Country Manager Kenya at AstraZeneca

WHAT YOU'LL DO?

• You will be a leader for Kenya Commercial Business in AstraZeneca. Your primary responsibility will be to own the commercial strategy for the assigned market and deliver commercial objective with collaboration from other functions such as medical, marketing, sales force effectiveness and finance.
• You will also be responsible for managing the sales forecast & inventory with distributors in Kenya. Further accountabilities include coaching and leading a team of 6 FLMs & KAMs to achieve implementation of commercial activities, various stakeholders from Kenya including but not limited to various HC societies, industry associates and also procurement entities such as public sector procurement agencies and also faith based institutions. Its also expected that you will further coach and empower Kenya sales teams and build AZ as a great place to work.

Some areas of focus for this role will include:

Manage team effectiveness and engagement

• Hire & build a competent sales team and provide ongoing coaching, direction & motivation to a diverse team of individuals.
• Agree team and team member roles, performance criteria, objectives and standards of work execution and monitor performance on an ongoing basis. Identify areas requiring development; and offer coaching & guidance as required.
• Collaborate with Human Resources in the development of team members by providing challenging and relevant development opportunities to prepare them for future roles and building capability within Kenya and for other SSA markets.
• Ensure a competitive and opportunity driven placement of the sales team to ensure proper coverage in line with TA (Therapeutic Area) requirements & review the same from time to time.
• Ensure the coaching process is firmly entrenched. Assess coaching plans and reports submitted and provide input on implementation as required.
• Implement appropriate recognition and incentive schemes to align the team with SSA and company goals; effectively manage the incentive and reward scheme process to drive performance.
• Facilitate regional and interdepartmental participation, collaboration, interaction, communication and support.

Provides input to develop strategic plans & leads execution of these plans

• Owns and delivers the Kenya business plan as approved by Country Director- SSA to align teams with SSA and company goals; to own Kenya country strategic plan, define local strategies to maximize and consolidate market-share.
• Assess and prioritize commercial opportunities and works with medical & medical teams to deliver country tactical plan in line with country, customer, employees and organizational needs.
• Support the commercial teams with market intelligence towards development of annual marketing plans & oversees the implementation of the marketing strategy in close collaboration with other functions/teams to deliver country topline and bottom-line sales.
• Represent AstraZeneca with key customers across priority Therapeutic areas, opinion leaders, leading healthcare societies and other identified stakeholders in the country.

Driving Operational Excellence & compliance agenda

• Drive performance to ensure that country objectives and standards of performance are understood and owned by the team, anticipate and remove obstacles so that teams can deliver results and succeed.
• Ensure establishment of common purpose with distributors and manage delivery of distribution objectives to ensure availability of optimal inventory in the market.
• Consolidate feedback and forecasts from managers and provide quarterly forecasts on the budget and projected year end spend, market conditions and a thorough understanding the market place.
• Works in close collaboration with KAMs, Market Access and pricing teams to maximize the available growth opportunities in the market.
• Entrench a cost-conscious & compliance mindset among sales teams, monitor and ensure that key activities are delivered within budget, ROI framework & compliance frameworks.
• Ensure effective, accurate and coordinated systems are in place for monitoring and controlling the country’s performance against business plan and budget.
• Ensure team members utilize admin systems and meet admin requirements; ensuring accurate and current data availability.

Education, Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Essential

• Bachelor's Degree in Science.
• A business qualification such as BBA or MBA would be an advantage.
• Minimum of 10 years working experience in the commercial pharmaceutical industry with 3+ years in a senior manager role.
• An experience of MNC would be preferred, candidates with string track record in branded generics are also encouraged to apply.

Distinguished Competencies

• Drives results: Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances. Sets high performance standards.
• Customer focus: Builds strong customer relationships and delivers customer-centric solutions. Strong customer orientation with anticipating and adapting sales strategies.
• Action oriented: Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm. Courageous and assertive and able to influence others.
• Strong Business Acumen: Uses commercial awareness in country to identify and capitalize on opportunities for product, market development or service. Uses financial information systems which provide relevant, up-to-date information to allow for strategic decision-making. Ensures responsible expenditure and asset management to minimize exposure to risk of loss or damage. Maximizes return on investment.
• Industry knowledge: Demonstrates knowledge of the major issues facing the industry in country and the significant developments in a range of areas. Proactively keep abreast of issues of a broader nature and share information with management.
• Coaching/mentoring: Coaching/mentoring others in a range of tasks, relevant to their developmental needs. Demonstrates values in-line with the AstraZeneca values.