Business Excellence Lead

Unilever; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 1 000 000 - 1 500 000; Full time

Job summary

A global consumer goods company is seeking a Business Excellence Leader in South Africa. This role includes leading a team focused on data-driven insights and operational execution. Candidates should have over 10 years of experience, strong data storytelling capabilities, and the ability to drive business decisions. A collaborative and dynamic work environment is offered, with significant opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Qualifications

• Strong operational and strategic understanding of B2B and/or FMCG models with RTM.
• 10+ years of total professional experience with 3+ years in Business Excellence leadership.
• Passion for data and proven success with analytics initiatives.
• Ability to articulate complex business problems into clear actions.
• Adaptability in dynamic environments with the ability to manage multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead Business Excellence Strategy & Prioritization for South Africa.
• Oversee the data insights strategy and ensure alignment with business goals.
• Act as the strategic integrator for business targets.
• Manage local market reporting and drive adoption of reporting utilization.
• Govern Data Quality and Standardization within the country.

Skills

Business Acumen

Data Analytics

Data Visualization

Communication Skills

Presentation Skills

Selling Skills

Leadership

Job description

Overview

Function: Food Solutions
Work Level: 2B
Reports to: GM/Head of Country
Scope: South Africa
Location: Durban/Johannesburg
Terms & Conditions: Full time, Office based

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that has a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world.

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don\'t believe in the \"one size fits all\" approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

UFS

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) is the €2.5bn+ foodservice division of Unilever, across 22 Multi Country Organizations (MCOs) in 72 countries. It leads the dynamic food service market across its categories and has ambitious growth objectives. We service operators via providing solutions for restaurants, hotels, contract and independent caterers and Deli\'s.

UFS is accelerating its digital transformation to fuel growth through data driven and technology enabled go-to-market capabilities.

Job purpose

The role is an end-to-end key country leadership role which starts from strategy and planning and ensures great operational execution in the field, enabled by data driven analytics.

Leading a team of data analysts, who are responsible for business reporting and insights, you and the team don\'t just answer questions, you help the business ask better ones.

You turn data into clarity, not just charts, with insights that enables data led business actions.

Unilever is the place where you can bring your purpose to life with the work that you do – creating a better business and a better world. If you are data driven, digitally focused and love to storytell meaningful wins from data, then this role is just for you

What will your main responsibilities be

• Leads Business Excellence Strategy & Prioritization for South Africa, in line with IBP plans as agreed with Country Lead.
• Develop and oversee the data insights strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals and KPIs.
• Country owner for Reach & Penetration OKRs.
• Acts as the strategic integrator across CD and Marketing to ensure unified alignment of business targets and cross-functional target alignment.
• Manages local market specific reporting in alignment with UniOps lead ensuring local reporting is not duplicated within regional reporting.
• Drive adoption of reporting utilisation across business to move towards becoming a fully business data driven entity via meaningful insights and data led decisions.
• Spearhead collection of external SSD working with CD Leaders to gather SSD from all Trade Partners. Plan, design and implement SSD roadmap as part of continuous data improvement.
• Leads management: report on lapsed & existing customer lead management flows and support new customer flow.
• Acts as functional expert on initiative adoption and implementation in CD, with specific focus on CD implementation of CX initiatives across all local CD teams.
• NRM Analysis – Drives focus on CD ROI promos and marketing activations based on CD & Marketing activity grids as well as promotional spend vs outcome.
• Provides data driven insights to all incentive designs and reviews key incentives to improve design.
• Change Leader for CX transformation in the country; acts as custodian of technology and improvement across commercial teams (CRM, UDL).
• Responsible for BEX budget in country P&L which includes CRM, Data automation and enhancement costs including forecasting, actuals and contract negotiations with external suppliers.
• Governs Data Quality and Standardization of measurement within the country, including data legislation and integration of external data sources into UDL, in adherence to local POPI regulations.
• Data Harmonization: Ensures local market data is fully integrated to UDL, and quality/frequency is at highest standard.

Key Interfaces

• Direct Reports – Data Analyst x 4 / CEXP & DSR Team x 2
• CD Lead , Territory Lead, Trade Lead, Chains Lead, Marketing Lead,
• PU BEX Lead, PU CX Lead, PU UniOps Team

Experiences & Qualifications

Essential:

• Strong operational and strategic understanding of B2B and/or FMCG models with RTM
• 10+ years of total professional experience with 3+ years focus on Business Excellence leadership role
• Passion for data with a proven track record with business delivery through data & analytics initiatives.
• Ability to articulate complex business problems into clear actions and deliverables via meaningful data storytelling.
• Ability to work in dynamic environments and manage multiple priorities, with Agility to adapt to change when needed.
• Ability to influence without authority.

Desirable:

• Project Management Experience
• Digital Marketing/eCommerce
• Customer Journey Mapping

Skills

• Business Acumen
• Data Analytics
• Data Visualization
• Communication Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Selling Skills
• Leadership

You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others – both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way.

As an individual you are the one responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the Consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, spot issues and opportunities to make things better.

Unilever Behaviours:

• Focus on What Counts: We ruthlessly prioritize what really, really matters, and so do fewer things brilliantly.
• We set clear & stretching goals and recognize maximum performance impact
• It is not about reducing ambition or effort; or running after the \\"new & shiny\\".
• Care Deeply: We care deeply about how consumers experience our brands every day, everywhere; our people\'s growth and development, our impact on the planet.
• We care about our performance, to a point where it hurts when we don\'t win.
• Stay Three Steps Ahead: We think boldly and creatively to make breakthroughs in performance.
• We are always curious and confident - anticipating and staying ahead of consumer needs and external trends to beat the competition.
• Deliver with Excellence: We deliver everything we do, with excellence and pace.
• We take personal ownership and hold each other to account - always finding a way to do what we said we will do.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their \"Whole Self\" to work and this includes you. Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.