Assistant Portfolio and Category Manager

JOB PURPOSE:

Category Lead plays a critical and important role in the day-to-day operational support of the Portfolio Management Team. This position is responsible for handling decisions and strategies for the assigned category.

The Category Lead is tasked to support the Group Category Manager in handling the supplier negotiations, volume, value, gross profit, forecast, strategic plans and programs of the assigned category.

SUMMARY OF RESPONSIBILITIES

Primary Functions

Planning and Goal Setting. Creating action-oriented long range and short range plans that turn strategy into action

• Ensures Delivery of Volume and Sales Objectives for the Categories handled;

• Establishes category strategies (which includes program objectives, volume and revenue projections, trade spend/budget requirements, etc.) that will take advantage of identified opportunities pursuant to the attainment of Sales deliverables;

• Leads supplier negotiations and the development of promo and merchandising plans for the category;

• Develops and deploys sales materials in line with category strategies working with Marketing and Retails promotions unit;

• Reviews and conducts regular cadence meetings across category functions to discuss category scorecards, canvass drives and give directions and guidance (corrective if necessary) on means and ways to improve performance and achieve results;

• Performs detailed analysis and carries out regular reviews of trends and progress of brand shares, category sales, promotion evaluation & volume performance per category / channel;

• Maps and tracks competitive landscape;

• Leads sales forecasting by category, by brand, by SKU;

• Point of contact for the short-term 3 month forecast achievement of new product launched for the category;

• Leads monthly Promo Planning Meeting with Sales and with Marketing and S&OP team as a critical process in the forecasting cycle;

• Undertake systematic and regular trade visits (minimum of 6 working days per month to check on execution and documents results of fieldworks, identifying gaps and opportunities or proving any hypothesis from data, and formulating and recommending action plans;

• Works with product sourcing team to evaluate new product launches and development of Housebrand SKUs;

• Organization and People Development. Developing the Right Organization that will support business/department goals; developing talents (competency and behavior) and building spirited teams, fostering collaboration;

• Leads and develops the Category Manager / Leads and Analysts in all executional aspects of the daily operations.

Achievement of Key Result Areas for assigned categories:

1. Revenue
2. Trade spending vs. budgets vs revenues
3. Gross Margin
4. Distribution
5. Forecast Accuracy
6. Overall inventory health of key categories – working with inventory planning
7. NPI speed of introduction
8. Service metrics- serve rate
9. Category Sales and Category Initiatives Update vs Plans
10. Sales & Marketing Calendar
11. Promo Planning Materials

JOB REQUIREMENTS

A. EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Educational Attainment

• Bachelor's degree from four-year college or university on any medical, marketing, or business related course.

Experience

• Minimum 3-5 years experience in trade marketing, category management / buyer and with preferred experience in FMCG sales, retail, pharmacies, or pharmaceutical companies.

B. COMPETENCIES

• Strong communication skills both written and oral, with ability to switch hats between technical speak and business language
• With good business acumen and effective analytical / problem-solving skills
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Accurate and keen eye for details
• Computer literate with Advanced Microsoft Excel skills is a must
• Strategic and can work with minimal supervision
• Preferably with pharmaceutical product knowledge