Founder / CEO / Coach - John Haydock

John founded Sight Casting Consulting in 2017 to provide fractional leadership, consulting, and executive coaching to ventures ranging in size from start-ups to mid-caps. In doing so, he leverages unique perspective including classical brand management at large, premier CPG companies (Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes, Mott's), direct marketing and ecommerce experience at multi-channel retailers (Plow and Hearth; Crutchfield), and roles with entrepreneurial ventures (Varnish Lane, Card Isle).  In addition to multiple c-suite level operational roles, John has extensive strategy, policy and governance experience as a result of participation on corporate, trade, and non-profit boards. Of note, John served on the American Catalog Mailers Association and the Natural Products Association Boards. He currently serves as an advisor and/or board member for multiple corporate ventures. And, he recently retired from the American Rivers Board of Directors where he led as Board Chair for 3 years and Vice Chair for 2 years. He has served as a facilitator and/or executive coach for dozens of owners, founders and CEO's across industries ranging from consumer products and services to industrial, agricultural and construction. He has a passion and proven ability for building strong teams, delivering results and leading in the midst of adversity/ambiguity. John is an honest leader who believes “actions speak louder than words” and who personifies accountability and ownership.

John launched several ventures during his college years. With “an eye” for identifying a trend, John and a partner were the first to establish a North Carolina distributorship for RollerBlades. In his senior year, he assumed co-ownership of a local, struggling promotion business (Helium Highs, Inc). John learned to “bootstrap" as he cut expenses, sold assets, and hit the streets to speak with customers. Thanks to the loyalty and trust of clients, he stemmed the bleeding, hired multiple employees / contractors., and established profitability. During this period, John learned an important lesson about environmental responsibility. In 1989, one of the company’s largest revenues sources was criticized in a local paper as posing risk to marine life. Dr Frank Schwartz (UNC Dept. of Marine Biology) declared that helium balloons, released at football games, were traveling to the Atlantic Ocean where they were mistaken as jellyfish and consumed by sea turtles. John called Dr. Schwartz to learn more. After deep consideration, Helium Highs stopped supplying balloons for such events. Despite the significant and immediate hit to sales, local media applauded the decision loudly and “in press.” So much so that a well-established event promoter reached out to John and eventually awarded Helium Highs with its largest contract, ever. John learned “doing right thing” and “building a profitable brand” are not mutually exclusive. Over the following several years, he gained exposure to a wide range of industries, wrote several business plans, consulted small businesses and earned an MBA. He sold his promotion business, used the proceeds to cover school expenses, and headed to Park Avenue, NYC.       

John spent the following 13 years with Unilever and Mott's (Cadbury Schweppes) in various brand management and regional sales roles. He applied portfolio management principles as he cut costs and harvested less advantaged brands while leveraging inherent benefits to grow high potential brands. He drove growth through identifying trends and launching line extensions (Snuggle Fresh Rain, Mott’s Healthy Harvest).  And, with deep consumer immersion and insight, he completely re-positioned brands, like Clamato tomato juice, stemmed multi-year losses and established double digit growth. John also experienced one of his greatest failures during this period. While consumer testing showed great consumer interest in a new product concept, the product did not deliver on the promise of the concept. The team proceeded with launch and the product achieved wide distribution and trial. However, repeat rates were poor and John learned a lesson about the importance of relying on both data and “instinct.”  

During his tenure at large, respected companies, he was fortunate to be exposed to formal training across a range of disciplines. He applied skills related to equity development, advertising principles, consumer insight, stage gate innovation management, and leadership. He learned valuable resource allocation and strategic planning skills from experienced teachers, mentors, and managers. As team size expanded, he applied skills related to goal based performance management.  In 2000, John was named VP of Marketing at Mott's and eventually led a six brand portfolio and over $1B in sales. 

In 2005, John joined specialty retailer Crutchfield Electronics as VP of Marketing & Creative. John gained exposure to ecommerce and direct marketing while improving brand messaging and celebrating a customer focused culture. In 2007, Crutchfield won the MCM Merchant of the Year Award. In 2009, John joined Burt's Bees, considered one of the “greenest” brands in the country. Facing aggressive sales targets while striving to maintain a “environmentally responsible” culture, the Burt's team leveraged a mission based culture and grass roots marketing to celebrate the natural products that consumers loved. They leveraged a rich story and built a marketing strategy focused on new product innovation, international expansion, authentic content, and social media. The brand was soon recognized on Facebook as one of the top 10 branded pages (w 1MM fans). His team also won the Ad Age "Campaign of the Year" with agency partner Baldwin&.. In 2011, John joined Plow and Hearth, as President. The portfolio consisted of 6 national brands including Hearthsong, Magic Cabin, Plow and Hearth, and Wind & Weather. John established a “values based” culture focused on consumer insight, leadership, exceeding expectations, assuming positive intent and responsibility. With John’s leadership, the team clarified brand essence, lowered marketing as a % of sales while driving growth, expanded distribution, built new partnerships, acquired brands, and increased proprietary products.  Since 2016, John has been consulting and serving in fractional executive roles with consumer service brands and retailers like Varnish Lane, Poppy Flowers, Culinary Concepts AB, and many other respective brands throughout Virginia and the Mid Atlantic.