Senior Director II, Customer Management Lead, Africa

The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) is seeking a dynamic and strategic leader for the position of Senior Director II, Customer Management. This pivotal role will drive growth and market share across both organized trade (Modern Trade, E-Comm, Q-Comm, Travel, QSR etc.) - Alcohol Ready-to-Drink (ARTD) business.

To define the Customer Management model; Integration of Global, Regional and Local customer to ensure we have a streamlined customer framework.

The Senior Director II, Customer Management, will drive the strategic growth and market leadership for The Coca-Cola Company in Africa Operating Unit. This role focuses on harnessing the momentum of Africa’s burgeoning e-commerce movement, optimizing modern trade accounts, and leveraging the evolving E-B2B ecosystem. By navigating a complex network of +30 bottlers and spearheading critical verticals including Large Retail, O2O, Integrated Execution & Incubation, QSR and On-Premise, and Travel Verticals, the Senior Director II will play a pivotal role in expanding and executing TCCC’s transformative vision in emerging categories.

Leading the teams of the Company and System Partners while developing a vision for the Customer Management business that enables profitable & sustainable growth.

• Leading the profitable development of volume and value growth of the brands

The role is responsible for driving business across Africa and will lead a team of ~4 leaders – apart from managing relationships with all the key accounts and collaborating with bottling partners.

The role is expected to influence extensively across the African landscape, with focused priorities linked our long-range plans.

What You Will Do for Us:

Strategic Leadership & Growth:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive strategy for both the Customer Management to achieve sustained growth and market penetration.
• Deliver against annual business plans, ensuring targets for volume, revenue, and profitability are met.
• Cultivate and manage relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including bottlers.

Vertical Management:

• Large Retailers: Strategize and implement effective go-to-market approaches across large retail chains to maximize shelf presence and sales.
• Integrated Execution & Incubation: Oversee integrated execution plans and drive the incubation of innovative concepts and products.
• QSR and On-Premise: Foster partnerships with Quick Service Restaurants and On-Premise accounts to boost sales and consumer engagement.
• Travel Verticals: Ensure optimal product availability and visibility within Railways, Airways, and Roadways channels.

Operational Excellence:

• Implement best practices for customer management, forecast accuracy, demand planning, and supply chain coordination.
• Monitor performance metrics to ensure excellence in operational execution and customer satisfaction.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency and effectiveness across all verticals.

Leadership & Team Development:

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and collaboration.
• Mentor and coach team members to grow their competencies and career trajectories within TCCC.

Ecosystem Management:

• Navigate the complex ecosystem of +30 bottlers, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and seamless operational execution.
• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration across bottlers to optimize resource allocation and market coverage.

Emerging Categories:

• Drive the growth of emerging categories, including ARTD, identifying new opportunities and market trends.
• Develop and implement strategic plans to launch and expand emerging category products successfully.

People Capability:

• Lead the development of overall organization capability. Allocate resources (human, financial etc.) in a manner which maximizes and develops the leadership and functional capabilities, through building the knowledge, skills, work process and human capital.
• Accountable for building organizational capability to execute the plans.

Minimum Qualifications and Requirements:

• 15-18+ years relevant business experience, among which min. 3 years in a Sr. Management role
• Strong Customer/Commercial and/or Operations experience esp. in key Account management
• Proven track record in delivering System results, dealing with Bottler partners, navigate crisis, challenging turnaround performance, beating competition and developing business capabilities
• People manager with excellent leadership capability, able to work in a diverse cultural environment, highly efficient communicator and influencer at all levels
• A solid appreciation and openness on leveraging digital capabilities to amplify work product outcomes and elevate KPIs.
• Passionate about integrating culture and capabilities for the future of work.
• Comfortable with a high degree of ambiguity to enable the individual to flex to the needs of key stakeholders to facilitate and adopt the change and culture change.

Core Capabilities Required for Role:

• In depth understanding, practical experience in consumer goods business, operations, supply chain and production, finance, sales and people and org management, Customer handling experience
• General management accountability with P&L responsibility
• Experience of working in multi-cultural environments
• Change Management: Prepare, equip, and support individuals to adopt change to drive organizational success.
• Agile mindset with a way of working that empowers the system to collaborate to deliver valuable business results.
• Strategic Priority Management: Adapt existing solutions to address emerging business opportunities.
• Design Solutions: Strategic ability to address business problems and opportunities, in alignment with strategic priorities.
• Data Driven Storytelling – Written & Oral: Creative way of consolidating data, analyzing for insight, and translating into a clear and compelling story.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage:50
Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.