Donald Smallwood Profile

Donald has more than thirty years experience in consumer and business-to- business arenas, in a wide variety of industries and product categories, countries and cultures. He especially has a proven track record in initiating successful new businesses, which require the important balance of market and consumer vision with hard-core pragmatic implementation, often challenging established paradigms.

Consulting

Donald specializes in:

Supporting foreign companies in their business introductions to the Mexican market:

Understand the market dynamics.

Develop a product portfolio and overall business strategy, including:

Ensure a Mexican “fit” to the global positioning and communications platform.

Guarantee the critical government compliances.

Develop and Implement a distribution strategy.

Develop local sourcing options, including licenses, partnerships and acquisitions.

Implementing productivity improvement projects, focusing on re-allocation and prioritization of scarce resources to optimize output, while keeping the customer delighted in his/her choice of supplier.

Education and training of commercial groups on how to align their actions to increase company value, not just sales.

Industry

Before entering operating consulting, Donald held leadership roles in several countries and industries. He has lived in Australia, the USA, Japan, Europe as well as Mexico, directing the development of new products and categories in several multi-national corporations including Kimberly-Clark, Pepsi-Cola and Clorox.

His multi-faceted background has given Donald the ability to successfully integrate specific corporate worldwide strategies with local needs. He started the Mexican division of two major U.S. corporations from scratch, which involved the complex mix of adherence to the corporate vision, with the pragmatism of local market conditions.

He has also directed the implementation of an Enterprise Information System, fixed and variable compensation schemes, education and training programs, productivity and resource optimization programs as well as led the acquisition, integration and consolidation of more than 30 different companies.

Education

Bachelor’s of Commerce, University of N.S.W., Sydney, Australia

Fluent in Spanish