Sr. Director Strategy, AMESA (South Africa, location free) at PepsiCo

Job Description

As the Senior Director of Strategy for the $6B revenue AMESA Sector (Africa, Middle East, South Asia), run strategic projects for the Senior Vice President of Strategy for AMESA.
The Senior Director of Strategy will play a lead strategic, advisory and implementation role on a broad range of strategic initiatives for AMESA. This leader will create innovative solutions to complex business issues that have a significant impact on the P&L performance and shareholder value
Lead select strategy projects for the AMESA Sector to support the strategic direction and priorities for the overall sector. These projects typically include portfolio prioritization or expansion in the Sector, new channel strategies (e.g., Modern Trade or eCommerce), new capabilities development (e.g., Digitization, Revenue Management), competitive analysis of key players in our categories, or M&A assessment. Typical projects include secondary research, data gathering & analysis to build recommendations, cross-functional workshops, and stakeholder management and alignment with AMESA leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with AMESA strategy team to lead the thinking on the collective PepsiCo Strategic Planning process (Strategic Deep Dives) with AMESA SVP Finance & Strategy & AMESA Executive team and translate that into AOP for AMESA
• Identify and define business questions and issues related to the PMF business and develop strategic, analytical and financial frameworks to capture the size of the opportunities (including business portfolio agenda, e.g. M&A, divestitures)
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of the local business realities and macro-trends to identify both top-line and bottom-line growth opportunities for the region
• Provide thought leadership to business partners, including the Executive Committee, and other operating leaders on a broad range of business-critical topics
• Identify and deconstruct business issues and develop strategic, analytical, and financial frameworks to conduct analyses
• Demonstrate strong leadership and significant influence management skills with the ability to gain credibility with Sr Leadership while challenging the status quo
• Build “Executive ready” project deliverables
• Assist in the planning and execution of the Global Strategic Planning Process
• Lead project teams comprised of Analysts and Managers; oversee data analytics processes to ensure conclusions are grounded in fact
• Execute against time-sensitive requests from the EVP-Global Strategy and cross-functional business partners
• Maintain an external mindset, including staying on top of consumer, competitive, and macroeconomic / geopolitical trends
• Manage project teams, working with analysts & managers to drive outcomes
• Lead the agenda for a key capability area for the entire Global Strategy function (e.g., Recruiting, Training, Knowledge Management, etc)

As a Strategy lead, hold the primary responsibility of defining the Strategic direction & medium-to-long term priorities for AMESA PepsiCo

• Define the strategic direction for the business, working closely with the CFO, CEO, Global Strategy team and key stakeholders. Lead the team of strategy resources to conduct independent strategic deepdives/projects and diagnose the issues with the existing business, evaluate new business opportunities, assess competitive landscape and business model choices, and recommend the right strategy for the business. These projects should include workshops and working sessions with large cross-functional teams to build a cohesive point-of-view, as well as analysis of other companies and their business models. Strategy includes category and portfolio choices to prioritize/deprioritize, business tactics to win with Consumers & Customers (e.g., Product formats, flavors, pack sizes, pricing, promotions), as well as business model choices (e.g., in-house manufacturing vs. co-pack, build vs. buy models, Go-To-Market model choices), as well as Org. design requirements. The final recommendation is then presented to the AMESA Sector CEO as well as the Global CEO for alignment and sign-off.
• As a critical member of Strategy Team for AMESA, review the facts and data, complement with knowledge, and experience, and recommend potential solutions to the Sr leadership for decision making. The committee also frequently reviews risks facing the business and defines mitigation strategies,
• Lead and partner in M&A strategy for key business areas. Lead a team strategy resources to identify potential merger & acquisition opportunities through a bi-annual detailed scan of all players in priority categories, followed by a prioritization based on strategic fit and attractiveness. Prioritization involves linking M&A opportunities to our Strategic agenda and shortlisting the most lucrative opportunities for the company.
• Leadership/People Management: Responsible for day-to-day work-planning & deliverables management, feedback & professional development, and long-term career management for all direct reports in Strategy & Transformation team. Manage the team of four strategy and transformation resources to ensure clear work allocation and priorities, provide thought leadership and ideas on their individual workstreams, frequently review work, and ensure high quality & standard of output and deliverables. Additionally, provide frequent feedback on their strengths and areas of development, provide coaching for professional development, and manage their career planning (promotions, future job rotations, etc.). Finally, constantly motivate teams to ensure positivity in the team.

Qualifications/Requirements

Key Skills/Experience Required:

• 10+ years of strategy experience in a variety of positions both internally and externally (top-tier Consulting firm experience strongly preferred)
• MBA for top-tier universities
• Highly analytical, motivated, decisive thought leader with excellent managerial skills
• Strategic mindset with an ability to think broadly, refine questions, and develop analytical frameworks
• Outstanding project management skills
• Current consumer packaged goods experience to be able to both identify and initiate appropriate partnership alliances and acquisitions
• Prior experience (internally or externally) leading the strategy agenda for clients or organization across geographies
• Thought leadership and commercial implementation with a track record of developing and delivering high impact and successful consumer products strategies, especially in the nutrition space, with the context of a top tier strategic consulting firm or significant strategic planning experience in a corporate environment
• Track record of taking calculated risks for the long-term benefit of the organization and is thereby considered an extremely progressive thought-leader
• Communication skills that are able to educate and influence management and senior leaders to act in a desired manner through written and verbal communication
• Analytical and negotiating skills as evidence by high intelligence, strong financial and analytical capabilities and the proven ability to develop, sell and drive suitable partnerships, alliances, or other transactions to closure
• Global outlook with sensitivity and awareness of social and cultural differences
• High Emotional Intelligence and verbal and written communication skills that educate and influence senior leaders; ability to “manage up”
• Global outlook with sensitivity and awareness of social and cultural differences; foreign language skills highly desired
• Role is highly cross-functional in nature and will need to be able to operate at a senior management level across a matrix of BU’s, categories & functions.

Differentiating Competencies Required:

• Thinks strategically and is able to codify the long-term growth plan for the organization
• Serves as visible change agent and transformational leader in the implementation of the Strategy
• Operates efficiently and effectively in a matrixed environment and demonstrates exceptional collaboration across multiple layers
• Shows a strong ability to influence and work through others
• Drives an open dialogue among team members and business leaders to help support the efforts to develop and move talent
• Deals efficiently with ambiguity and shows great adaptation skills