Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Training
Certification
Timeline
Generic

Kenneth Dion

Orland Park,IL

Summary

Highly analytical sales driver with 20 years of experience in driving sales, profit, productivity, customer satisfaction, and fostering a positive company culture. As a change agent, I inspire contagious leadership that promotes positivity, high-performance, and discipline throughout the organization. Demonstrated success in achieving revenue growth, operational efficiency, and turning around underperforming facilities. Utilize a unique engineer-like approach to advanced problem-solving, combining deep analytical skills, strategic planning, and tactical execution.

Overview

28
28
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Senior Director of merchandising and MARKETING

Albertson’s: Jewel-Osco
01.2024 - Current
  • Company Overview: ALBERTSON’S is a grocery industry leader, serving customers through over 2300 owned, licensed, franchised, and affiliated stores across the country
  • Dynamic results-driven with a track record of developing and implementing innovative merchandising strategies that drive sales and profitability for 188 stores across the Jewel-Osco Division
  • Lead a cross-functional team, analyzing market trends, building vendor relationships, and manage financials of the overall Jewel-Osco P&L
  • Ensure all merchandising strategies are aligned with the overall vision and goals of the company
  • Once aligned, partner with the Operations team to ensure execution
  • Identify under indexing areas of the business and develop strategies to drive incremental market share
  • Stay current of industry trends and best practices in merchandising to understand how to drive incremental share
  • Worked together with a team in the development of the first ever Jewel-Osco Cyber day for E-Commerce to grow customer loyalty to the program while increasing overall sales
  • Lead, mentored, and developed a high-performing team of merchants
  • Optimized project timelines by effectively delegating tasks and prioritizing workload among team members.
  • Created an agile working environment, enabling rapid response to changing business needs without sacrificing quality or performance standards.
  • Cultivated a culture of innovation by promoting creative thinking and encouraging employees to take calculated risks in pursuit of solutions.
  • Recruited, interviewed and hired employees and implemented mentoring program to promote positive feedback and engagement.
  • Developed strong relationships with key industry partners, fostering collaboration and mutual growth opportunities.
  • Directed design and execution of business transformation initiatives to drive performance, profit optimization and growth opportunities.
  • Managed risk effectively by identifying potential threats, developing contingency plans, and implementing mitigation strategies in line with overall business objectives.

District Manager

Albertson’s: Jewel-Osco
01.2007 - 12.2023
  • Company Overview: ALBERTSON’S is a grocery industry leader, serving customers through over 2300 owned, licensed, franchised, and affiliated stores across the country
  • Tapped for key executive role to strengthen operational discipline in 20 stores, focusing on execution to generate profit and limit revenue losses through more defined operational strategy and road mapping by ensuring loyalty to company brand and sustaining brand value of freshness quality, cleanliness
  • Energized flat district sales, delivering YOY improvement, transforming performance via strategic leadership and by tapping into deep expertise of retail management, revenue and profitability goal attainment
  • Headed cultural change by way of customer-focused initiatives that improved greater organizational efficiency that produced a 220% in bottom-line profit and 149% over revenue goal
  • Empowered employees through inspirational coaching and innovative training program development
  • Supervised various locations, enforcing high-quality standards of operation.
  • Ensured compliance with company policies and procedures as well as federal/state regulations by conducting regular audits of operational practices at each location within the district.
  • Continued to sustain new sales-driven culture and accountability by tying company success to individual triumph
  • Introduced KPIs to identify performance gaps and develop ‘course-correction’ strategies that enhanced stakeholder satisfaction through ROI optimization
  • Conducted quarterly total 'loss' store meetings, sharing company financials with employees and creating shared learning environment
  • Worked in collaboration of Store Directors to drive individual store metrics and make sure they are aligned with company’s goals and mission
  • Drove employee engagement at the director-level through creative methods
  • Delivered business value through big-picture business vision, deep operational expertise, elegant strategies, and tactical excellence in team building and strategic planning
  • Netted a steady increase in sales of 8% for 16 consecutive quarters across multiple locations through a customer-focused campaign that disseminating detailed product information
  • Improved top lines sales 15% in one year at one store by leveraging insight from data captured in seminars and meetings, which allowed for greater visibility of customer’s needs and rising market trends

Customer Satisfaction Manager

Albertson’s: Jewel-Osco
01.2010 - 12.2011
  • Company Overview: ALBERTSON’S is a grocery industry leader, serving customers through over 2300 owned, licensed, franchised, and affiliated stores across the country
  • Piloted major 176-store-wide culture transformation which made history within Jewel-Osco company, delivering on the personal mandate of the President
  • Designed company value proposition, technology implementation (super value system), and raised the bar once again on customer service by shifting to a 'guest' model that created experiences versus just providing products
  • Elevated the Customer Satisfaction index of Jewel Osco by 15% across 176 stores
  • Converted each team member into a company ambassador and customer liaison
  • Trained leaders and direct reports to engage customer through a more personal and positive communication approach through the 'Make it Personal' program
  • Boosted team morale and performance through program development
  • Created an Associate of the Month program which validated accomplishments, infused employees with pride and enthusiasm for a job well done and made them part of the company’s overall success
  • Synergized efforts across all 176 stores through healthy competition
  • Developed contests and incentives dependent on customer satisfaction scores, resulting in 15% improvement in customer service metrics
  • Trickled accountability and discipline to every store, hoisting underperforming locations by designing 'Adopt a Store Program,' which advocated ‘adopting’ of a subpar location by top-leaders in the company
  • ALBERTSON’S is a grocery industry leader, serving customers through over 2300 owned, licensed, franchised, and affiliated stores across the country

General Merchandise Operations Specialist

Albertsons
01.2006 - 12.2007
  • Delivered significant operational enhancements: established benchmarks in customer satisfaction, sales, profit margin, inventory control, and labor and talent development
  • Streamlined hiring and training program, resulting in top-tier merchandising teams
  • Introduced metrics-based competitive market evaluation, which provided clearer view of business performance in comparison to main competitors through deeper market research and demographics
  • Capitalize on demographic and market opportunities and delivered 10% improvement in revenue within one year while netting a decrease inventory of 15%, labor expense of 10% and shrink .5% which optimized profitability by 10%
  • Instrumental in the long-term success of the company by serving as mentor and mounting executive-level training, personally influencing the success of 5 assistant store managers who matured to assume roles of Store Directors

Store Director

Albertsons
01.1999 - 12.2006
  • Recruited into senior-level position to drive market expansion, direct operations for 6 retail stores, and development programs for more than 200 employees
  • Steered stores in the right direction through strategic planning, surpassing targets in sales, profit, customer satisfaction, and service levels
  • Held P&L accountability, reduced inventory 250% while bolstering sales 20% and increasing profits 30%
  • Transformed culture, standardized practices in customer service with excellence in friendliness and courtesy driving turnaround initiative
  • Succeeded in supporting and strengthening the Albertson brand through hands-on coaching of leaders, which led to an increase in 25% improvement in customer service metric
  • Ensured the delivery of all targets within budget through due diligence, management staff re-organization and consolidation, inventory management, and preventative maintenance at all locations
  • Trimmed inventory by 50 percent, despite raising performance levels and increasing customers
  • Earned a reputation as a fair and just leader who would execute performance evaluations, providing constructive and actionable feedback, followed by disciplinary actions

Store Set-up Coordinator

American Drug Stores
01.1997 - 12.1999
  • Foundation that catapulted credible and effective leadership profile: Entrusted to lead through a series of grand openings, 22 stores within 18 months; prioritized a budget of $2M
  • Managed each store’s opening as an isolated startup; strategically coordinating all details from vendor sourcing and selection to inventory to hiring and training, to establishing policies and procedures through marketing; set profit goal margins and trained each store manager to become a ‘mini CEO.’
  • Led by example and by building relationships and wielding influence to direct efforts toward achievement objectives

Education

M.B.A - Management

Saint Xavier University
Chicago, IL

Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering

Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL

Resolving Conflict with Your Team -

01.2009

Giving Recognition -

01.2009

Developing Others -

01.2009

Providing Constructive Feedback -

01.2009

Principles of Genuine Leadership -

01.2009

Six Sigma Project Sponsor -

01.2008

Skills

  • Team Building & Mentoring
  • Risk Analysis & Management
  • Performance & Change Management
  • Revenue & Profit Optimization
  • P&L Accountability
  • Multi-Location Leadworship
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Merchandising
  • Pricing & Business Planning
  • Talent Development
  • Program Development & Management
  • Collaborative leadership
  • Culture transformation
  • Team management

Accomplishments

  • Used Microsoft Excel to develop inventory tracking spreadsheets.
  • Supervised team of 2200 staff members
  • Collaborated with team of 3 in the development of Make It Personal
  • Documented and resolved EBITDA gap which led to increased profitability

Training

  • Six Sigma Project Sponsor, 2008
  • Resolving Conflict with Your Team, 2009
  • Giving Recognition, 2009
  • Developing Others, 2009
  • Providing Constructive Feedback, 2009
  • Principles of Genuine Leadership, 2009

Certification

  • Forklift Certification
  • Illinois Driver's License

Timeline

Senior Director of merchandising and MARKETING

Albertson’s: Jewel-Osco
01.2024 - Current

Customer Satisfaction Manager

Albertson’s: Jewel-Osco
01.2010 - 12.2011

District Manager

Albertson’s: Jewel-Osco
01.2007 - 12.2023

General Merchandise Operations Specialist

Albertsons
01.2006 - 12.2007

Store Director

Albertsons
01.1999 - 12.2006

Store Set-up Coordinator

American Drug Stores
01.1997 - 12.1999

Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering

Northern Illinois University

Resolving Conflict with Your Team -

Giving Recognition -

Developing Others -

Providing Constructive Feedback -

Principles of Genuine Leadership -

Six Sigma Project Sponsor -

M.B.A - Management

Saint Xavier University

Similar Profiles

CREATE PROFILE
Kenneth Dion