General Manager, North America (Finance)

Job Level:
General Management-Gm

Job Description:

Changing the World, One Kibble at a Time

Champion Petfoods is expanding! We are excited to announce we are looking for a General Manager, North America to join our rapidly growing company.

Champion Petfoods is an award-winning pet food crafter with a reputation of trust spanning 35+ years. From our humble beginnings, founded in a small town in Alberta, Canada, Champion - with its ORIJEN® and ACANA® brands - is a key player in the global premium pet food industry.

Our purpose, To Earn Pet Lover Trust Every Day so Pets Thrive for a Lifetime ,provides the foundation for our highest aspirations as a company. Being a partner to the communities that surround us - and the environment that sustains us - are top priorities.

We would love to hear from you if you are passionate about personal and professional growth and see yourself as a key player contributing to our continued success as an award-winning company.

Here's the scoop - Summary

The General Manager, North America, will be responsible for five key areas.

The first area is delivering double digit growth for $640M USD P&L across US and Canada with an advocacy and digital mindset first through independent pet, e-commerce, and strategic key accounts.

The second area is to build and develop an effective team by recruiting for the future, develop current associates, and anticipate future required capabilities like connected commerce and develop Build and Buy strategies to fit.

The third area is partner and leverage cross functional teams to deploy winning, share building portfolio strategy and innovation plans that align the existing brands and new brand propositions, brand strategy, price value equation, and product offering to be most successful across multiple markets by leveraging pet parent insights and understanding key category trends.

The fourth area is to lead and flex between push & pull business and customer models while accelerating into E-Commerce & Digital first businesses in Canada & US while building key strategic customer and external relationships.

The fifth area is to be an active member of the Champion leadership team and broader community by role modeling the 5 Principles and ELT behaviors. This role reports to the Champion President and will sit on a team of cross functional leaders.

What a typical day looks like

Build Long Term Strategy & Deliver P&L:

• Responsible for building the strategy to drive accelerated growth in Champion's North America region with a digital and advocacy first mindset.
• Develop winning, share-building, portfolio IVCP plans across independent pet, e-commerce, and strategic key accounts encompassing alignment with end-to-end Supply chain against expected product format shifts.
• Direct accountability for managing revenue, OVHD, and expenses in US and Canada, aligning cross functional teams with the Sales & Marketing strategy, and achieving goals established by the Executive Team.
• Creation and implementation of sales strategies and advocacy plans to grow sales with diverse channel dynamics within all product categories.
• Manage and grow independent pet, e-commerce, and strategic key accounts to achieve objectives including developing deep customer interface and relationships with business partners with an advocacy model first approach.

Building the Team:

• Defining overall organization structure needs and attract and develop talent to meet the growing organization's ambitions to support independent pet, e-commerce, and strategic key accounts.
• Developing and engaging a professional, dedicated and effective direct sales and distributor network capable of supporting Champion's brands and implementing market development strategies.
• Provide leadership through effective communication of vision, active coaching and development while comparing sales results to goals and taking appropriate action to correct when necessary.
• Hire top talent and build and manage a team of high performing demand associates who deliver with an advocacy and digital first mindset.

Building the Brand & Customers:

• Lead Joint Business Plans with strategic customers in independent pet, e-commerce, and strategic accounts to achieve mutual, long-term targets supported by cross functional resources.
• Partner closely with the CMO and VP MS&D, set and monitor market strategy, tactics and plans by leveraging brand performance through KPIs.
• Utilize quantitative and qualitative data and insights to understand customer and category needs to drive channel strategies that proactively build a roadmap of double-digit growth.
• Collaborate with internal teams to integrate brand and marketing support in all strategic initiatives and drive in-store and ecommerce velocity.
• Drive advocacy and digital business model through key partnerships such as Platinum Partners to ensure we growing the business through a push and pull model.
• Proactively utilize data and analytics to drive insights that inform key drivers of the forecast and year ending estimates and adjust business plans as necessary to deliver operating plan. Responsible for quality inputs to drive 98% customer service level.
• Work across Petcare ecosystem to support broader MARS initiatives with key strategic customers as needed.

Leadership Skills

• Strategic Visionary: The ideal candidate possesses a track record of driving high growth by developing long-term strategies for either business units of large companies or independent businesses. S/he should have demonstrated an ability to solve complex problems from both a strategic and operational perspective. S/he should have the ability to develop strategy incorporating trends in the industry, competitive issues and all other external factors, including acquisition opportunities. S/he should have also demonstrated the ability to transform their vision and strategy into business initiatives and priorities that are compelling.
• Results Orientated Demand Driver: The ideal candidate will have demonstrated the ability to consistently deliver outstanding operating and financial results in a high growth environment. S/he will have introduced substantive improvements to processes, operations, or practices throughout a large portion of his/her business. S/he will also have demonstrated a track record of creating unique value for customers and satisfying customer needs while delivering superior financial results. The candidate will also have created new approaches to existing problems that have had a significant impact on his/her business, and will have implemented world-class and leading-edge performance standards. The ideal candidate will possess strong commercial acumen in dealing with and developing customers in an omnichannel ecosystem and have a highly customer-centric business philosophy.
• Inspirational Team Leadership: The ideal candidate will continue to build deep organization strength to impact the future growth and profitability of the business while fostering a strong purpose-driven culture. S/he should be focused on coaching and mentoring his/her senior leadership team and consistently bring in best-in-class performers to ensure continued growth and success of the business. The ideal candidate will possess the ability to effectively motivate others to achieve goals and objectives, and maintain and build upon the Team's high performance culture.
• Outstanding Influencing and Partnering Skills: S/he must be highly perceptive and able to understand the needs and priorities of core stakeholders and integrate or influence each to drive towards action. The individual must show gravitas and be a confident and persuasive communicator who can motivate across all levels of the organization as well as with external partners.

What you'll bring

Functional/Technical Qualifications

• P&L leadership: freedom to invest, drivers of margin growth, DIB. A&P management, full P&L leadership.
• Brand Building and Innovation Deployment: Brand Building, Consumer Centricity, how brands grow, consumer targeting (strategic target), purpose , driving winning innovation.
• Portfolio Leadership: Strategic Customer & Category Management, Creating Compelling Strategies, Making Bold Choices, Portfolio Leadership, scale, simplification, brand roles within a portfolio strategy.
• Digital experience at Senior Level: either D2C, Dcomm, DDM. Demonstrating an understanding of data & analytics & digital-first growth mind-set.
• Pricing & SRM: pricing strategy, pricing floors, PPA, pricing governance, optimizing price & promotions, SRM, modelling.
• Market Strategy & deployment: go to market strategy, channel strategy, activation principles.
• Negotiating: understanding break points, identify common ground, and build long term customer strategies that benefit Champion and the customer.

Leadership Competencies

• Delivers Exceptional Results: consistently achieving results even under difficult circumstances; handles conflict effectively and operates with composure even when the outcomes are unclear.
• Managing Complexity: Influencing and dealing with senior stakeholders.
• Strategic Mindset: Seeing ahead to the future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.
• Organizational Navigation: Effectively builds formal and informal networks across Champion and MARS as well as externally.
• People Smart: Hires top talent, develops top talent, and builds effective cross functional teams.
• Commitment to Personal Development: Actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels.
• Business Insights & Tech Savvy: Applying knowledge of business and marketplace to advance organization's goals; Anticipating and adopting innovations in business building digital and technology applications.
• Strong preference for North America leadership experience.

What can you expect from Champion?

• Safety:A strong commitment to ensure all people are provided with a safe, healthy and respectful environment.
• Earnings: USD $300,000-$450,000 a nnual salary, annual bonus eligibility, and 401k with company matching.
• Industry Competitive Benefits:Medical, dental, vision and employee assistance programs to meet your individual or family needs.
• Continuing Education:In house & online learning & development, as well as an education assistance program.
• Quality:a dedication to uphold the highest standards of authenticity, nutritional integrity, and food safety, to earn the trust of Pet Lovers everywhere.
• Other Perks:Free bag of premium pet food each month.

What are you waiting for? Join the pack!

Come as you are.

We value diversity in all forms and know the power it can bring. Workplace equality allows for creative ideas to bloom, diverse points of views to be heard, and increases overall happiness. That sounds pretty good to us.

Champion is an equal opportunity employer. Regardless of your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, veteran status, or any other creed, you are wanted here.

#cpfind

Skills:

Action Planning, Assessment, Builds Rapport, Compliance Management, Costing and Budgeting, Customer-Focused, Planning and Organizing, Policy and Procedures, Reporting, Verbal Communication

Competencies:
Balances Stakeholders, Builds Effective Teams, Customer Focus, Drives Vision and Purpose, Ensures Accountability, Financial Acumen, Instills Trust, Plans and Aligns, Situational Adaptability, Strategic Mindset

The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between the range listed above, however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including but not limited to, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.The total compensation package for this position mayalso include other elements, if eligible, including variable pay, medical and dental benefits, participation in 401k plan, and paid time off benefits. Eligibility for these additional elements depend on the position offeredand the employee's work schedule (i.e., part-time schedule, store associate). Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an applicant receives an offer of employment.