Country Lead Category Development at The Coca-Cola Company

Key Purpose
To serve as chief strategic advisor to the General Manager : Commercial supporting the development and implementation of the portfolio strategy, innovation strategy, packaging strategy and brand plans in accordance with overall company strategy    

Key Duties & Responsibilities    

• Leading and developing the brand portfolio strategy and associated implementation plan for the relevant category, taking into account evolving market dynamics and CCBA’s aspirations, and monitoring and course correcting the implementation thereof.
• Leading and developing the optimal short to medium term marketing investment strategy for all market facing resources as an outcome of the portfolio strategy 
• Leading and developing the portfolio packaging strategy and associated implementation plan taking into account evolving consumer and customer needs, and delivering the most effective commercial solution to deliver against these.
• Leading and developing breakthrough thinking with regard to how we effectively leverage shopper/occasion marketing strategies at a portfolio, brand and channel level. 
• Leading and developing the marketing strategic response to mitigate the impact of potential marketing restrictions, and stewardship of the implementation plan in the event that restrictions are imposed. 
• Stewardship for the integration of the portfolio agenda into the business integrated planning process.
• Stewardship of our brand planning standards and process to ensure continuous improvement in our individual and collective plan outputs. 
• Stewardship for the integration and alignment of the outputs of the growth strategy into portfolio and brand planning outputs. 
• Attracts, leads, manages, mentors and coaches employees in such a way to ensure retention, development, and superior performance of talent.
• Partnering with CCSA on the development of category expanding propositions (product, delivery, serve, etc.) and platforms that will generate sustainable profitable revenue streams.
• Leverage cross market and cross project learnings to establish guiding principles and potential new hypotheses for validation.
• Judgement and decision making  
• Fully responsible for all decision making relevant to the category, including brand, pack, market expansions as well as strategic outlook for  the category

Qualifications and Experience 

Qualifications:

• University graduate MBA or other post graduate or professional qualification advantageous

 Experience:

• Strong understanding of the macro business environment
• In-depth understanding of the South African beverage market and understanding and appreciation of the competitive and competitor environment
• Significant experience and/or exposure to development and implementation of business strategy with strong expertise in brand marketing, innovation process, strategy development, market segmentation and insights, market research 
• Proven experience in the area of insight for innovation. Able to articulate clear examples of how insight influenced innovation or product development success.
• Proven experience in insight development, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
• Experience aligning stakeholders cross-functionally and between markets and centre.
• Experience working across multiple markets required, preferably including experience in emerging markets.

Competencies 

• Highly developed leadership skills with experience in leading senior executives and large teams
• The ability to coach and develop capability – people development both in direct and indirect reports 
• Conceptual thinking ability and big picture understanding
• Analytical and interpretative ability
• A commercial aptitude with the ability to recognise critical problems and opportunities
• Ability to set data sourcing requirements that validly represent consumer or trade views
• Ability to translate data and insights into a framework to enable strategic decision-making
• Objectivity & assertiveness – presenting the market view objectively in the context of business commitment to directions 
• Prior demonstrated ability to influence across all levels of an organisation
• Ability to challenge the status quo
• Strong communication skills
• Lateral and independent thinking
• The ability to manage volume, complexity and ambiguity in a competitive market
• Credibility with key internal and external players with a diplomatic and assertive communication style
• Self reliant, self motivated, and flexible to deliver results
• Culturally sensitive and empathetic indicated through international work experience

Closing Date: 17th, May 2022