Market Development Knowledge Transfer Lead at Bayer East Africa

Role purpose

The Knowledge Transfer Lead focuses on managing the development and deployment of resources and tools to provide sales, channel partners marketing and farmers (SHF and Commercial) the desired agronomy support throughout the year. The Knowledge transfer lead is responsible for delivering the right agronomy information, at the right time, in the right form and in the right places for field teams, distribution channels and farmers.

Key responsibilities and tasks

• Set the strategy and lead the execution of agronomy support resource deployment for SSA Commercial (Sales) field teams built upon customer centricity, tailored solutions and data driven decision making principles.
• Lead initiatives to enable field teams to gain the technical knowledge and use resources to create value for farmers by providing crop, disease, insect, weed, soil, nutrient, traits, hybrid and farm management insights to optimize crop performance.
• Assess and understand customers’ agronomy support needs and trends, communications methods, farming practices and educational interests throughout a year.
• Enable the scale and reach of agronomy information to farmers by helping field teams amplify their reach using digital communication tools including texts and social media.
• Lead the development and execution of field team competence and confidence initiatives
• Establish the technical training approach for SSA Commercial in collaboration with regional leadership and sales management.
• Drive the development of resources and learning opportunities to enable employees to generate product demand, make crop management recommendations, execute field trials and address challenges proactively to improve farmer outcomes.
• Build expertise by providing educational resources and learning opportunities to enable employees to generate product demand, make crop management recommendations, execute field trials and address challenges proactively to improve farmer outcomes.
• Collaborate with SSA CCL’s, Country Leads, Digital Lead and Customer Marketing to effectively deliver agronomic support, information and insights throughout the distribution system to enhance the customer experience across all product brands.
• Partner to drive alignment, anticipate issues, distribute agronomic content, reduce redundancy, ensure alignment, provide support for key business drivers and communicate agronomic focused research.
• Drive the use of digital multi-media, tools and training methods to reach employees and customers. Identify, evaluate and execute the development of digital agronomy tools to reach farmers.
• Enable the scale and reach of agronomy information to farmers by helping field teams amplify their reach using digital communication tools including texts, social media T&T, Lead and Advisor.
• Collect and analyze digital agronomy communications farmer data, evaluate online tactic performance, and leverage social media metrics to support decisions.
• Develop, implement, standardize and measure impact of knowledge transfer initiatives with a mindset of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Champion project management best practices, tools and systems related to governance, process mapping, measurement and resource management
• Drive consistency, accuracy, timeliness and efficiency in the development and delivery of agronomic resources and experiences. 

Experience, Skills and Qualifications

• MSc degree in Ag/Life Sciences or related discipline or BSc Degree with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in agricultural research.
• Superior understanding of crop production which includes relevant crops for the region.
• Good working knowledge of Crop Protection Industry and Seed Business  
• Excellent relationship and team skills
• Understanding of implications of actions on the achievement of BCS short term and long-term objectives.  
• Advanced written, verbal, and presentation skill set   
• Excellent organization and time management
• Proactive partner with sales to exceed business targets
• Fluency in English