Business Governance Manager at Diageo

About the role:

Establish and maintain commercial governance frameworks that ensure ethical, compliant, and financially sound decision-making across BTL, contracts, and customer/channel agreements. The role supports transparent business practices and risk mitigation in all commercial transactions and relationships.

Lead & manage development, implementation, and monitoring of governance frameworks, policies, and procedures across commercial.

Role Responsibilities:

Governance and Controls

• Lead end-to-end commercial business processes to ensure strategic alignment with company goals, driving commercial excellence across divisions and at the national level.
• Design, implement, and sustain governance frameworks and policies that align with corporate priorities and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee compliance with the Controls Environment for all commercial initiatives to ensure alignment, objectivity, prioritization of spend, and full adherence to company policies.
• Act as a strategic commercial partner, embedding governance, risk management, and compliance through regular guidance, coaching, and training of functional and business unit leaders.
• Coordinate internal and Global Audit & Risk (GAR) audits related to governance and regulatory matters; lead implementation of corrective actions and establish strong record and process management systems to ensure data accuracy and risk mitigation.
• Promote governance awareness within commercial teams through streamlined processes and impactful training.
• Deliver targeted training on governance areas such as pricing policy, Deal Desk processes, and anti-corruption in sales.
• Implement a robust compliance red flag mechanism including SFE outliers, timing exemptions, MPAs, call rate tracking, Diageo 1 adherence, and outlet exemptions.
• Drive simplification and automation of commercial governance workflows, including approval processes and reporting routines.
• Establish strong data integrity mechanisms with proactive identification and resolution of data anomalies across DMS, SIT, and Diageo 1 systems.
• Define, cascade, and monitor business processes and routines across teams and distributors; ensure timely corrective actions are taken where needed.
• Ensure quarterly POSM stock takes are conducted and reports shared with item requestors; oversee corrective actions to safeguard POS material assets.
• Own and lead the commercial calendar of events including CLT meetings, stock takes, control days, and M&E Days, with clear inputs, outputs, and accountability.
• Identify, assess, and test business continuity risks and mitigation plans to ensure operational resilience.
• Provide governance for the execution of the commercial plan, ensuring optimal salesforce productivity (250+ team members), asset deployment (~KES 1B POSM), and in-trade utilization.
• Champion the Code of Business Conduct across the commercial function through proactive training, communication, and embedding of compliance standards.
• Lead the implementation of the CARM (Controls Assurance and Risk Management) framework across commercial functions.
• Ensure leadership has clear visibility of key risks; provide credible, data-driven insights to influence actions that strengthen EABL’s performance and control environment.
• Handle resource allocation, including BTL execution, salesforce routines, SIP, and stock-in-trade optimization.
• Oversee execution of the KES 6B+ Marketing Business Plan (MBP), ensuring alignment to business and people outcomes, while managing routines, SIP, and trade stock.
• Drive timely M&E closures and performance reviews at both division and national levels; facilitate robust learning through structured M&E Days.
• Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, Legal, and Supply Chain to ensure alignment on contracts, rebate structures, and channel compliance.
• Provide oversight to ensure performance routines are robust and drive salesforce effectiveness.
• Support the Head of Customer Marketing in executing the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and commercial IBOs; hold the Commercial Leadership Team (CLT) and partners accountable for delivery.
• Lead execution of the ~KES 6B BTL plan, ensuring activities are delivered to agreed timelines, scale, and standards; handle risks and mitigation in line with policy.
• Lead the customer marketing data quality and governance workstream, including approval of DMS objectives, POSM allocation, and master data management.
• Ensure accurate depletions and SIT data are collected and integrated into market processes for risk assessment and response.
• Drive SIT compliance by aligning market operations to global SIT standards; flag deviations and implement required workarounds.
• Monitor campaign performance through KPIs (e.g., footfall, conversion, consumer interactions); implement timely corrective actions to optimize ROI.
• Ensure SIT reconciliation is completed within a 10% threshold by distributor and SKU; enforce stock management processes to ensure accuracy and compliance.

Leadership Accountabilities: 

• Provide People and strategic Leadership to the commercial team, ensuring that individuals are well trained, coached & motivated in line with business goals
• Provide People and Strategic Leadership to the commercial team, ensuring that individuals are well trained, coached and motivated to successfully plan, develop and plans that are in line with business goals.
• Actively build and drive the identification and development of a solid talent pipeline and potential successors for key positions in the commercial operations team.
  Develop, commit to and action a self-development programme, and contribute to the development of others in the team.
• Provides leadership and mentorship to evolve the analytics capability of the sales team to enable deviation from a traditional centre-based model.
• Support the commercial team in execution of the AOP and SMART commercial IBOs while holding the Commercial Leadership Team (CLT) and other business partners to account for delivery of their plan commitments.

Experience / skills required:

• Business Degree level
• Strong understanding of field sales, Sales Operations and analytics
• 8 –10 years FMCG experience, which must include extended period within sales operations, management and business analytics.
• Good relationship management and interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication, influencing and negotiating skills.
• Excellent understanding of strategy development and implementation
• Good understanding of project/change management
• Presentation, report writing and research skills.
• Self-starter with high levels of energy and commitment
• Multifaceted and creative with an ability to work on own initiative as well as be a team player

Key Skills and Competencies:

• Performance Metrics & KPIs: Ability to define, track, and interpret key performance indicators
• Data Analysis & Reporting: Proficient in tools like Excel, Power BI etc.
• Goal Setting & Monitoring: Competency in creating SMART goals and monitoring progress against them.
• Process Improvement /Familiarity with continuous improvement methodologies
• Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills
• Coaching & Development: Ability to coach managers and employees for continuous improvement and skill development
• Facilitation Skills: Effective in leading performance review meetings, workshops, and training sessions
• Feedback Delivery: Skilled in delivering both constructive and motivational feedback
• Proactive, solutions-focused mindset with commercial awareness