Marketing Skills Development Manager at British American Tobacco (BAT)

British American Tobacco has an exciting opportunity for a Marketing Skills Development Manager to join our team in Nairobi.

Job Purpose

• The fundamental purpose of the role is to raise the capabilities and skills of our talent to serve consumer needs better and create a sustainable, successful organisation.
• The role is aligned to the BAT Strategic Imperative of ‘develop talent as a competitive advantage’
• The job holder will identify needs, facilitate and enable learning, gain expertise in new learning trends and technologies including social and mobile, involve Line Managers in cultivating a strong learning culture within their functions, and enhance employee engagement to drive high on the job performance.
• The job scope will range from meeting the learning needs of individuals to developing and implementing a Learning & Development strategy to support business success.
   

The role will primarily serve the Marketing function with support to other business functions.

Key Accountabilities

Business Results

• Manage the smooth implementation of all Learning and Development Initiatives for the business
• Champion digital competency acquisition across the business through adoption of relevant content in modern & future fit Apps, identify areas of opportunity & where necessary, partner with external providers for customized solutions
• Regularly assess quality of talent pool through available competency assessment tools, Talent Review meetings, line Manager engagement and ensure quality development plans are drawn up, and targeted learning solutions deployed for immediate impact
• Collaborate with the Talent & OE Manager, HR Business Partners to drive a healthy talent pipeline by effectively supporting Career/learning paths, recruitment /on boarding processes and change management.
• Keeping abreast of the fast-paced marketing landscape and sharing local best practise,
• Ensure learning & development budget and resources are used in the most effective and efficient manner.

People Results

• Drive induction of new hires and continuous development of all Marketing employees
• Create a buzz, excitement and a commitment to capability building of our marketing organisation across line managers, business units and leadership teams
• Ensure collective capability levels remain high in the organisation- i.e. new joiners get up-skilled early enough to facilitate on- time-in-full integration, support high performance as well as demonstrate our commitment to talent development
• Drive the development of facilitation and coaching skills in line managers to support the embedding of 70-20-10 and self-directed learning across East Africa Markets.
• Regularly diagnose individual and team gaps across functions, agency of record, and distribution partners to ensure fit for purpose learning and development solutions are deployed.
• Drive timely evaluation on the effectiveness & efficiency of all development programmes

Business Context

The accelerated shift in consumer behaviour, converging market forces, expanding into New Categories and digitalization have impacted our activities, structure and organisation of the Marketing function to become increasingly integrated. The current Trade, Deployment, Strategy Planning & Insights development programmes under will support this trend and encourage improved business performance.

External Environment

Ongoing communication and keeping up to date with

• Tobacco industry & other FMCG Companies to exchange ideas and keep abreast of new developments including regulatory landscape and competition.
• Identify how Technology can improve learning effectiveness
• Developments surrounding adult learning approaches
   

Internal Environment

Understand our company strategy, understand our Marketing focus, and ensure that talent is developed to improve skills, promote alignment, foster the innovation and agility to significantly contribute to the achievement of our corporate marketing objectives.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Principal competencies required

• Business Expertise (Including Marketing competencies)
• Learning & Development Expertise
• Advisory Capability

Experience

• A bachelor’s degree in a business field
• Minimum 5-6 years’ experience within the Marketing function (preference for both Trade and Brand experience).
• Strong negotiation, written and verbal skills
• Ability to apply strong strategic, analytical skills and good judgment
• Appropriate level of maturity to provide credibility at senior levels
• Demonstrates the capacity to drive for high performance and sustainable business results.

Key Success Factors

• Meeting the people development needs arising from competency assessments and Talent review meetings.
• Assessing the capability of the marketing function vs strategic business agenda, and building a plan to bridge gap
• Improving the level of coaching competence amongst Line managers
• Planning and working within agreed budget guidelines
• Ensuring timely feedback on development programmes and learning initiatives
• Meeting agreed Your Voice targets
• Effectively implementing Marketing talent and development initiatives

British American Tobacco is one of the world’s leading multinational companies, with brands sold in over 200 markets, made in 44 factories in 42 countries.

We are proud that we are consistently among the top 5 companies on the London Stock Exchange.

Our portfolio includes our world-famous Global Drive Brands – Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall and Rothmans – along with many other leading international brands, such as Vogue, Peter Stuyvesant and State Express 555.

Alongside our traditional tobacco business, we are also developing products that offer consumers potentially less risky alternatives to regular cigarettes. Our Next Generation Products are already leading the way in the Industry of vapour and tobacco heating devices. We continue to develop a solid portfolio of consumer solutions which already include well known global brands like Vype, glo and Voke.