Greg Spira

Greg Spira, a business advisor with Oliver Wight, 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 has written and co-authored many white papers on the subject of Demand Management and is an instructor of the Demand Management course. He is also the author of the book: Trust the Plan: Demand Management For Business Leaders.

Greg has particularly deep experience in CPG having helped many large food companies improve their planning processes and has supported companies in a wide range of other industries including: packaging, chemicals, healthcare, and fashion.  Some of his clients include: Kraft Heinz, Campbell’s, Diageo, Ascend Materials, Valent BioSciences, Hershey, TreeHouse Foods, WestRock, Becton Dickinson, Krispy Kreme, and Premier Nutrition.

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 the business forecasting 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 planning smartphone sales. There he navigated a rapidly evolving environment with long lead times, short product life cycles, 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 also held roles as a Controller and Information Technology Manager with a mid-sized retail fixture company.

Greg received his MBA and CPA, CMA from McMaster University where he has since been a sessional lecturer.