Director, Commercial

This role leads the strategy formation and execution of APLL's commercial strategy within the assigned region and driving the next 3-5 years' growth ambition focused on partnership development, value creation and technology, with the aim of building APLL's presence and brand awareness in the respective region. This role is responsible for identifying and leading new business opportunities by tracking new and emerging trends in the supply chain industry and works closely with core teams like the Product Development Director to provide insights/recommendations on how to support a growth partnership with key strategic clients. The two key core focus areas for this role is revenue and profitable growth i.e. converting prospects in to customers (Business Development) and increasing share of wallet with existing customers (Key Account Management).

Responsibilities

Strategy Formation and Implementation

• Lead the development of the commercial strategy within the assigned region with the core objective of driving revenue and growth in the region. Ensure the strategy is successfully implemented and meets immediate, medium- and long-term regional business needs through cross team collaboration (i.e. Operations). 

• Responsible for overall region's targets (i.e. Contribution Margin (CM), Budget, Revenue); contribute and provide insights to inform global business growth. 

• Provides overall leadership of Key Account Management, Business Development, Supply Chain Development, Product Development and Marketing across the assigned geographies.

Business and Customer Relationship Development 

• Accountable for targeted commercial growth through development and sales of product in the assigned Line of Business(es) (LOBs), underpinned by Ocean Freight, Air Freight, Contract Logistics and Vendor Logistics service offerings.

• Proactively identify new business opportunities to increase APLL's presence in the region through tracking new and emerging trends in the supply chain industry. Strives to optimize alignment with emerging customer preferences.

• Manage strategic client and customer relationships by understanding customer needs, challenges and requirements, and being an advocate for customers internally within APLL. Provides executive sponsorship to ensure that customer needs are met and gaps in service are bridged, whilst supporting APLL's long term growth and ambitions.

• Understand customers' key priorities/objectives and think of ways to enhance customer relationship, and to bring continuous value creation to customers.

• Develop and maintain personal relationships with key clients to facilitate business acquisition and retention.

• Use of “Sales Force” package for driving the sales process.

• Develop clear SOP with the customers, identifying target KPIs, managing expectation of customers.

Strategic Marketing Initiatives

• Take overall responsibility for the design, development and delivery of APLL's marketing strategy for the assigned region. 

• Identify ways for new market development including generation of leads and creation of marketing campaigns to build APLL's company presence and expand its brand awareness.

Cross-Functional and Stakeholder Engagement

• Identify and manage stakeholders up to C-suite level finding out their needs/ issues/concerns and reacting to these by leading and coordinating the development of stakeholder engagement plans to support the communication of business information and decisions. Stay overall accountable to the CCO in your assigned region (For Asia, this role reports to the Asia COCO).

• Provide advice, insights, suggestions or recommendations to core teams like the Product Development Director on new products / services, how to better deliver to meet customer needs and support a stronger partnership with key clients, so as to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Collaborate with Finance to track profitability of accounts; manage credit worthiness reports on customers and manage accounts receivables. Manage functional budget and ensure spends are within approved budget. Lead the team in the annual budgeting exercise.

• Collaborate with HR to set up Sales team within the region and manage the team.

Key Account / Program Management

• Oversees the execution of all key programs assigned to global strategic clients; track progress and issues faced by teams reporting into this role (e.g., business development, account management).

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Organizational and Team Capability Building

• Work closely with the Operations team to identify the capabilities needed to meet the current and emerging business needs within the region.

• Evaluate current capabilities, identify gaps, and prioritize development activities to increase the skills and capabilities of the team to better deliver / execute key commercial strategies aligned to APLL's overall strategic direction.

Qualifications

General Experience

• Minimum 20 years’ experience in an International Logistics or Freight Forwarding company.

• Proven experience in P&L and budget management.

• Proven commercial acumen and strong grasp of financial reporting. 

Managerial Experience

• Strong leadership background and experience in managing large and diverse teams.