Colin Taylor - founder and principal
Colin's global supply chain, retail, consulting and product management leadership expertise is built on a broad and diverse background that spans four distinct phases:
Early Years - With a degree in Communications Engineering, Colin's career started with ITT and Schlumberger in the UK and was centered around electronics manufacturing, working in industrial engineering and software development. He then led marketing, sales and product management for high-tech capital equipment used by military systems and telecom equipment manufacturers. This took him to new markets all over the world and fueled his interest in all things global.
Go West, Young Man! - An adventurous move with his young family from the UK to Houston, TX provided the opportunity for Colin to join the executive team of a new IT services joint venture startup. In what became Schlumberger-Sema, he led, developed and grew the global outsourcing services business. After great successes in the oil and gas industry, Colin created a business plan to expand into new markets and moved to New Jersey to start and lead the Eastern US and Canada region, which he grew from 1 to 100+ consulting, technical and sales resources in two years.
Global Logistics - In New Jersey, Colin became acquainted with the CEO of the Americas for Maersk, one of the world's largest container shipping lines. Maersk was looking for an executive to lead marketing, sales and product management for their new software subsidiary, Americas Systems. Working as a member of an inspiring leadership team, Colin was immersed in the containerized freight industry to position and grow the subsidiary's brand and lead product strategy, product marketing, product management and sales for logistics and ocean transportation software solutions and services. Colin enjoyed planning and executing holistic growth plans where marketing and media exposure were integrated with a detailed understanding of client needs to guide and prioritize product development. As a result, Maersk invested in the development of a new transportation management system for high-volume shippers of ocean freight. The subsidiary was ultimately acquired by IBM.
Global Supply Chain - With his global logistics knowledge, Colin joined IBM Business Consulting as part of the acquisition to create a new practice area focused on global sourcing and import logistics. As the global leader, he developed a team of experienced retail and logistics consultants and exercised his product management skills to build a portfolio of differentiating consulting assets and marketing collateral. Success followed as Colin won the trust of clients and delivered transformational business consulting engagements. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), merchandising, buying, sourcing, inbound logistics, global trade, vendor management, product quality and all types of compliance were common solution components. His clients included some of the world's largest 'big-box' retailers together with leading apparel brands, discount retailers, general merchandisers and smaller, specialty retailers in fashion and other niches. After IBM, Colin founded Cleaca Consulting LLC to help all retailers and brand manufacturers improve their merchandise lifecycle management and global supply chains. Cleaca Consulting also helps executive teams from any industry to shape their growth, product management and go-to-market strategies.
These four phases form the foundation of Colin's executive-level business consulting and product marketing skills, making him quick to adapt to any role or task. He considers life to be a continual learning experience and believes in the power of a motivated team to reach goals and achieve success.
Much of Colin’s business consulting work today is in the transformation of go-to-market models for technology companies, or at the intersection of global supply chains, retailers and brands. With a broad but deep knowledge of many industries, he also enjoys applying his marketing creativity to drive growth through competitive positioning and decision-making influence.
Although he started his career in England, Colin now lives in the New York metropolitan area and has built an international perspective through his business development initiatives spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Colin believes his roots are important. He remains a Member of the Institute of Engineering & Technology and is a Chartered Engineer, registered with the Engineering Council in Europe. He represented IBM on the board of directors with the VICS supply chain improvement initiative and also on the Industry Sponsor Group for GS1, the supply chain standards body.
Connect with Colin: colin.taylor@cleaca.com +1 973-885-2518
