Consumer Replacement Lead at Bridgestone South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Job Purpose

• The purpose of this role is to set the strategy for the Commercial Business in existing and new route to market channels. Manage performance across Southern Africa and develop high-level performance improvement plans. Responsible for the achievement of profit levels and maximization of sales achievement across Bridgestone’s Commercial portfolio.

Main responsibilities

• Execution of the sales strategy to grow market share in the commercial business.
• Improve profitability.
• Develop capabilities within Sales team for an effective succession plan.
• Create a strategy for delivering and developing the business model to embody the product strategies, meet the needs of customers and align to operating objectives.
• Design, develop, implement and review all route to market activities
• Lead and direct the initiation, prioritisation and control of all projects.
• Accountable for the performance of the commercial side of Southern Africa against targets and the achievement of high levels of customer service satisfaction.
• Manage the prioritization of all projects within cost/benefit and impact constraints.
• Ensure that the impact of any prioritization decision is effectively discussed and communicated within the Business.
• Ensure that all issues and risks are identified and managed.
• Lead the investigation and development of new market opportunities.
• Oversee the regular market reviews to optimize service and sales opportunities.
• Monitor the strategies, tactics and activities of key regional competitors against challenging customer demand.
• Responsible for monitoring financial performance and maximizing sales achievement across product services.
• Conduct surveys
• Attend and co-operate with surveys
• Effort and standards of co-operation

Bridgestone BEHAVIORS

Qualified candidates for this important position will therefore need to demonstrate the following:

• Agility – to work in a matrix and complex environment where change happens at a rapid pace
• Courage – to share ideas, think out of the box
• Ownership – to see the bigger picture and take ownership by thinking and acting beyond the role

Bridgestone LEADERSHIP ESSENCE

Qualified candidates for this important position will therefore need to demonstrate the following:

• Establishes strategic direction and effectively communicates the vision:  Communicates a clear and inspiring vision for the business; drives competitive and innovative strategies and is able to generate alignment against the strategic direction
• Demonstrates business acumen to achieve results through others:  Understands, educates and applies the fundamental business concepts by which a company operates in order to deliver results and create a climate that fosters personal commitment to excellence
• Promotes and enhances company culture:  Champions the organization’s shared values and beliefs
• Effectively manages across cultures: Achieves effective collaboration, alignment, and communication across multiple dimensions of cultural diversity
• BOSS focused - serves the customers having the end users in mind:  Makes BOSS (end users) and their needs a primary focus of one’s actions; develops and sustains productive relationships with BOSS; leverages BOSS intimacy in the development of new products, services and competitive advantage
• Demonstrates self-awareness and emotional intelligence: Recognizes one’s personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits. Understands emotions and their effects
• Intellectually curious in support of learning agility: Actively identifies new areas for learning; regularly creates and takes advantage of learning opportunities; uses newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learns through their application
• Embraces and leads change and innovation: Encourages different and innovative approaches to address problems and opportunities; facilitates the implementation and acceptance of change within the organization
• Identifies and develops organizational talent: Attracts high calibre diverse talent , leads and guides others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives through on-going development and collaboration

Required capabilities

• Customer focused approach in all contact with both internal and external customers, ensuring efficiency and short turnaround times that will attract and retain customers for ongoing growth
• Initiative/creativity/innovation – proactive approach, generates ideas for improvement of systems, ability to take initiative and execute tasks creatively to result in a competitive edge and differentiated way of operating
• Technical / mechanical ability
• Results driven – follows through on customer requirements until a successfully concluded result is achieved
• Speed - adhere to acceptable time keeping practices
• Effective planning and implementation – prioritize between more and less critical activities
• Positive momentum and solid work ethic
• Effective communication skills - ability to inspire, intellectually stimulate, direct action for achieving results
• Product knowledge
• Thoroughness, attention to detail, accuracy and punctuality is essential
• Adhere to acceptable time keeping practices
• Theoretical understanding of Road transport management

Experience & Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Business
• Postgraduate degree will be an added advantage
• Minimum of 8 years’ experience in a similar role
• Strong business acumen, entrepreneurial and commercial thinking
• Strong commercial business experience in similar segment
• Analytical and Critical Thinking
• Computer Literacy, MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-PowerPoint & MS-Outlook