Important Skills for a Product Development and Retail Strategy Director at DYNACRAFT
Rick, a Director of Product Development and Retail Strategy, emphasizes that "critical thinking and problem solving" are paramount due to the inconsistent nature of the challenges encountered daily, alongside financial literacy for effectively managing profit and loss, and stresses the importance of supply chain management for mitigating the financial risks associated with large-scale inventory. Rick also enjoys the creativity aspect of the job, particularly in developing products that solve mass market problems.
Critical Thinking, Financial Literacy, Supply Chain Management, Product Development, Problem Solving
Advizer Information
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Job Title
Company
Undergrad
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DeCarli
Director, Product Development and Retail Strategy
DYNACRAFT BSC INC
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey
Industrial, Supply Chain Management
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion
Business Strategy
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Critical thinking and problem-solving are essential due to the varied and inconsistent nature of the problems encountered daily.
2. Financial literacy is crucial for monitoring profit and loss (P&L) and understanding the financial implications of business decisions, especially at the executive level.
3. Supply chain management is critical in the physical goods industry, as inventory represents a significant financial risk and can make or break a company.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
First and foremost would be critical thinking and problem-solving. I know it sounds cliché, but in my current role, it's not very consistent. The problems that come up are super different day-to-day.
I have to rely on the ability to assess a problem, break it down, and come up with the steps to solve it. The other massive part of my role would be financial literacy.
Before I was working on the executive team, financial literacy wasn't as big of a portion. But when you're monitoring P&L and looking at where we're making or losing money, if you don't know how to read numbers, you can get yourself in a mess very quickly.
Third, I would say would be supply chain management. We work in physical goods, so the inventory can make or break your company at any given point. In consumer goods, your inventory is your largest liability.
When you have tens to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of inventory either coming or sitting in a warehouse, that's going to be your biggest financial risk at any given moment. So, supply chain is critical.
And the fourth point, which is probably my favorite, is creativity. I oversee product development. Being able to come up with products that solve problems in the mass market is crucial.
Whether that has to do with price point, function, or usability is the other big aspect to my job. That's probably my favorite. We have some great teams under me now that do a lot of the lifting, and I stay aligned with them.