This position is responsible for leveraging data resources, internal knowledge and environmental trends to create value and growth through Category Management for the retail channel and specific distributor partners on behalf of Ventura Foods. This associate will provide expertise for customer and category insights relating to top strategic customers. He/she will provide category solutions to help scorecard, create insight and develop growth platforms or recommendation to further enhance the relationships and business performance. This associate will lead the process for identification of customer specific opportunities with the retail/foodservice teams and strategic customer personnel to enable Ventura foods to create fact based data reporting and strategies to drive sustainable profitable category growth, increased market share and enhanced partnership. As time permits, this role will also aid in developing, implementing and analyzing proprietary research to support further informational needs. Purpose of Role: The primary missions of this role: 1) Develop best practices and protocols for Category Management implementation for Ventura Foods 2) Identify growth opportunities, space management and plan-o-gram optimization for the respective retail categories for Ventura Foods 3) Work with the foodservice Category Management team to develop a process that extends Ventura Foods reach across a greater number of Distributor partners 4) Maintain ongoing communication with retail and foodservice sales associates on identified opportunities for growth and category improvement 5) Measure performance and impact of initiatives and promotional strategies, communicating the results effectively across the business and Broker network 6) Contribute to Ventura Foods growing expertise of the rapidly evolving Category Management definitions within the foodservice industry 7) Leverage all data available through our syndicated partnership, dun humby, secondary resources and proprietary research to develop best-in-class fact-based recommendations Principal Accountabilities What are the key accountabilities of the role? (Consider – why does the position exist, what does it do and what is the planning horizon) · Aid in defining and managing the CM process with retail and key foodservice distributor partners. · Development of strong business relationships with key individuals throughout the foodservice distributor’s category management organization and support groups. · Lead the development of strategic category plans, which attain customer objectives while also meeting National sales objectives. · Partner with retail business development team to develop sales stories and recommendations · Develop product collateral, in partnership with the foodservice distributor and Ventura Foods Marketing Communications, (brochures, recipes, training, customer financial value calculators, etc) for inclusion in Market Mover · Provide product attribute mapping, in partnership with Ventura Foods Category Manager · Maintain working knowledge of all information systems, which effect the ability to perform category analysis and implement category management processes with sales managers and/or brokers. Mission Critical Competencies What are the must have skills that allow the best associates to exceed the challenges and create the outputs described above? What is the handful of skills (i.e. the top 7 and no more) that would separate the best from the rest? (Don’t think about the “nice to have”, this is about the “must haves”) × Functional/Technical Skills (analytics, score-carding, metrics) × Strategic Planning × Priority Setting × Communication × Relationship Building × Dealing with Ambiguity × Drive for Results Key Functional Skills/Knowledge What does an associate have to be able to do & know to create superior results in this role? - Expert in analyzing multiple data sources o Custom, syndicated, statistic, secondary, customer data o Using data sources such as IRI, NPD Supply Track, foodservice distributor specific data and use of internal data resource 1010 - Strong competence in using database software, Excel (pivot tables & macros) and data visualization - Strong capability to translate data and information into strategic and actionable business insight in non-technical terminology - Decision making based on the overall growth of the category - Research methodologies, suppliers and statistical concepts - Sales, Business Planning, Marketing and R & D tactics/execution - Thought leadership and business consulting - Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills to influence foodservice distributor contacts as well as internal Ventura Foods support. Key Experiences What professional experiences (assignments/ time in roles) must they have had and for what length of time in order to create superior results? - Proven leadership in driving using data sources to develop strategies and growth platforms - Demonstrated success on in utilizing ROI tools to drive investment optimization and decisions - Classical training in Marketing Research and Business Development from experience(s) - Strategic business partner to Sales, Marketing and Strategic Insights - Experience in the areas of Behavioral Psychology, Sociology, Statistics or other quantitative sciences - Knowledge and fundamental application of industry tools such as NPD Supply Track, Technomic, IRI/Nielsen, Datassentials, etc. - Senior Management Exposure: Experience interacting with internal and external high level senior management, comfort in presentation settings Decision Making Authority and Impact Decisions and their Impact to the Business (What decisions will this associate be expected to make and at what risk to the business? Think of the cost impact, the liability impact, loss of profit, impact on customer service etc when thinking about risk) - Retail and Foodservice Distributor specific market research initiatives, use of trend and environmental information - Resource Management and HQ partnership - Category specific recommendations to drive growth and enhanced partnership - Strong Influence without Authority competency Recommendations (What recommendations will this associate be expected to make, to whom and to what impact to the business) - Recommendations: § Fact based recommendations § Growth programs and execution § Collaborative Annual Planning information and presentation § Medium/Long term strategy § Evolution of the foodservice distributor relationship and embedding CM within the company to expand expertise and growth within Ventura Foods |
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