Varun Obhan

VARUN OBHAN Address: Carrigaline, County Cork I Email:-I Mobile: - LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varun-obhan/ Irish Citizen: Authorized to work in fulltime or contract roles with any employer in EU An enterprising and pragmatic Business Transformation leader with experience in diverse work environments within fast-paced large-scale multinational and SME organizations, that operate in industries including Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Packaged Goods, Branded Apparel Retail, Organizational Consulting and Commercial Recruitment. In a career spanning over 12 years, I have successfully delivered several Business Transformation projects, enabling IT & Cultural change, through a structured application of Organizational Development, Organizational Change Management & Human Resource Management practices. Astute at effective business partnering, influencing, problem-solving and analytical thinking, I can navigate ambiguity and articulate solutions to create win - win situations. I am a PROSCI certified Change Practitioner, goal-oriented and can deal with multiple and changing priorities while being focused on customer service and quality results. I strive to contribute towards the success of the organization and enable the efficient delivery of people side of change. KEY SKILLS • • • • • • • • • • • • • Over 6.5 years of OCM experience with a proven track record of delivering complex programs digital solutions, using structured Change Management skills across geographies. Experience in working with Senior Leaders and the ability to develop strong & trusting working relationships. Developing change management strategies and driving the project lifecycle with clearly defined KPIs/metrics to measure performance. Application of structured methodologies including PROSCI ADKAR and John Kotter 8 steps of managing change. Evaluating business readiness and putting in place necessary mechanisms to pulse check. Experience working with Waterfall and Agile Project Management methodologies. Experience in implementation of SAP S4 Hana, SAP Ariba and SAP MDM modules. Experience in Project Management, Change Impact & Readiness Assessment, Stakeholder Management & Engagement, End user Role Mapping, Training need analysis and development. Managing project risks, issues, dependencies and interfaces to ensure potential problems are identified and controlled. Establishing Project Governance ensuring timely status reporting to all stakeholders. Leading, motivating and coaching project team to deliver the objectives and solutions within agreed budgets and timescales. Oversee team execution in accordance with project plans, tools, and methods, and support resource planning and acquisition. Enabling outcomes to achieve business benefits, while minimizing risk and business disruption. PROFESSIONAL EXPEREICNE Independent Contractor Organizational Change Management Lead for SAP S4 Hana and Ariba (April ’23 - present) Client : Gilead Science Ireland Leading and delivering the end-to-end lifecycle of OCM activities on the multiyear, multi-location digital transformation moving from existing Oracle system to SAP S4 and Ariba modules. Supporting business leaders effectively manage change for over 400 end users in Ireland across functions within manufacturing and central distribution site. Duties include: • • • • • • • • • • Partnering with Project Manager to integrate Change Management activities to enable higher adoption of IT solutions. Responsible for development of change management strategies & execution of change tools (such as case for change, stakeholder management, communication plans, change impact analysis, sustainment plan, training plan). Stakeholder identification, management and effective engagement through regular business forums and multiple channels of communications. RAID management - raise issues/risks in a constructive, timely manner & help drive to resolution. Own the program level timelines and roadmaps along with leads and sponsors and ensure issues are escalated and resolved timely. Collaborate with global project team and COEs to ensure local business processes are reviewed and updated to enable future state. Partner with system aggregator to ensure training content development and delivery are within scope and time. Support the end user identification and role mapping to ensure correct training assignments and system access is provisioned. Support testers and engage business representatives through SIT, UAT and Cutover. Support the development of change control. Business Transformation & Organizational Change Management Specialist (June '20 – March ‘23) PepsiCo, Cork, Ireland Part of the Global Strategy & Transformation team based in the Global HQ of the PepsiCo Concentrate business, I lead the development of change strategy and delivery of people side of change for digital & manufacturing infrastructure transformation projects across geographies. Duties include: • Change practitioner of large-scale enterprise initiatives responsible for development of change management strategies & execution of change tools (such as case for change, stakeholder management, communication plans, change impact analysis, sustainment plan, training plan). • Contribute in Project Blueprinting, CAB and Cutover Planning. • Partnering with Project Manager to integrate Change Management activities to enable higher adoption of IT solutions. 2 • • • • • • • • RAID management - raise issues/risks in a constructive, timely manner & help drive to resolution. Own the program level timelines and roadmaps along with leads and sponsors and ensure issues are escalated and resolved timely. Develop and conduct readiness assessments, evaluate results, and present findings of change effectiveness checks and post implementation reviews to project Sponsors. Identify possible instances of change resistance and action plan to mitigate them. Develop and deliver timely project communication leveraging digital tools. Coach and collaborate with business leads to use the change methodology & tools to support business transformation. Deliver change management coaching and/or training for employees or business partners as needed to support business change plans. Support an effective change management governance process through collaboration with the site and function change champions. Key Projects delivered • Change Management Lead for SAP MDM project: Supply Chain; SAP BPC upgrade: Finance Change Management support for migration of a US entity to global SAP instance: Finance & Supply Chain • Change Management Lead for a greenfield project setting up a manufacturing site. • Change Management Lead for closure of a manufacturing site. • Talent Acquisition Advisor (June '19 – June ‘20) PepsiCo, Cork, Ireland In-house Talent Acquisition role responsible for end-to-end recruitment of Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, HR and Sales functions through a direct sourcing model. Achievements • Established partnership with ACCA for external talent pipeline development. • Developed strategy and effectively delivered on a Recruitment project for multiple roles in Sales & Marketing function within 90 days. • Overachieved internal recruitment KPIs. Recruitment Consultant (July '16 – June’19) Brightwater Recruitment Specialist, Cork, Ireland A commercial recruiter profile catering to the Technical, Engineering and Manufacturing talent requirements in General Manufacturing, Food Manufacturing and Construction industries within Connacht and Munster region for large multinational and SME clients. Achievements • Setup a new Engineering desk and generated a revenue of over € 260,000 in 2.5 years. • Successfully generated repeat revenue of ~€ 57,000 from 3 clients in 2018. Organizational Development Consultant (June'15 - Nov'15) The HR Practice, Bangalore, India An Organizational Development consultant profile working on a niche project. 3 Project: Developed Job Descriptions & Key Result Areas for a Financial Startup client based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Duties included: • Project Management to ensure delivery of agreed scope of work within agreed timeline. • Worked closely with the client Organization Development Lead in developing the Organization Structure in alignment to Organization Goals. • Designed and developed Job Descriptions for 45 unique positions using the Balanced Scorecard Framework. • Designed and developed SMART Key Result Areas for each of the identified 45 positions for a period of 1 financial year. Retail Business Partner (Dec'14 - Apr'15) Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, Bangalore, India A Business Partner profile focused on delivery of transformation training and recruitment transformation projects partnering with Regional Managers and Area Retail Managers of brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England, Planet Fashion & People. Duties included: • Review of existing recruitment and training programs to identify gaps and recommend a roadmap for transformation. • Analyze and report on training lag for new sales employees to drive cross-functional projects with training managers for different Business Units to ensure coverage of new joiners. • Monthly field visits to understand the pulse of sales employees in different BUs. • Develop a universal approach to recruitment of retail sales employees pan India. Key projects delivered: • Developed a Behavioral Event Interview assessment tool using Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales to facilitate transition of existing, individualist, interview process to a structured competency-based process at store sales staff & manager level. • Proposed a pilot induction process for new sales staff hired in south zone. Identified and formalized training centers to cover the spread of 3000 plus retail frontend staff in the south zone. Human Resources Manager (Jun'12 -Dec'14) Ranbaxy Labs Ltd, Mumbai, India A HR Business Partner profile supporting the Sales & Marketing team of mass marketing & specialty Business Units. Duties included: • • • • • • Working along with business leaders for restructuring and developing long-term workforce plans for the BU. Manpower Planning, Recruitment, Change Management, Employee Lifecycle management, Talent Management, Employee Engagement and HR Operations. HR operations dashboard tracking, update and reporting for monthly BU review meetings. Implementation and execution of performance review and improvement plans for sales employees. Drive the annual performance review cycle and participate in normalizing the bell curve for business units. Coach, support and advise line managers on HR, Industrial relations, and disciplinary issues. 4 • Provide Change Management support on HR Operations enhancement projects. Key projects delivered: • • • • • Change Management Lead for implementation of a digital tool that automated processes for onboarding and exit of employees. Designed and successfully executed standardization of recruitment process for employees on third party payroll. Conceptualized and successfully launched an initiative for engaging the high performers of the Business unit (BU) through the forum of High Fliers Club. Planned and successfully executed a Mass Hiring project of 240 employees for the expansion of the BU’s field force in metro cities within a time frame of 3 months. Part of the execution core team for the movement of outsourced field force of 1160 sales representatives to company payroll. It comprised the execution and supervision of end to end on boarding activity of the pan India employees, completed within 45 days. EDUCATION & CERTIFICATION 2021 PROSCI Certified Change Practitioner 2016 -2017 Higher Diploma in Human Resource Management, University College Cork, Ireland 2007 - 2012 Bachelor of Pharmacy + MBA Pharma Tech, NMIMS University, India References available on request 5