Greg Spira
Greg Spira is an expert in Demand Management and Integrated Business Planning (IBP / S&OP). Greg works with companies to implement lasting change at all levels and across functions by building organizational capability and developing high-performing teams. Greg is the author of Trust the Plan: Demand Management for Business Leaders, and has written and co-authored many whitepapers on the subject of Demand Management. Greg is also an instructor of the Oliver Wight Demand Management course.
Greg has particularly deep experience in consumer goods having helped many large food companies integrate their demand planning and market share / consumption planning processes, teaching brand managers how to use the set of integrated plans to make better business decisions. He has also supported companies in a wide range of other industries including packaging, chemicals, healthcare, and fashion. Some of his clients include: Kraft Heinz, Campbell’s, Kenvue, Diageo, Ascend Materials, Valent BioSciences, The Hershey Company, Acuity Brands, TreeHouse Foods, WestRock, Becton Dickinson, Reckitt, Krispy Kreme, and Premier Nutrition.
Demand Planning Truths
Through my career I have learned many things about Demand Planning. Much has come from working with great leaders, executives, peers, and colleagues. Even more has come from making mistakes and learning from them. In the spirit of paying it forward, I am sharing these learnings through regular posts here. If you would like to receive these by email, please feel free to join my email list.
Latest Post
One simple way to measure the effectiveness of your IBP / S&OP process
I was recently chatting with a colleague who is working on the integration of an acquisition. He showed me a diagram of the acquired company’s monthly planning process to get my feedback. It was a little unorthodox, to put it politely. But that discussion was just one of several discussions on the topic of evaluating…
Whitepapers
Professional Background
Prior to joining Oliver Wight, Greg held several roles at Mondelez International, one of the world’s largest snacking companies. There he stood up the IBP process in Canada, led the IBP process for the North American Biscuits business, and established and led a business planning team – architecting the vision, processes, tools, and attracting top talent.
Using the IBP process to align planning assumptions, leadership became accountable for coordinated execution of activities to achieve targets. Mondelez achieved a one plan operating model with financial and operational plans tied to the monthly IBP process. Mondelez successfully entrenched the IBP process within the business culture, with significant benefits in problem prevention and cross-functional collaboration.
At BlackBerry, Greg was Director, Demand Management where he led a global team responsible for device forecasting. They navigated a rapidly evolving environment with long lead times, short product lifecycles, evolving business models, and intense competition. Greg established the rules of engagement between demand and supply, including time fences, consumption rules, and an abnormal demand process, clearly defining accountabilities for planning and execution. They eliminated chronic bias, driving down excess inventory by $300M and saving $50M per quarter in capacity under-utilization expense.
Greg received his MBA and CPA, CMA from McMaster University where he has since been a sessional lecturer.
Greg Spira 