Group Leader Southern Africa at IFF

Job Summary

• The Nourish Group Leader will be responsible for developing the business & setting the objectives for the Southern Africa region. They will continue to maintain/grow key relationships, driving the business in the right direction as well as effectively managing multiple projects. The role will be based in Isando, South Africa.

Managing Teams:

• Providing direction, setting goals, and clarifying expectations
• Role model and hold team members accountable to demonstrate IFF Culture Principles and foster a culture consistent with the IFF vision and values
• Ignite winning spirit in the sales team to maximize business growth. Passion for results and passion for the customer
• Laser focus on securing and developing best in class sales team through talent selection, recruitment, onboarding, coaching and performance management / recognition
• Ensure objectives are aligned to the business and a personal development plan is in place
• Identify, develop and champion talent in the team who can take broader leadership roles in the future of IFF supporting our Talent Management processes
• Demonstrate Leadership Courage in challenging the status quo and tackling difficult issues to ensure IFF’s interests are represented in a positive and inclusive manner both internally and externally
• Define, request, allocate and optimise the required resources
• Ensure controllable and sales expenses are within agreed P&L parameters 

Developing Business:

• Owning the long term strategy and its execution for its territory
• Ensuring building meaningful market and consumers insights necessary to drafts effective business growth strategies
• Calibrate IFF strategy based on understanding of market intelligence and customer, taking into consideration specific consumer and customer activities
• Lead strategic commercial negotiation(core listing, annual pricing, payment terms, rebates/cost savings, supply agreements)
• Accountable for securing profitable and sustainable sales growth
• To leverage IFF’s consumer understanding and strategic insight to deliver relevant IFF go-to-market solutions that meet customer / consumer unmet needs and generate excitement
• Maximize IFF advantage (GP improvement/ Catalog optimization/ Complexity reduction, etc.) from any changes driven by regulatory, compaction and/or cost savings initiatives
• Ensure full deployment of IFF capabilities (consumer insights, sustainability, ingredients, formulation, innovative solutions) to deliver product superiority and differentiation
• Monitor account and team sales performance and provide proactive corrective action and strategic project updates to management
• Understand impact of economic scenarios, raw material cost fluctuations on the business and, as needed, establish price increase strategies

Developing Relationships:

• Identification of new sales leads and leading sales initiatives by customer visits
• Driving meaningful engagement with internal stakeholders and customers
• Being extremely visible and recognized as the Country group leader by key customers and key internal stakeholders
• Manage the overall network of relationships to ensure optimal customer intimacy
• Build and lead collaborative teams across functions and geography

Managing Projects:

• Creating and motivating project teams
• Ensuring that projects are effectively managed by his team members leading the team to formalize the project with a kick-off meeting to set clear vision, priorities and ensure adequate cross functional resources
• Effectively managing projects
• Collaborate with Operations to facilitate specific customer supply chain requirements
• Secure buy-in from Africa Sub-Region Lead and VP Regional Director on project strategy