Chief Sales & Operations Officer (CSO / COO) at Proten International

Proten International - Our client an Agricultural Franchise is a financially sustainable, high impact and highly scalable social enterprise, which is part-owned by the farmers it serves. Our client is an innovative model designed to serve the bottom of the pyramid and transform agriculture into a job creation engine. Through this agricultural franchise, Our client offers a suite of services to smallholder farmers, helping them to overcome the challenges of fragmentation and low economies of scale.

Our client has helped smallholder farmers increase their productivity by 2x the national average and profitability by 2.5x to 3x the national average. This social enterprise had grown to become Nigeria's single largest maize producing entity. Over the past 8 years of its operations, Our client has scaled to serve a cumulative of over 65,000 smallholders across 5 Northern states in Nigeria: Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi and Plateau states.

They are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Chief Sales & Operations Officer (CSO / COO)

Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Reports to: CEO

About the Position

• Our client seeks to hire an experienced and highly qualified Chief Sales Officer / Chief Operations Officer (CSO / COO) with a proven track record of delivering forward thinking services within a technology-oriented business that works with rural / low-income communities.
• The selected individual is expected to lead our core operations teams of Corporate Sales, Community Sales, Farmer Out-Grower Network Operations, Logistics / Supply & Distribution Operations.
• S / he will own the strategic plan for increasing our top-line revenue while efficiently managing operational resources.
• The individual will also drive the responsibility for Our client’s sales strategy, managing budgets and lead execution of a strategic roadmap to significantly grow the core business metrics.
• As a member of the senior leadership team, the CSO / COO will also be responsible for implementing and tracking effective KPIs for our large operations team.
• S / he will  partner with senior level personnel within the team to drive innovation and the continuous improvement of people and processes within the organisation.

Responsibilities
Sales:

• Responsible for planning, implementation, managing all the sales activities of Our client including setting revenue and activity targets for team members, existing customer / farmer member retention, new customer / farmer member acquisition, and product pricing.
• As a member of the senior management team, make key contributions to the formulation of the company’s short and long term sales and marketing strategies to drive business growth.
• Report sales performance against budget and any variances.
• Manage and optimize the product portfolio to target different customer segments.

Operations:

• Identify, design and implement customer-centric process improvements within the business.
• Lead efforts in recruiting, managing and retaining our small-holder farmers.
• Ensure critical inputs (seeds, fertilizers etc) are distributed to our farmer members on-time, conveniently and cost-effectively.
• Deeply understand customer needs and adjust service delivery models to efficiently serve our farmer members.
• Pilot, measure and iterate on new acquisition and expansion models to allow the business reach its ambitious scale targets of 1 million farmers by 2025.
• Optimize our logistics, warehousing and storage and distribution models to reduce transportation costs, handling costs and minimize inventory loss.
• Leverage technology and introduce new and innovation solutions to improve our business operations across the life cycle.

Leadership and Team Development:

• Ensure, on an ongoing basis, that current and planned sales and operations strategy are aligned with company business objectives.
• Work with a team to closely track targets, achieve key milestones and dynamically adjust strategy to changing market realities and constraints.
• Hire, develop, evaluate and retain a strong team of sales and operations professionals.
• Foster and reward a strong performance driven culture of owning and exceeding targets.
• Ensure that the sales organization operates with integrity and to the highest ethical standards.
• Develop and maintain a plan that provides for succession and continuity in the most critical Sales and Operations positions.
• Partner with business unit leaders and other functional heads to create and execute robust business plans that significantly expand the business to reach our goal of 1 million farmers.
• Define data-driven action strategies to consistently optimize Our client’s commercial performance.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree from a reputable university in Marketing, Business Administration, Business Management or any related field.
• 10+ years of progressively responsible sales and operations management experience in a fast growing organization preferably in an emerging market and / or agribusiness.
• An advanced degree or MBA is highly desirable.
• Proven and successful ability to lead a large team towards growth in increased sales volumes, revenue generation and operational improvements.
• Experience with and thrives in a fast paced, start-up environment with dynamic business priorities.
• Data-driven decision-making and analytical mindset with excellent problem-solving skills and strong business acumen.
• Ability to navigate a diverse range of stakeholders including senior executive teams, corporate boards, young professionals as well as bottom of the pyramid customers.
• Exceptional people leadership and communication skills (both oral and written) with an ability to articulate ideas in a persuasive manner.
• An entrepreneurial mindset coupled with an ability to inspire confidence and create trust while working under pressure.
• Passionate, self-driven individual who achieves results through teamwork and collaborative approaches.

Application Closing Date
31st August, 2020.