Name: Kellan Ward

Title: Category Manager, Prairies Region

Company: Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.

Certification Obtained: CPCA

Q: How long have you or your company been involved with the CMA?

A: Labatt is a CMA member. Within the first two months as part of onboarding into this new role I was fortunate enough to begin working through the CMA certifications.

Q: Why did you decide to become certified to begin with?

A: I was really excited to become certified for two main reasons:

First, having been with the company for 10 years in various positions, I was looking for ways to help fast track my knowledge of category management fundamentals. The lessons gained in this certification process certainly provide that, and also provide some legitimacy to your understanding of the discipline.
Secondly, I was looking for ways to better understand how to create value for our customers. Learning useful techniques for using the right data to gain the right understanding of what’s happening is only going to help make better recommendations. Better recommendations mean we are helping lead our customers down a path for shared future growth.

Q: What was the most interesting thing you learned as you completed the training and certification?

A: One thing I found very illuminating throughout the training was the view of the category from multiple perspectives. This training helped provide a deeper understanding of our customers processes and how we can help aid them in growing the category as a whole.

Q: How do you feel you will use this certification in your current role?

A: In a dynamic, fast moving, consumer goods industry I found the lessons around how to use syndicated POS data to derive opportunities in the market particularly interesting. We historically see a lot of innovation and, as a result, segment shifting in the beverage world; so being able to identify where a segment is trending in the market, what the right number of promotions/displays/shelf allocation should be, and how to get ahead of some of these developing changes, is going to be extremely useful moving forward.

Q: What advice would you give someone considering completing the training and certification? 

A: If you are going to begin a career journey in category management, I would definitely start here as it will provide the right foundational understanding of what this discipline is all about. If you are already involved in category, these certifications can provide a wealth of best practices you will likely be able to implement in your own company.