Business Development & Transformation Manager

Korn Ferry has partnered with our client on their search for the role, Business Development & Transformation Manager.

The Company/ Purpose of the Position

The company operates with a global footprint across five regions: North America, South America, Africa, India & Middle East, Europe, and Asia. With approximately 67,000 employees worldwide and regional revenues of EUR 7.6bn, Europe represents the largest market within the organization. In 2018, the European Northern region was established by consolidating the sales organizations for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the UK, and the Nordic countries. Today, this region comprises ten countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, with its headquarters located in Germany.

The B2C business within Europe North produces approximately 11.2 million units annually and generates revenues of around EUR 830m. The region is responsible for translating the overarching group strategy into an effective go-to-market approach, while the individual territories (e.g. DACH) define and lead the local execution.This represents a unique opportunity for a high-potential, next-generation leader to take on a highly visible role with strong strategic exposure. From day one, the successful candidate will be embedded in a structured development environment designed to accelerate progression into senior leadership roles within the organization.

The key challenges @ B2C are:

• Focus on high value segment
• Review Market access & Channel Management
• Increase E-Commerce Activities
• Transformation of the Sales Organization
• Push Digitalization

The sales channels of the tire market @ B2C include:

• Wholesale
• Retail
• Car Dealers
• Pure Player
• Fleets

The future incumbent will be responsible to manage the transformation of the sales organization with focus on increasing efficiency, digitalization / AI and performance management. This includes:

• Maximize the effectiveness and the impact of sales and marketing activities
• Review and re-design the end-to-end processes
• Establish an internal & external network for benchmarking

Transformation Roadmap

• Develops new & existing customer potentials that promote organizational objective for maximum penetrations and profitability.
• Identifies business opportunities based on knowledge of clients, markets, products and services
• Leads new business opportunities by developing and analyzing business cases, market strategies, deal requirements, business potential, and financials.
• Supports and drives the implementation of digitalization and AI-based sales management.
• Uses experts or actively generates knowledge of other industries to influence and drive the transformation.
• Acts as change manager during the transformation phase within sales.
• Supports the development of new sales organization
• Introduces new ways of future selling.

Sales Business Strategy

• Establishes a long-term regional sales strategy aligned with the overall group objectives.
• Active involvement in the Go-to-market strategies with the time horizon of 1-5 years.
• Translates and adapts the strategy into operational plans including elements of analysis, planning, implementation and control.
• Ensures consistency of business plan implementation across the sales functions and relevant interfaces.
• Measures progress of the activities vs. objectives.
• Assesses the potential impact of wider environmental forces on the business strategy (e.g culture, ethics, economics, politics, legal frameworks and sustainability).

Channel Management

• Review of channel strategy with other organizational stakeholders
• Monitors and manages the effectiveness of channel performance and utilization of channel resources.
• Assess the customer / consumer value proposition to identify and create new offers and solutions.
• Develops new & existing customer potentials that promote organizational objective for maximum penetrations and profitability.

People Management

• Facilitates and coordinates different teams to ensure continuous alignment between organizational strategies and investments.
• Supports the development of leadership skills in the sales organization.
• Close alignment with business partners and sales managers for the development of future competencies in sales.

Business Performance

• Establishes key performance indicators and relevant metrics and monitors and analyzes results in order to implement corrective measures, when appropriate, to maximize performance and achieve revenue and operating income budget.
• Supports in the business steering across all sales teams.

Experience and Professional Qualifications

The main requirements for the role are described as follows:

Hard Skills

• Work experience in commercial roles, with a combination of Marketing and Sales / Business Development
• Strong business acumen
• Experience in E-Commerce / Digitalization
• Leadership / People Management is a plus
• Financial skills
• Commercial relationship building
• Negotiation skills
• Experience in the Automotive industry is an advantage

Soft Skills

• Strong resilience
• Excellent communication and leadership presence
• Ability to motivate and ignite a team
• Emphasizing operational excellence
• Strong performance and accountability mindset
• Foster a positive and collaborative Work Culture
• Customer dedication.
• Quick learner with change management mindset.

Education/Further Requirements

• International mobility is desirable
• Advanced degree is a plus
• Fluency in German and English, French is a plus
• The candidate should have the potential to take over a business senior management role in 2 years, in the region or equivalent