Strategy & Business Planning Consultant

Company Description:

McDonald's is the largest family restaurant in the world, serving approximately 69 million customers across 36,000 restaurants a day: in more than 100 countries. The UK & Ireland market is one of the most successful entities across the wider business, serving on average 4 million people a day. It has operated in UK since 1974 and the business is growing continuously with more than 1,400 restaurants and over 154,000 employees.

McDonald’s UK & Ireland has a proven track record of investing in the development of its employees and offering flexibility as part of its dedication to being a modern and progressive company. Every year, it invests over £40 million in developing people, giving every one of its employees the opportunity to take part in structured training.

McDonald’s buys ingredients from over 17,500 British and Irish farmers and spends over £1.1billion annually on its food and packaging requirements. McDonald’s is committed to supporting British and Irish farmers to ensure it can continue to source many of its ingredients from the UK and Ireland.

McDonald’s is a market leader in its field, striving for the highest standard of quality, speed and restaurant experience. Re-generation of our restaurant infrastructure, covering digital ordering, re-imaging and dual-point service make working at McDonald’s more exciting than ever!

We are dedicated to using our scale for good: good for people, our industry and the planet. From bold recycling initiatives and sustainable sourcing efforts to our partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, we see every day as a chance to have a genuine impact on our customers, our people and our partners.

We're a people business just as much as we are a restaurant business. We strive to be the most inclusive brand in the world by building diverse teams who create delicious, feel-good moments that are easy for everyone to enjoy. Joining McDonald's means thinking big every day and preparing for a career that can have impact around the world.

Company Vision and Culture

Our Global vision is to build a better McDonald’s and, in the UK, and Ireland we are working hard to be the UK & Irelands best-loved restaurant company.

McDonald’s is defined by its culture. Our culture shapes and informs everything we think and everything we do. Our culture influences the way we interact with each other, and how we interact with customers, franchisees and suppliers. Our culture motivates and inspires us to attract and retain great talent, creating positive, energising, exceptional working environment for us all.

Our values drive our culture and shape our beliefs, our priorities and our actions. They influence the decisions we make, how we treat one another and how we show up as a brand to the world.

Serve: We put our customers and our people first

Inclusion: We open our doors to everyone

Integrity: We do the right thing

Community: We are good neighbours

Family: We get better together

Job Description:

Hybrid Working
This role is based in our East Finchley office working 3 days a week in the office and 2 days remotely.

The Opportunity 
The Senior Supply Chain Strategy & Business Planning Consultant is a key member of the UK&I Supply Chain team, responsible for developing, facilitating, and implementing best in class planning and delivery standards across the department. Focused on driving impact and productivity, the Senior Strategy and Business Planning Consultant is responsible driving strategic and operational excellence in Supply Chain by making decision making, planning and ways of working more effective. Working with a wide matrix of organisational stakeholders, both at a market and global level, as well as external suppliers, partners and consultants, the Senior Strategy & Business Planning Consultant will be responsible for driving UK&I Supply Chain alignment with our wider system to amplify overall enterprise performance.

What will my accountabilities be?

Strategy & Execution Management
End to end management of the UK&I Supply Chain strategy roadmap and governance. You will be responsible for:

• Annual Planning: management and delivery of processes for translating enterprise and business unit level planning into an aligned ‘One McDonald’s Way’ UK&I Supply Chain roadmap
• Joint Business Planning: management and delivery of processes for aligning supplier and partner roadmaps and activities with the UK&I Supply Chain strategy roadmap
• Change Management: management and delivery of processes for maintaining ongoing alignment of the Supply Chain roadmap to evolving realities, needs, and/or external events
• Roadmap Delivery: management and delivery of processes for managing execution of the UK&I strategic roadmap, and related workstreams, including reporting and escalation

Operations Management & Readiness
Ownership for governance of Supply Chain operational readiness and delivery. You will be responsible for:

• Meetings, Events & Deadlines: management and delivery of department calendar, ensuring that all required Supply Chain inputs, outputs and escalations are being met effectively
• Business Reporting: management and delivery of mandatory business and stakeholder reporting, ensuring all inputs, outputs and escalations are managed effectively
• Risk Management & Business Continuity: management and delivery of Supply Chain risk management and business continuity planning, including polices, training and rotas
• Cutover Management: management and delivery of processes to ensure change programme / projects are deployed and embedded into supply chain effectively

Stakeholder Management & Communications
Ownership for governance of executive level stakeholder engagement across all three legs of our system. You will be responsible for:

• Engagement Planning: management and delivery of strategic plans to strengthen engagement between Supply Chain and each leg of our system including, Suppliers, Franchisees and People
• SLT Visits: management and delivery of planning for executive level Supply Chain visits within the market, including global and market senior leadership

Special Projects
Ownership for the delivery of key strategic projects. Responsible for:

• Strategic Programmes / Projects: ownership for delivery of key cross-functional / organisational / strategic projects
• Thought Partnership: providing confidential and impartial though partnership for Executive VP and wider Supply Chain Leadership 

What Team will I be a part?
You will lead our Strategy and Business Planning Team, focused on driving impact and productivity by delivering best in class planning and delivery standards. You will sit as a member of the Supply Chain Senior Leadership team, helping facilitate improved impact and results.

You will provide a lean and high performing Supply Chain team with strategic support across all areas of activity from Sourcing and Logistics to Quality, Safety & Nutrition, as well as Agriculture & Sustainability.

As a support service team, the Strategic Sourcing & Services unit is highly positive, collaborative, and effective in engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders across our business, to support the Supply Chain strategy.  Our team is proactive about planning & engagement, thorough & systematic in our approaches, disruptive & critical in our thinking, as well as self-motivated & results driven. We have a daring, can-do attitude; we find solutions, not excuses.

The UK&I Supply Chain is also a team with a strong commitment to ensuring a culture within which we can all speak-up and thrive by bringing our authentic selves to work. We are each committed to our wider roles as leaders of this culture, and committed to acting and behaving in ways that support each other’s positive contributions.

Who are my customers?

Internal

• McDonald’s Supply Chain: UK&I Supply Chain (Senior Leadership Team & Sub-Functions) / Global Supply Chain
• McDonald’s: Change Management Team / BSI / Marketing / Food Development / Finance / Operations / Finance / IT & Digital / Restaurant Services / Operations Services
• Franchisees: Supply Chain Committee, Finance Committee, National & Regional Leadership Groups

External

• Strategic Service Providers: Logistics / Packaging / Ops Supplies / Waste & Energy
• Food & Paper Suppliers

Qualifications:

Technical

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in business administration, strategy, finance, data analytics, IT or related fields
• Qualification in Project Portfolio Management, or related fields, with advanced skills in programme management software (Smartsheets preferred)
• Mature critical thinking, problem solving, analytical, oral and written communication, and presentation skills
• Advanced MS Office skills: PowerBI, Excel (macros user preferred) and PowerPoint
• Data analytics familiarity preferred (Tableau, AltyrX, Python, R)
• Knowledge of relevant management and business change techniques such as business process modelling notation (BPMN), SIPOC and business process re-engineering
• Knowledge of suitable strategic decision-making techniques, such as multi criteria analysis and cost benefit analysis
• A good understanding of information technology, including Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and PowerPoint, etc. (PowerBI and Excel macros users preferred)

Personal

• Strong leadership capabilities, with a proven ability to contribute to, influence and lead cross-functional teams through ambiguous and/or undefined circumstances 
• A people first leader, that priorities really understanding what motivates teams and how to best support their development, as a well as role modelling a strong desire to develop yourself
• A dynamic and strong problem solver, who thrives of adapting to changes in priorities with ease, comfortable working "in the gray" while defining the way forward
• Excellent relationship building and communication skills, capable of quickly building trust with leaders and collaborators at all levels (including c-suite)
• Hard-working/self-starter, detail oriented leader who actively works to remove barriers to achieving results
• Dedicated facilitator who strategically leads discussions
• An excellent communicator, that builds feedback-rich environments that inspires and models the exchange of feedback

Experience

Demonstrable track record of successfully:

• Demonstrated ability in delivering strategy and business planning, including enterprise level communication and partner engagement - preferably in a consulting capacity
• Proven ability to consistently demonstrate sound judgement and be a solution-focused business advisor for customers
• Demonstrable ability to influence senior leaders and peers without direct authority, and implements business / cultural change that delivered defined & pre-determined value / benefits
• Experience leading multi-functional initiatives with multiple Global stakeholders
• Demonstrated experience developing analyses, presentations and support material to implement strategy or change initiatives
• Experience designing and or implementing processes and or tools

 

Additional Information:

At McDonald’s we are People from all Walks of Life... 

People are at the heart of everything we do, and they make the McDonald’s experience. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture that means people can be their best authentic self in our restaurants and offices, which helps us to better serve our customers. We have a strong heritage of diversity and representation within our communities, which we are proud of. The diversity of our people, customers, Franchisees and suppliers gives us strength.

We do not tolerate inequality, injustice or discrimination of any kind.  These are hugely important issues and a brand with our reach and relevance means we have a very meaningful role to play.

We also recognise our responsibility as a large employer to continue being active in our communities, helping to develop skills and drive aspirations that will help people to be more aware of the world of work and more successful within it, whether with McDonald’s or elsewhere."

#LI-Hybrid