Emir Kiamilev recently celebrated his five-year anniversary with 8020 Consulting (and his birthday too)! In this post, Emir explores how his perspective has changed, revisits past projects and experiences and looks forward to the years to come.
1. What do you enjoy most about your work, and how has that changed over time?
Delivering value throughout the organization is what I enjoy most about my work these days. The value that I am able to deliver to my clients has increased over time, primarily due to the fact that I can leverage key learnings from other clients and apply them to my current projects.
2. What are a few projects since you started working at 8020 that challenged you or made you grow?
1. ERP Implementation & Departmental Optimization Project
I was hired as a consultant for an international motion picture Client’s joint venture, which was trying to launch an ERP system for over a year without success. The company had no defined accounting processes, no monthly financial close and very unclear roles and responsibilities. The outcome was they were always behind on their A/P and A/R, and the Accounting and Finance departments were overwhelmed. A lot of invoices were paid twice, and invoices were not collected on time, greatly impacting the company’s cash flow. Initially the objective was for me to come in for three months and fix things. However, the Client extended my contract several times and I stayed there for a year, eventually assuming the role of Controllership. I was able to successfully turn the whole company around by launching a dynamic ERP system and properly training staff on how to use the new system. I was able to greatly reduce the workload on the Accounting and Finance departments by moving a lot of the data entry work to the individual departments. Now, in place of spending hours on data entry, the people in Finance could focus on forecasting, and the Accounting staff could close out the month. The systems, reorganization, training and implementation of best practices across the organization saved the company $5MM annually.
2. Five-Year Planning Model Project
Another time, with a grocery chain Client, I was tasked with filling the interim role of their FP&A Director of Finance. Again, this was supposed to be a temporary position, but it turned into a yearlong contract. One of the biggest challenges for the Client was that they were using a very old Excel model for their five-year planning. The model was inefficient, not user friendly and took weeks to update manually. Worst of all, the model did not produce the correct results due to errors. I convinced management that I could build a stronger, more dynamic five-year forecasting model in Excel. It took several months to complete and required cross-functional cooperation across teams within Finance, Accounting and IT to complete this task. But, at the end, the Client was extremely satisfied, as they had a model that was robust, automated and efficient. The customer saved hundreds in man hours due the new model in place.
3. Headcount & Synergies Project
In a third project, I was hired to help integrate a major media company’s acquisition of another film and media studio. In particular, I was tasked with finding synergies in headcount across both organizations across the globe. I worked with cross-functional teams in HR, IT, Finance and Accounting across two multinational organizations running on multiple systems that do not talk to each other and across multiple time zones. I was able to create a dynamic headcount planning model that was capable of pulling data in real time across multiple ERP systems and leverage multiple manual reports into one consolidated headcount report. The SVP could leverage the report to analyze headcount in real time by function, company and country. I was able to find over $10MM in headcount synergies for the SVP.
3. What has been the most unexpectedly rewarding part of working as a consultant?
It’s rewarding to know I can come into a company with a very fresh perspective, quickly analyze the business, identify inefficiencies and deliver meaningful results and value very quickly.
4. Is there anyone you’d like to thank or acknowledge?
I would like to thank the management of 8020 Consulting and in particular Shawn Spears, who has been very supportive and has provided me opportunities to work in industries such as Entertainment, where I previously had no experience.
5. What are you most excited about currently? (Doesn’t have to be work related.)
I most excited about the end of COVID-19, and the prospects of things returning to normal.
Careers at 8020 Consulting
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More About Emir
Prior to Emir joining 8020 Consulting, Emir served as the CFO of Artisan Cocoa, where he was Instrumental in revenue and income growth of 160% over a 17-month period. Emir also worked for Mattel Inc. where he managed the full Mattel P&L of a $1.3B business, $60MM in overhead spend across 27 cost centers, and $60MM in MDF trade spend. Early in his career, Emir worked at Interspan in Uzbekistan, where he managed a tea factory with a staff of 125 people, oversaw operation cost controls, sales and expenses analysis, financial analysis, cash flow maintenance and debt service maintenance. Emir holds a BA in Real Estate from San Diego State University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
