supply chain specialist

key account manager

brand manager

analyst

shift manager

BIC is an excellent company in all ways. I am very proud of the opportunities given to me for both professional and personal growth over 20 years. Gained invaluable experience in so many areas, including the continuous evolution of social media, in-depth understanding of all finance areas as member of North America Management Team, reporting directly to President, BIC Consumer Products, North America. Enjoyed executive speech writing for a variety of stakeholders, from our employees to financial analysts and shareholders to college students, excited to learn about the corporations of today.  Also, invaluable experience as crisis team leader, leading and managing the inevitable crises that occur at all companies, even with a robust education and prevention plan in place.  At BIC, I created and delivered engaging/interactive educational workshops for Chairman, CEO, Board of Director members, and all levels of employees to ensure that all are engaged in active "Crisis Communications Education and Prevention" ' -- so critical for companies of all sizes, given the lightening speed of misinformation via social media, especially TWITTER, and, most sadly the violent tragedies Americans have faced in recent months, e.g., the Boston Marathon bombing, and the horrible tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, to name just two. 

After an exceptional 20-year career, I felt it was time to begin a new career chapter, to meet new companies and teams and support and guide them in all areas of corporate communications.

Shortly after leaving BIC in November, I formed KWONG Communications LLC, so I could do pro-bono work for not-for-profit organizations. This work is fulfilling and my clients are wonderful.

However, I greatly miss being a member of a corporate team and setting and exceeding strategic goals with my colleagues, closely aligned with the corporation's Vision and Values.

Before turning my computer, I would open the report of sales from the day before and make a list of the things that must be finish by the end of the day, and things that I would like to do by the end of the day to accomplish the goals in terms of sales, profit, issued credit cards, and inventory management. After that I would divide the tasks between the seven groups in the store groups by order of priority. The priority 'A' list should be composed of the most urgent tasks, like put the promotional sales products on the sales floor. 'B' should contain slightly less important tasks and 'C' should list tasks that it would be good to finish if the time is available. In a morning meeting with the team I would beginning explain the goals of the most difficult task 'A,' and work my way through that section of the list with each group. While the groups would be working on the sales floor I would go and check the competition and what they are doing that I should respond to or not, also check the cash sales from the day before, schedule and prepare for the inventory deliveries for the week or month, check the credits cards issued the day before and the accuracy with the company’s standard’s procedures, program with other local managers the marketing strategies for the week and month, check budged, schedule interviews for new employees, among many other things related with the operations of a 4000 m2 store. Before lunch I would check if the groups completed the tasks and we would have a minimum 30-minute break to have entertaining activities within groups members to relax and reenergize for the rest of the day. During the day I would check my list and determine whether or not the previous hour was productive. Managing my day on an hourly basis allowed me to remain focused. At the end of the day, I would take five minutes to review our accomplishments with the supervisors. If we did not complete a task, together we would try to figure out why so that you can remedy the problem the following day.

Responsibility to monitor information for the BIC members and to promote the brand among new potential members.
 Help to represent BIC with Federal Agencies and the Congress on public policy issues including financial regulation, energy, tax, trade, healthcare and other issues.
 Organized both formal and informal business coalition meetings on a variety of public policy issues. For example the last event it was a roundtable discussion with Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo, Brazilian Ambassador to the World Trade Organization, providing an update on the U.S. - Brazil WTO cotton dispute
 Develop and maintain relationships with Administration and Agency officials as well as Congressional staff.
 Research and track federal legislative and regulatory issues as requested, communicate impact analyses to Executive Director, BIC Members, and use the information in BIC’s publications and other communications tools.
 Expanded BIC activities by implementing a project that supports Brazilian companies affected by the Food Safety Administration Act (FSMA) from Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
 Developed and implement ideas for achieving more members through portal/newsletters on web site, maintaining and enhancing BIC website including the content of issue briefs in all social media.
 Introduced multi level social media marketing to BIC
 Maintaining relationships with political and policy membership organizations such as BUSBC, FDA, EPA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as members of the media such as Washington Post, Abril Editions, The Economist and other organizations.
 Provide assistance in global trade facilitation of BIC members interests, including analysis of tariffs and import numbers to assist members in sourcing and market access decisions.

Management lacks in communication. New rules often implemented at a moments notice 'Effective Immediately' with no updates to SOP's / not everyone in department notified / supervisors not notified. Often, the new procedure is changed via email several times or repealed within hours.

Mandatory Overtime is at the discretion of the company. You are typically notified mid afternoon - with the number of hours you will be required to work the next day. This includes Saturday. This makes planning (appointments, daycare, fitness routine and other events very difficult). At BIC - flexibility begins and ends with the employee. There is no 'work / life,' balance. 10 hour days with 6-8 hour Saturdays is not uncommon.

Management implements new policies and procedures. When they encounter extreme customer dissatisfaction they rely on Marketing to send some deals to the customers to try to save business.

Clients frustrated with new policies. They feel that they are not considered in the decisions being made. They feel that they are not being heard.

Poor training, little to no support from management, poor feedback, dissatisfied customers. I found it to be very unfortunate. Clearwater has many talented individuals who genuinely want this business to succeed. They are trying to balance the business needs with the needs of the client to strike a winning balance but management is nowhere to be found - behind closed doors sending urgent emails to force policies.

At one time it was a very fun place to work. Made lots of very good friends over the years there. It was like a family. There is a new generation in charge now and over the last few years a decision was made that the company needed high-salary Chief xxxxx Officers for  departments that never had them before...HR, Information Technology. HR also hired NUMEROUS (unfriendly) talent acquisition people, and they were on a hiring freeze which is hard to understand. 

The writing was on the wall that long time employees should begin to worry when a memo went out saying that the company wanted to have a digitally native workforce within 10 years.

The environment in IT became very stressful when a rigid, unfriendly CIO was hired. The supervision in Shelton was great, but the CIO made the work environment a miserable one for everyone there.

It's disheartening when a number of long term employees lose their jobs to save the company money, and less than 3 months later non-executive employees are posting pictures on their social media from their business-class seats on a plane to attend a 250 person meeting in Europe.

The old days of having fun at work are long gone. I don't know if anyone that has been there for any length of time that is still happy to still be working there, but they are grateful to still have a job and hope they make it long enough to collect their pension and insurance benefit.

This is absolutely one of the worst managed companies that I have worked for. There is a complete lack of respect from management for the employees. As a person in a leadership role at the company, I struggled to be able to manage my areas without having to deal with micromanagement from the Director level, along with constant negativity, profanity and ridiculing at all levels of the organization.

The performance management system in the company is based on individual contribution and does not focus on teamwork.

The decisions that are made are not well thought out and often seem to be shooting from the hip. Hence, many decisions are implemented and then reversed because prior planning/feasibility had not been considered, or after implementation there are numerous issues to be addressed.

Work life balance is non-existent. The priority is the company.

Good individuals are rewarded. Good team players are not recognized. Favoritism definitely occurs.

After several years with this company, I was happy to leave on my own terms.

The entire management staff needs to be removed from their positions. It is the most disgraceful excuse for management and middle management at any place I have ever worked in my 41 years of life.  They treat employees like they are in KINDERGARTEN.  You reward us with pens? You reward us with COOKIE parties and PIZZA parties? I would rather have none of those ridiculous things. I am a grown adult, not a kindergartner who will do tasks for you for a cookie or a piece of cheap cheese pizza.  Oh thank you for this bag of PENS for my veteran time here more than 5 years, of putting up with this disgraceful and lazy unprofessional management staff.  I am going to take this to corporate. They are clearly not being looked at by district management.  Unbelievably awful middle+ management. Female backstabbing. Politics. Favoritism, Nepotism. Absolutely deplorable and abominable.  "this guy has an agenda" Yes, I do have an agenda. My agenda is to get the truth out to upper management and get these people cross examined and FIRED if need be.

Most of the employees at BIC have had a long tenure with the company. Instead of being helpful or willing to learn and grow, many have developed a sense of entitlement unlike I have ever seen. Learning opportunities are not presented to new employees. The workplace culture of honoring the past keeps them stuck there, while the competition is inventing the future. The hardest part of the job was navigating the ego's of managers and long tenured employees. The best part of the job was the ability to work with other departments to get a better understanding of the supply chain. Management is seriously out of touch with the employees and the HR department hasn't done a very good job balancing the workforce with new and older employees.

I learned many skills from working at my current company. I am able to take with me the ability to analyze and solve account issues.  I was the "go to" person for calling vendors and for being able to communicate effectively and in a positive manner. One of the hardest parts of working there is that they continue to change my work environment and do not offer work from home positions. They have system issues daily and do not seem to be able to get them fixed.  It makes work very frustrating, and it becomes hard to my job. One of the most enjoyable parts of working there, is that we are like a family and everyone pitches in to assist and get the job done for the team.

Each day the job responsibilities are the same with little variation. If there are changes in the routine or processes the training staff is amazing and ensures the employees are up to speed. Management is available to answer questions and are happy to help as needed. Co-workers are polite and eager to learn and assist one another to ensure the job gets done beyond expectation. The hardest part of the job is keeping busy while waiting for scans; however, there's always something the managers are happy to assign to fill the time. The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing that I earned an honest days living.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Supply chain specialist 3 salaries reported	$89,000 per year
Key account manager 3 salaries reported	$102,667 per year
Brand manager 3 salaries reported	$109,100 per year
Analyst 3 salaries reported	$82,333 per year
Shift manager 1 salary reported	$42,000 per year

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