Commercial Director at Victory Farms

The Role:

VF is seeking an experienced and passionate Commercial Director. The opportunity to develop a new market in fresh fish in Kenya is immense ($200+ million annually), as the market is currently underserved due to declining wild fish supplies and very poor quality Chinese imports. An ideal candidate will combine knowledge of East African markets, experience with FMCG and/or cold chain, extensive network building, deep and organized capacity to develop operational excellence, and a love for working with world class talent in combination with the challenges of building a front-line salesforce.

• Build a go-to-market strategy for fresh fish in Kenya, with an approach that capitalizes on efficient market segmentation and opportunity sizing to access Kenyans across geographic and socio-economic zones
• Innovate on existing business model to identify and implement new methods for creating access to fresh, affordable fish for low income, rural Kenyans
• Design and adapt the sales model to be ready for scale in multiple markets in parallel – in 1H2017 sales growth is 40% per month, with forecasted revenues to continue expanding at least 20% per month for the coming 24 months (rapid expansion!)
• Develop controls, standardize processes, and implement systems to enable rapid scaling of distribution, as well as exponentially grow the number of selling points
• Hire, develop and retain top talent, by way of an HR and professional development strategy that enables us to scale and build our sales and distribution team
• Develop existing sales model that targets market women/fish mongers in urban areas, who have seen their incomes grow from <$3/day to >$10/day. Design and implement strategy to reach thousands more such individuals, facilitating their upward mobility into middle income earners.

Experience & Attributes:

• Managerial experience, building teams, capacities, and functions to build new business capacities
• 8+ years working in a commercial function, with direct work in building sales organizations, marketing at multiple levels, and operational sales development
• Teamwork skills that excel in multiple settings, from high level strategy work and whiteboarding, to nitty-gritty in-the-market learning, teaching, and presence
• Ability to learn quickly, develop and test hypotheses, and innovate in an African setting, emphasizing simple and low cost solutions that are repeatable and easily translatable
• Dedicated to building a world class organization with commitment to ethical standards suitable for working with global organizations
• Experience developing sales models with complex supply routes and requirements for fast-paced, high quality deliveries
• Mindset capable to assimilate data + analytics + strategy to formulate action-able plans