Director, Franchise Strategy, ECAF at The Coca-Cola Company

We empower our employees to challenge the status quo, make bold recommendations, experiment, and adapt, so we can grow together and make a great business even better. This position provides guidance, leadership and direction for contracts and categories affecting millions in annual spend.  This role will work with key members of our Supply Chain teams to ensure that all sourcing initiatives and strategies are aligned with business requirements.  We’re looking for an individual that has keen negotiating skills and an ability to drive results that effect the bottom line.

What you'll do for us:

• Lead the development and coordination of LRP and ABP with our bottling partners and facilitate the collaboration between The Bottling Group head offices, the local bottling teams, East & Central Africa Franchise and our OU function heads.  
• Lead the development and alignment of a performance management system with Bottlers /Countries to ensure timely delivery of strategic and tactical plans. 
• Partner with Franchise Unit and Operating Unit (OU) resources to lead system end-to-end alignment process with Bottling Partners at Group and Country level. 
• Serve as the point of contact on strategy development and performance management between our bottling partners, East & Central Africa Franchise and the OU focused on developing stage/gate for work (macro-economics, industry estimates, competitive insights, LRP, ABP, innovation) + align Country teams during the process. 
• Work closely with the VP Operations and the Franchise System Leadership team to execute day to day strategic elements of the Franchise (bottler) development plans (FDP) as well as the Annual and Long-range Plans (ABP, LRP) 
• Lead and drive key Franchise BIG BET/ Business Plans initiatives to ensure delivery on time and in full focused at delivering against winning metrics: Volume, NSR, OI, Volume and Value share gain 
• Provide fact based and objective perspective on key strategic topics ensuring that the Franchise focus on business priorities that are aligned to the OU Strategy; (i) Consumer led (ii) competitor and customer informed (iii) integrated across all functions and (iv) clearly aligned with the bottlers 
• Connect the dots by pulling relevant data and insights from Insights Network (Strategy Insights + Human Insights + Platform Services) across the OU and beyond to identify granular opportunities and create actionable initiatives at franchise level, in collaboration with the System franchise and OU teams. 
• Collaborate with Franchise Unit and OU Commercial & Customer Leadership to crystallize cross-franchise commercial strategies. 
• Work closely with VP of Operations of the East & Central Africa Franchise to lead the design and implementation of the Franchise and System business routines (Franchise Leadership Team, System Leadership Team, Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs), Top to Top (T2Ts), System/OU market visits) and lead to ensure the effective execution of these routines to drive business growth. The successful candidate will define agendas & topics to escalate/establish templates and consolidate materials, share pre-reads, pre-align/prewire bottling partners and other key stakeholders. 
• Leverage the OU network and import best practices and good ideas to address the Franchise Unit business challenges. 
• Partner with the HR and the VP of Operations to develop the Franchise People Engagement Plan and the execution of such plans to drive the Franchise Engagement results 
• Coach and develop direct report (s) to maximize full and current potential 
• Role model the “Leadership in the Network” definition. 
• Manage uncertainty and multiple stakeholders. 
• Communication Focus  
• Multiple top-level interactions and negotiations with senior management team members of the System (Group and country resources at our bottling partners) 
• Strong negotiation, influence, and communication skills to align strategies as well as build value-based relationships through numerous sensitive situations (with Bottling Partners at Group/Country level). 
• Strong presentation skills with an ability to adjust messages to fit specific audiences 
• Comfortable with indirect influencing and indirect managing/coordinating. 

Education Requirements: 

Related Work Experience: 

• Bachelor’s degree essential 
• Masters or MBA a bonus 
• +12 years of Business and/or functional experience in Operation/Strategy/Marketing/Business Development/Consultancy related areas 
• Ex-consulting experience a plus 
• Proven leadership trajectory and influencing a senior leadership team