Head of Brand Protection and Assurance at Diageo

Overview

With support from above-market stakeholders, develop, innovate and coordinate the execution of a sustainable, multi-year brand assurance and protection strategy for Diageo’s brands. The candidate will be required to lead in the strategy design for the business (and get buy-in from the broader industry and government stakeholders) to combat the following emerging threats:

Counterfeit - which is a growing issue in the region affecting key brands Illicit trade - which is increasing its footprint in the formal and informal sectors of the region Parallel trade - which undermines and erodes relationships with Key Account customers throughout the region

The role is largely office-bound with top-to-top industry and external stakeholder engagements.

Financial

Responsible for the creation and management of the DSA Brand Protection budget.

Market Complexity

Diageo SA operates in a complex, ever changing and extremely exciting market environment. Diageo SA has emerged as the leading spirits business in South Africa facing competition from long established competitors such as Distell and aggressive emerging players such as Pernod Ricard SA and The Really Great Brands Company (RGBC).

The liquor market in South Africa operates through multiple customer channels and routes to market. This is in order to effectively service consumers across an extremely diverse range of socio-economic circumstances, cultural affiliations and geographical ranges.

Our extensive spirits brand portfolio services consumers across our diverse nation and we must continuously strive to keep up with the fast-changing market trends and challenges inherent in that.

Leadership and Functional

Key Leadership Capabilities:

• Innovation in design-thinking, thought leadership, system and brand innovation.
• Uses experience to focus attention on key issues. Demonstrable experience of tenacity in pursuing goals and course correcting where necessary. Keeps going with limited support from others. Able to take a stand behind what is right for the business.
• Ability to promote & explain vision to others in an accessible manner. Embraces change and can demonstrate experience in taking ownership for driving initiatives. Self-confidence in most situations, with ability to exercise sound judgement of risks. Proactively seeks feedback from internal customers.
• Can demonstrate a sound understanding of own impact and capability to adjust accordingly. Generates and sustains effective working relationships across the business. Has valuable insights about others and is comfortable providing coaching & feedback.
• Understanding of the balance between the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’ of achievement. Takes balanced action when something goes wrong. Maintains integrity and generates trust in others, across a range of situations. Takes pride in team & organisation.

Key Functional Capabilities:

• Cross functional engagement to understand the scale and nature of the illicit risk and its impact on Diageo’s reputation and on its brands.
• Develop comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy - educate and inform internal and external stakeholders about scale and impact of illicit and parallel trade.
• Ability to quantify and share brand financial impact through brand assurance.
• Understand Diageo brand performance and influence short and long term brand initiatives in support of the anti-illicit agenda.
• Quantify the financial impact of counterfeiting, illicit trade and parallel trade on the organisation’s bottom line and to the fiscus.
• Provide top-to-top, peer and external front-facing leadership as you develop and manage the Diageo SA Brand Protection agenda. Provide thought leadership to internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop innovative and sustainable technical and communication solutions to protect our brands into the future.
• Identify key internal and external stakeholders (such as employees, distributors, retailers, law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies and consumer groups) and build relationships to further the brand sustainability goals identified in your brand protection and sustainability plan.
• Establish communication channels and design and implement awareness programs to engage with stakeholders and ensure their active participation and buy-in. Measure the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement activities.
• Develop training materials and conduct sessions to enhance stakeholders’ knowledge and understanding of identifying and reporting counterfeit products or suspicious activities. Measure the increase in awareness and knowledge levels through pre and post training assessments.
• Establish partnerships and collaboration with local and international law enforcement agencies to share information, intelligence and best practices in combating counterfeit, illicit and parallel trade.
• Create a system for reporting incidents and cooperating with law enforcement in investigations, leading to increased arrests and seizures.
• Collaboration with the legal team to strengthen the legal framework, support prosecution efforts and advocate for stricter penalties for offenders. Monitor compliance metrics such as legal cases filed, convictions and penalties imposed on counterfeiters.
• Track the outcome of successful collaborations with law enforcement agencies and the outcomes achieved (e.g. arrests, convictions, dismantling of counterfeit operations)
• Implement robust monitoring systems to identify and track illicit trade activities across the supply chain. Measure the increase in detection rates and the reduction in the circulation of counterfeit and illicit products over time.
• Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the reduction in revenue loss due to these activities, increased tax collection and improved financial performance.
• Liaise & share best practice with the Global Brand Protection team

Purpose of Role

• Coordinate interventions in the Brand Protection space and develop a sustainable, long-term anti-illicit strategy for the market.  
• Implement processes to track the effectiveness of activities in the Brand Protection space and use data to influence stakeholders and decision-makers.

Top Accountabilities

• Stay abreast of criminal activities in Region and provide monthly feedback on trends affecting the distribution of Diageo’s brands.
• Network with all internal and external partners (including law enforcement agencies such as SAPS, NPA, SARS, etc). to ensure that Diageo gives and receives optimal support when challenged with brand protection issues as well as staying abreast of challenges in the allocated region.
• To develop articulate and effectively communicate a comprehensive anti-illicit strategy.
• To educate, inform and engage internal and external stakeholders behind the critical Brand Protection agenda.
• To develop key metrics and data-led insights to inform decision-making and business activities in the Brand Protection space.
• To monitor, detect and track trends in illicit and parallel trade by utilising technology and data analytics.
• To collaborate with law enforcement agencies and Diageo functions to drive the importance of the Brand Protection agenda and ensure a conducive environment for anti-illicit activities.
• To identify and influence a range of external stakeholders behind the importance of the Diageo Brand Protection agenda and to drive actions and momentum.

Qualifications and Experience Required

Qualifications

Relevant NQF 6 or 7 degree/advanced diploma: (Business qualification (e.g. BCom (Compliance/Risk Management); or Legal qualification (BCom (Law) or LLB) or Political Science/ International Relations/Corporate Relations qualification or BSocSci, BA or BSci or Bjourn)

Experience

The job holder should have:

• High level of presentation skills, both written and verbal. 
• Computer literacy skills and be proficient in Microsoft Excel, Word and Internet applications.
• The ability to apply sound judgment and act on own initiative.
• Well-developed written, verbal and reporting communication in English.
• The ability to build strong relationships with external service providers and partners.
• Creative reasoning in order to identify key issues and alternative solutions.
• Ability to plan and conduct operational activities in stressful and time critical circumstances.
• Analytical ability and skill.

The job holder will:

• Act with integrity at all times and strive to live the values of Diageo
• Handle sensitive information and advice concerning serious crime and threats affecting the Company.
• Within agreed objectives and strategy, have a high degree of autonomy to ensure correct and timely implementation of policy.
• The job holder needs to be fully mobile and available 24-hours by 7 days a week to respond to crisis situations.

Knowledge & Skills

• Data analytics
• Regulatory and Governance
• Managerial & Leadership skills
• Decision making
• Interpersonal skills
• Communication skills
• Presentation skills, both written and verbal
• Planning and Organising
• Networking

Attributes

• Change agent at all levels of the organization
• High integrity & emotional maturity
• Strong negotiator / facilitator and consensus builder.
• Attention to details
• Team player.
• Confidentiality
• Self-starter.

Barriers to Success in Role

• Inability to influence broadly across the sophisticated customer (internal & external) base.
• Inability to make connections across a broad agenda.