About Ankur (ASB)

Ankur Shiv Bhandari

“I enable capability development by harnessing Intent and Relevance and through Shopper Based Value Creation”

Ankur is dedicated to building the capability of individuals and organisations by developing and harnessing Intent & Relevance with a special focus on Sales Capability development through “Shopper Based Value Creation” and resulting Commercial Excellence.

Ankur’s dedication is brought to life through two concepts that are the brainchild of ASB which are “Route to Shopper®” and “Intentonomics”.

ASB started his sales career at the grassroots level in India and over the past more than two decades, while mostly based out of the United Kingdom, has worked in and supported sales and marketing organisations at all levels of the sales hierarchy in every commercially active continent in the world.

During his experience spanning more than 50 countries, Ankur has been an employee and an advisor to global organisations such as Procter & Gamble, Castrol, Samsung, ICI Paints (AkzoNobel), LG, Unilever, Accenture, WPP, Panasonic, Philips, Kellogg’s/Kellanova, Coca-Cola, Hemas, Maliban, Dabur, GSK, Mattel, Abbott etc. Ankur is the founder of The Asbiverse Group (www.asbiversegroup.com) which focuses on delivering Commercial Excellence with Shopper Intent.

Ankur also dedicates a big portion of his time to public and community service and he is the first-ever Asian-origin Councillor to have been elected to Bracknell Forest Borough Council and also the first person of Indian-origin to be elected Mayor of the Borough in United Kingdom.

During his experience, Ankur has focused on the development of “Right Intent” in individuals and organisations to achieve their goals. It has been achieved through Ankur’s involvement in various challenges towards enabling and developing capability across Leadership, Sales, Shopper (customer/Trade) Marketing, Technology adoption, Analytics & Public service.

Work Profile

Founder

Asbiverse Group

Based: Bracknell South, Berkshire, United Kingdom

Jan 2015 – Present

Outline

Asbiverse Group drives Commercial Excellence for organisations. Asbiverse Group does it through its 4 business units which also work independently and come together under the Asbiverse Group umbrella to support organisations realise Pockets of Value by focusing on Revenue Growth and Trading Profit.

One of the key and unique ingredients of our approach is the focus on “Intent”. We look at the drivers of intent of both internal and external stakeholders and how that can be influenced which can be a fundamental difference on the identification and realisation of Pockets of Value.

Four business units of Asbiverse Group:

Mayor of Bracknell Forest

Bracknell Forest Council

Based: Bracknell

May 2022 – May 2023

Representing the Borough of Bracknell Forest as its First Citizen. First-person of Indian origin and also the first person of Colour to be elected to this role.

Borough Councillor- Local Government

Bracknell Forest Council

Based: Bracknell

May 2019 – May 2023

Elected as the first ever Asian origin Borough Councillor to Bracknell Forest Borough Council in May 2019 Council elections. This is my opportunity to give back to the society and I try to serve my communities in the Bracknell Borough by:

• Addressing any community needs in my ward
• Being part of the Economic Skills Development Partnership – focused on ensuring our residents have the right workplace skills that can aid their economic development
• Being part of the Planning Committee- overseeing planning applications in the Borough delegated to the committee
• Being involved in multiple other community projects focused on improving the experiences of our residents

Liveryman and Chairman of Membership

The Worshipful Company of Marketors

Based: London

January 2020 – November 2022

Proud to be enclothed as a Liveryman of the Worshipful company of Marketors ( Livery company). As part of this role, I will focus on the development of the Marketing profession.

Senior Lecturer- International Business ( P/T)

St Mary’s University, Twickenham

Based: London, United Kingdom

Jan 2020 – Sep 2021

Outline

In line with my focus on Capability Development of Individuals and organisations, I was presented with this fantastic opportunity to support Academic research & teaching at St Mary’s University (Part-Time), which I was delighted to accept. This provided an excellent opportunity to realise strong synergies between the latest Research thinking in Academia and professional capability development.

Key Responsibilities

Supported Post Graduate Business programs in the university including “International Strategic Management”, “International Marketing” and “Digital Marketing.”
Ensured that the thinking on the latest industry requirements was always current and various management approaches could be regularly challenged and refreshed.
Created a connection between Industry and academia at this professional level as there were strong synergies.

Managing Director

Kantar Consulting

May 2010 – Dec 2014

Led Kantar Retail’s growth and delivered projects in parts of South East Asia, Europe, Middle East & Africa. Translated Kantar Retail’s global capability offer into what was relevant for the regions. Won new clients and managed existing global relationships.

Key achievements

• Projects won and delivered for Castrol, Lenovo, Friesland Campina,Coca-Cola, Tetra Pak, Abbott, Carlsberg etc
• Biggest success was winning Castrol’s majority training business across India for 2 years. Multiple training programs were developed and delivered for different levels of sales & management hierarchies

Management Consultant (Consumer Goods)

Accenture

July 2007 – May 2010

Sales Transformation consultant for Consumer Goods Industries. Focus on Sales Strategy & CRM.

Consulting project roles:

09/2009- 05/2010— SAB Miller Plc
Sales Integration Lead- Global Front office transformation

• Led Business Process design & integration for SAB Miller to deliver a combined business solution for total sales based on global best practice. Focus of integration was within the four functions of sales and between sales and other workstreams such as finance, demand, supply, marketing etc. The four functions of sales were Trade Promotions Management ( included key account management and Trade funds & claims management), Field sales planning & effectiveness, Telesales and sales back office.

07/2008- 09/2009 — Diageo Plc
Global Design Director/Commercial Processes Lead

• Led Re-design of key components of the Global sales/commercial strategy across multiple brands (Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Bells etc.) and markets with best practice input. Areas of Focus include Integrated Business Planning, Customer Management, Trade Investment strategy inc. Trade Promotions Management and Sales coverage/effectiveness strategy.
• Focus was also on building sales function capability to execute the new strategy and processes

10/2007- 06/2008 — Procter & Gamble
Global Transformation & Transition Lead

• Led Business Transformation/Transition to a new Global growth model for P&G. Led the definition of this model, this is an industry’s first custom built model which provides sales/profit increase and cost reductions at the same time on a global scale. The Project involved a business of more than $75 Billion and is being worked on across six continents
• Led the deployment of the solution to the 5 Pilot markets in Asia

08/2007-10/2007—Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Subject Matter Expert

Various Roles

Procter & Gamble

Campus Recruitment Team Leader

Aug 2005 – June 2007

Note: This was in addition to my commercial responsibilities

• Heading a multi-functional team on one of the top ten campuses in UK
• Involved in interviewing & selection of future talent for P&G
• Experienced trainer on sales colleges

Market Strategy & Planning Manager

May 2005 – June 2007

• Managing the national business across more than 10 European customers on core categories for the business
• Setting strategic and commercial direction for National account managers and implementing initiatives in National Accounts
• Owner of National budgets for the channel
• Consultant to the trade on category management including optimization of consumer insight converted to sales in-store
• Owner of selected western European initiatives by managing test market in UK

Business Development Manager

May 2002 – May 2005

• Managed a national business worth approx. £15 million+($28 million) with record share levels
• Profile included Strategy setting, turnover responsibility, budgets, supply chain co-ordination, category management, managing brand priorities on brands such as Ariel, Daz, Fairy, Flash etc
• The business handled is UK’s biggest national chain of cash & carries servicing the retail convenience, CTN and forecourt sector and also included a national retail chain with more than 700 retail stores
• Jury member of industry leading awards for 2 consecutive years
• Previous experience in P&G of managing the away from home sector which served industries such as travel, hotels ,Nhs, events, workplace, pubs, restaurants and quick service retailers directly as well as via distributors
• Training and coaching responsibilities

Area Head (ICI Paints now Akzo Nobel)

AkzoNobel

Sep 1999 – Sep 2001

Profile:

Profile included depot management, new market development, dead market revivals, product launches (Dulux), channel management, devising marketing and sales promotion strategies

• Turnover increased by approx. 20%
• Debtor days decreased from 72 to 18
• Network growth of approx. 300%
• Increase in Brand Recall
• Managed a team of sales representatives

Senior Marketing Executive

PERFECT BREAD PRIVATE LIMITED

Aug 1998 – Sep 1999

This was a new company dealing in bakery products (Perfect Bread) and I developed the market for this company in five states of India including Delhi and National Capital region Delhi making it the leader in three states and a strong competitor in two. I headed the total sales force in these areas for the start-up enterprise. It possesses a strong market presence now.

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