Senior Director, North America Commercial Strategy

What makes this a great opportunity?

• Impact: Drive a variety of high-impact, high-profile strategy projects to deliver our commercial goals and aspirations
• Leadership/People Management: Lead a team, providing vision to team and aligning different teams to same strategy; ensuring right people are in the right roles to be successful
• Senior-Leader Exposure: Regular communication with, and presentation to, senior level audience, including the Commercial, North America and Executive Leadership Teams
• Strategy Development: Opportunity to develop and implement route to market and distributor strategy; Build detailed understanding of current field resources (BSI and distributor), how they are goaled and incented with ability to shape go-forward methodology, including future depth, breadth, and structure of incremental field resources
• Negotiation: Visibility into distributor strategy/route to market negotiations
• Complex Problem-Solving: Opportunity to structure a clear process to address an ambiguous question/objective, and how to influence without authority
• Stakeholder Management: Positioned to influence and interact closely with every business function (Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Legal) providing clear visibility to how broader groups need to work together effectively
• National Perspective: Develop understanding of market dynamics and drivers of sales plan across North America
• Process Improvement: Opportunity to create the infrastructure for the organization to work efficiently and effectively, by establishing processes and working with cross-functional leaders to develop tools that drive coordination and transparency, bridging the gap between functionality and usability
• Professional Development: The team is built and led by former management strategy consultants and is focused on building successful leaders. This role could be an entrée to a number of different positions within Beam, or could be an impactful transition from consulting into a fast-paced corporate environment

Role Responsibilities

This position will report to the VP, North America Strategy with significant exposure to the Commercial Leadership Team as the strategic advisor for the US Chief Commercial Officer and the NA lead for our global Route to Consumer Excellence council efforts. Key responsibilities of the Senior Director, NA Commercial Strategy include:
• Strategy Development:
o Enhance route to market strategy for US market based on market’s long-term growth, commercial ambitions, and “One Beam Suntory Way” approach
o Lead distributor contract design, negotiations and ongoing management, leveraging key stakeholders across the Sales, Legal, and Finance teams
o Identify and develop sales structure, incentives, and sales planning elements, as required
o Guide development of channel level forecasts and develop supporting strategy that will inform executive leadership’s growth objectives
o Develop Route to Consumer Excellence roadmap, building upon key initiatives and developing new ones to ensure Beam shows up in the right places, in the right way
o Evaluate and develop recommendations to improve effectiveness of our market execution strategies, inclusive of enhancing usage of digital tools and applications
o Develop storyboards and presentations for each of the above projects, adapting for varying levels within the organization (e.g., sales team vs. executive leadership)
• Analysis & Insights:
o Identify drivers of our business, data-driven expectations for how they will change going forward, and implications on the business
o Lead/delegate ad-hoc analysis on brand, category, distribution, account, and market level performance to support strategic objectives and business goals
o Source of expertise for commercial best practices that align with BSI strategy (i.e. distributor management, sales planning, contract standards, etc.)
• Program Management & Organizational Effectiveness:
o Evaluate the effectiveness of key strategic sales initiatives with regular reporting to senior leadership
o Identify, develop, and deploy enhancements and expansions of our sales resources
o Identify, develop, and execute opportunities to enhance broader sales effectiveness inclusive of identifying and rolling out digital enablement tools to the commercial organization
o Support market leadership in evaluating and managing distributor performance
• Stakeholder Management:
o Collaborate closely with Sales, Marketing, IT and other cross functional counterparts to ensure quality of recommendations and successful implementations
o Support commercial leadership in the development of messaging and presentations for key internal and external sales meetings
o Collaborate closely with IT and digital teams to enhance commercial enablement tools
o Ensure sync up of NA best practices with broader global Route to Consumer Excellence agenda
• Leadership:
o Manage Commercial Strategy team by defining team priorities, shaping the agenda, and ensuring that project delivery is robust, accurate, and actionable
o Recruit and develop a high performing team that provides critical strategic direction and support to the broader BSI commercial organization

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelors; MBA Required
• Experience:
o Minimum of 5-7 years of graduating experience
o Combination of experience in top tier management consulting or corporate strategy role as well as commercial strategy, commercial excellence, or sales role experience
o CPG experience preferred
• Industry Knowledge (Preferred): Understanding of the Three-Tier System, day to day activities of Distributor and Field, US route to market complexities, and specific market/distributor dynamics preferred
• Financial Acumen: Understanding of P&L and ROI basics
• Project/Process Management: Proven ability to manage projects from start to finish
• Presentation Effectiveness: Ability to translate insights into structured presentations that highlight key takeaways; Ability to present effectively to senior audiences
• Stakeholder Management: Ability to see situations and anticipate reactions from multiple stakeholders and perspectives, crafting communications and leading discussions in a thoughtful manner that has the appropriate detail for the audience/stakeholders
• Advanced Business Analytics: Ability to identify, analyze, and interpret trends in complex data sets to inform decision making

Note - The salary range for this role, based in Chicago, is $230,000 - $240,000 along with an annual bonus, 401K match, profit sharing, and medical and wellness benefits. The salary range is commensurate with the candidate’s location, experience, and skillset. The range will vary if outside of this location.