports.
• Preparing fixed cost absorption impact reports that show over/under recovery and using these insights for activity rate setting.
• Performance reporting both weekly and monthly by providing forecast numbers building up the cost of sales and cost of production.
• Prepared overheads operating budget annually, reviewing actuals against previous year, plan and recommending ways to reduce cost.
• Inventory management including valuation, stock takes, provisions, write-offs and returns from trade.
• Value chain analysis of all SKU’s, innovations, and renovations to support pricing decisions.
• Performing annual SKU cost reset/roll-up, considering prices of input raw materials and packaging components.

I joined Genpact as part of early careers program and started off my Finance career in accounts payable. These were my tasks:

• Reviewing invoices for accuracy against deliveries, Purchase Orders, and company policies.
• Managing open Purchase Orders and flagging retrospective POs violating the policy.
• Raising Purchase requisitions, Purchase Orders for both local and international vendors.
• Managing Payment Posting Process including verifying error and perform resolution and acting as liaison to the client.
• Reconciliation of Accounts Payable monthly (including Down Payment Requests), highlighting any financial risks and opportunities to write off/on to P &L.