IBP Assistant Manager – Africa Expansion Markets (AEM)

Our client vision is to be the world’s best performing snacks-led powerhouse, unleashing the full potential of their differentiated brands.

Powered by their strategy to Differentiate, Drive & Deliver, they are a leading company in global snacking, international cereal and noodles, and North America frozen foods, with iconic, world-class brands and strong underlying growth momentum and profitability.

Our client purpose is to create better days and a place at the table for everyone through their trusted foods brands.

As part of this purpose, they are committed to advancing sustainable & equitable access to food by creating Better Days for 4 billion people by the end of 2030.

Role Description:

• As the IBP Asst. Manager, you will lead the end-to-end planning of the entire portfolio for Africa Expansion markets from a demand and S&OP perspective.
• You will also be responsible to provide the commercial and finance teams with the right visibility of forecasts, opportunities, and risks so that the business can make informed decisions.
• You will be key to drive a culture of growth and excellence, discipline, and accountability for the business objectives; promoting behaviors that support a one team approach to business planning.
• The individual has an integrated perspective of the business, connecting dots and challenging solutions to ensure strategic alignment with the delivery of short- and long-term objectives with focus on E2E execution excellence. 

Responsibilities:

Demand planning & operations

• Owns the demand planning process, ensuring that it happens on a timely basis and all parties are compliant with the process.
• Partner with the commercial teams to understand and drive key requirements along with timely visibility of opportunities and risks enabling timely decisions.
• Manage the day-to-day relationship with the distributors from a planning point of view.
• Responsible for delivering orders on time, forecast accuracy, OTIF and IBP KPIs.

IBP process & maturity progress

• Work closely with IBP director on process maturity and IBP cycle.
• Implement it through process, tools, leadership, change management.
• Partner with other functions in the Long-Term Planning.
• Supervise building blocks creation and work closely with finance during the budgeting process (Commercial, Supply & Financial).
• Proactive management of gaps & risks/opps, follow thru to capture full value of initiatives or gaps.

Take part in IBP Monthly and Quarterly Operational Disciplines aligned to Playbook

• Gap Management: Ensure monthly cadence, and bring one number across the system, identify gaps & risks/opps, monthly review of KPI’s and improvement actions.
• S&OE: enable S&OE discipline with Demand and Customer Development leadership – ensuring visibility and action plans for sales and demand, connecting with Finance.
• Reconcile variables between Gap and S&OE.
• Drive alignment to a single number signed off by country manager.

Requirements:

• Preferred Education & Experience:
• Preferably Master's Degree in a Business/ Finance/ Engineering/ Bus-Related field.
• Must have commercial understanding – 1-2 yrs in customer facing role in Supply/Commercial.
• Experience in S&OP or IBP process: Building fact-based plans or working with demand signals to optimize results in the market.
• English proficiency.
• Upto 5 years of related work experience in FMCG.
• Capabilities needed of leadership, structured and critical thinking, clear communication, and people skills, analytical.