This role is to lead our company's activities within the Southern Africa region to achieve the agreed objectives of Volume, Revenue, Market Share performance, and other relevant KPIs. Represent our company in communication with in-country internal and external stakeholders. Continue to develop and build the in-country community, culture, values, and reputation for the geography while coordinating the working relationship between the Sales Department and our other affiliates.
What you will bring
A desire to drive your future and accelerate your career. You will bring experience and knowledge in:
- Broad management experience in leading national/international OEM selling unit in the mining, construction, building maintenance, energy, and manufacturing industries, mainly to the professional end-user.
- In depth knowledge of all relevant national and international sales aspects, tools and processes and business collaboration.
- Good Marketing and Financials understanding
- Appropriate Seniority / Experience in similar OEM Selling and Distribution unit Companies depending on size and complexity of the Country/ Business.
- Cross-functional / International experience
- Drive for results
- Strategic agility
- Building effective teams
- Dealing with ambiguity
- Decision Quality
- Integrity & Trust
- Proven negotiation skills national internally and externally
- Strong customer environment knowledge local and international
- Strong business management acumen
- Priority setting
- Ability to manage vision and purpose and motivate teams to reach objectives.
Southern Africa is an exciting and diverse Selling Unit at the heart of EMEA growth strategy, with ambitious plans to accelerate growth in the coming years. Southern Africa is comprised of countries focused on mining, infrastructure development, and rapid growth, shaping the future of geospatial technology.
Reporting to the Executive Vice President, EMEA, this is a critical leadership role in planning and leading our business activities in order to achieve the performance ambitions of the Southern Africa market. You will represent us in communication with internal and external stakeholders in South Africa and Africa and drive out complexity and decision layers to ensure efforts are focused on customer satisfaction. The role forms part of the Southern Africa leadership team and should inspire our talent to surpass our goals through engagement, empowerment, and positive leadership.
Responsibilities
- Develop and lead our company's Mission, Vision, and Strategies in line with our parent company's vision.
- Achieve defined Growth/Revenue/Profit contribution/GP targets for South Africa across segments and closely monitor results, recommending corrective actions when necessary.
- Provide market and trade perspective to segment managers and other company functions to define and adapt the long and short-term business strategy to local needs. Collaborate with verticals and functions to develop and implement plans that prioritize brand initiatives and allocate resources effectively, selecting the most relevant for the countries proposing trade-offs to vertical leads.
- Drive sales initiatives and strategy to maximize revenue, market growth, and profit contribution. Execute pricing and trade strategies. Provide relevant insights to the verticals on market trends and insights. Cultivate long-term, high-level relationships with key customers and distribution partners.
- Deliver outstanding and sustainable sales performance, establish a competitively advantaged route-to-market(R2M) model, and foster strong customer relationships:
- Drive in-market performance and beat Annual Budget.
- Build advantaged R2M model and trade relationships. Make right choices on key customers and channels for future development aiming to achieve the status of preferred supplier.
- Develop successful Sales Strategy and Capabilities for long-term Net Revenue and Profit growth. Set up the right organization for winning in the future (bench strength for succession in key roles, commercial career rotation, sustainable growth versus peers).
- Implement agreed brand strategies through exceptional commercial execution, ensuring optimal availability of products, and maximize the impact of strategic distribution partner. Focus on achieving product mix targets specific to each vertical and provide guidance on pricing strategies to maximize brand success.
- Ensure strong focus on identify, appointing and managing key distribution partners, across Africa
- Know the ethical and legal compliance responsibilities of the function or business; lead ethically and champion compliant behaviour create a culture where employees are confident to speak up without fear of retaliation; ensure employees in function/business conform to compliance requirements; inspire ethical and legally compliant behaviour by employees, business partners and others.
- Represent us in communications with In-Country Internal and External Stakeholders, including industry associations. Be the face and voice of our company externally (Associations, Media, Customers, group companies), identifying and leading resolution of key issues (negative PR, Legal and/or consumer issues, Media) or exploiting key opportunities (new launches).
The ideal candidate should bring successful experience of working in a similarly national/international environment at an executive leadership level within the OEM sales arena. Strength and depth across Sales & Marketing is vital complemented by the capability to navigate complexity and the ability to leverage the potential within a multi segment business.
Additional experience/competencies would include:
- Has a strong strategic orientation that has been utilized effectively in a growing enterprise. Leads for the future – thinks ahead to anticipate new opportunities. Challenges the status quo to constantly raise the bar through having a growth mindset.
- Has demonstrated history of successful resolution to complex and challenging business problems- choosing agility over perfection. Has the ability to embrace and thrive with complexity and grasp the potential within a multi category business.
- Has the ability to acknowledge, master and navigate in a highly competitive trade environment with many stakeholders. Has the maturity, judgment, confidence, and presence needed to establish rapport and credibility with management, customers, suppliers and other key business partners.
- Has experience with top customers and local market knowledge. Deeply know consumers and customers – demonstrates understanding of our business and how work intersects to affect the consumer.
- Demonstrates a strong understanding of business details, especially financial information. Absorbs new facts, data and information rapidly. Excellent business and analytical skills with a high degree of learning agility and creativity.
- Has proven negotiation skills at national and international levels, internally and externally. Has strong interpersonal and communication skills, demonstrating the ability to articulate a business case and lead others to a common goal. Ability to influence highest levels of leadership within the company’s large, matrix organization. Builds and sustains excellent relationships at multiple levels in the workplace. Gains the respect of senior executives and serves as a trusted advisor.
- Has led with Integrity and Judgment. The individual needs to hold to well-articulated core values and expected behaviour and holds others to the same standards. Follows through on commitments despite difficulties or complications. Relates business and communication decisions to core values and business strategy.
Education
- Educated to a minimum bachelor’s degree level with a qualification in Business Administration, Management, or relevant discipline (MBA from an internationally recognized institution desirable)
- At least 15 years’ experience in a leadership role, preferably with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in a similar domain.
- Engineer/Mining background experience would be an advantage.
