General Manager Marketing

About Olam

Olam is a leading food and agribusiness supplying food, ingredients, feed and fiber to 20,900 customers worldwide. Our value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, origination, processing and distribution operations; as well as a sourcing network of an estimated 5 million farmers.

Through our purpose to ‘Re-imagine Global Agriculture and Food Systems’, Olam aims to address the many challenges involved in meeting the needs of a growing global population, while achieving positive impact for farming communities, our planet and all our stakeholders.

Headquartered and listed in Singapore, Olam currently ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market capitalisation on SGX-ST and we are a Fortune Global 500 company.

Principle Duties

• Development of the ‘strategic vision’ for each brand, the Brand Architecture, the Brand Lighthouse (incl. it’s positioning) and its place in the company’s portfolio.
• To lead development of the Category Strategy including the Marketing Strategy. To develop and Implement Brand Plans (including the Investment Mix).
• Develop deep, actionable consumer understanding & insights on category, brand(s), competition, usage and attitudes and purchase behaviour.
• Lead development of ‘the big idea’, ‘advertising’, ‘activation plans’ and PR as applicable for the portfolio of the brands.
• Media Planning & Implementation (as applicable).
• Consumer activations – Planning & Implementation.
• Manage the development of design and pack changes.
• NPD – Glide Path planning and development of new products in time through the ‘Stage-Gate’ methodology.
• The management of A&P (Advertising & Promotion) spends. Regular evaluation of A&P activity.
• Commissioning, execution and presentation of findings of market research.
• Management of a team of Marketing Managers/ Category Managers/ Brand Managers.
• Selection, Evaluation & Management of Best in Class Ad Agencies, Design Agencies, Media Agencies, Activation Agencies & MR Agencies.
• Manage the mix to deliver the budgeted profitability on the portfolio.
• Oversee actions on the Regulatory & Legal front pertaining to the brands.

Skills & Competencies

Knowledge of basic marketing principles and processes

• Agency Processes: Ad agency, Design Agencies, Media agency, Research agencies, BTL agencies etc.
• Manage the above-mentioned agencies to get the maximum effectiveness.
• Understand the cost structure for ad agency, media, research, BTL.
• Ability to develop strong Consumer Understanding through immersions and formal Market Research:
• Understanding of and ability to implement formal Consumer Research – Qual & Quant.
• Understanding of how PR works in the market and development & implementation of relevant strategies.
• Strategic Thinking:
• Developing a future vision.
• Conversion of business goals to marketing plans.
• Conversion of consumer insights into marketing ideas.
• Brand Equity Development & Management:
• Put together the Category Strategy with cross-functional inputs and over a longer horizon.

Analytical skills

• Identification of opportunities and issues
• Ability to develop hypothesis for each issue and come up with alternative ideas.

Ability to understand brand and market dynamics

• Understanding and tracking of brand vs. competition (including strategies, gathering intelligence, activities etc.)
• Understanding Trade & Trade structure.

People skills

• Develop a strategic contact matrix – internal and external to ensure that brand plans are achieved.

Communication skills

• Ability to interact vertically and laterally – discuss issues openly, confidently and with clarity to deliver solutions.
• Persuade and influence at any level.

Commercial understanding

• Identify Profitable and sub-optimal SKU’s and plan marketing strategies accordingly (invest, exit decisions).
• Manage A&P budgets (Plan, Track).
• Review P&L monthly and take corrective actions.
• Coordinates a KPI review monthly.

Project management

• Set objectives, timelines & responsibilities.
• Ability to break projects to components and identify critical path.
• Manage day to day communication to ensure projects are progressing on time and on budget.

Product Knowledge

• Manufacturing Process
• USPs vs competition, if any

Teamwork

• Has good working relationship with superiors, peers and subordinates and external customers and is well acceptable to them.

Personal

• Ability to priorities tasks – differentiate between urgent & important.
• Ability to review & change priorities as new tasks achieve.
• Allots times for ‘thinking’, ‘planning’ and implementation.

Leadership

• Instills belief and passion among sales, finance & supply chain (including manufacturing) to enthuse, motivate and inspire higher levels of performance on the portfolio.