Position Details Designation: Cluster Head Business Unit: East Africa Function: Sales & Marketing Location: Kenya Reporting to: Senior Vice President and Business Head – MEA
Role Overview/Purpose: The Cluster Head – East Africa is a senior General Manager-level role responsible for leading and providing full oversight of Glenmark's commercial operations across the East Africa cluster. With a business volume of USD 35–40 Million, this role carries complete P&L accountability and serves as the most senior Glenmark leader in the geography. • The role holder is responsible for driving revenue growth, optimizing profitability, and executing commercial strategies aligned to Glenmark's overall business objectives — delivering targeted KPIs in the short, medium and long term across Net Sales, Gross Contribution, EBITDA and Net Cash Flow. This requires leading a crossfunctional commercial team of Country Managers and functional specialists, while maintaining strong relationships with regional leadership, global functions, and key external stakeholders. • The Cluster Head will focus on building a high-performance commercial organization, establishing the right goto-market models across diverse East African markets, and ensuring that Glenmark grows its rank, market share and brand presence in a sustainable, compliant and impactful manner.
Overall Job Responsibilities: Key Responsibilities Financial Performance & P&L Ownership: • Own and deliver the cluster P&L — drive profitable year-on-year growth across East Africa markets. • Achieve or exceed the company's financial plans; maximize value by optimizing revenues and operating margins. • Ensure the right value and volume mix across sales lines to sustain demand-led growth in each operating market. • Meet budgeted Gross Contribution and EBITDA targets across the cluster • Ensure budgeted quarterly cash flows from operations; manage working capital and distributor credit discipline.
Sustainable Business Growth: • Drive the long-term growth strategy for the East Africa cluster across all markets. • Gain rank and market share growth in line with stated annual objectives. • Ensure a sustainable product portfolio and pipeline to deliver growth over the long-range plan. • Provide strategic and operational direction to business development initiatives to achieve portfolio goals through in-house developments, in-licensing and partnerships. • Review current business models and make appropriate changes to ensure sustainable presence in view of changing external environment. • Represent Glenmark at industry forums, regulatory meetings, seminars and external agency engagements to build corporate image across the cluster.
Sales Management: • Manage sales operations across the cluster including planning, budgeting, inventory management and demand forecasting. • Engage key customers in the private market — retail chains, distributors, wholesalers, 3rd party partners, KOLs, HCPs — to maximize in-market execution. • Ensure flawless execution of sales plans; hold country managers accountable to sales KPIs and milestones • Regularly analyses data and generate insights to take appropriate corrective actions and coursecorrect for high field productivity. • Deploy and monitor SFE tools and CRM systems to track field force performance and customer engagement.
Marketing Leadership: • Develop and execute marketing plans and commercial strategies to drive sales growth and market share across East Africa. • Ensure new product launch excellence and in-market product uptake; achieve launch targets by effectively managing marketing team and strategy execution. • Partner with regional and global brand teams to localize campaigns and ensure therapeutic area strategies are relevant for each market. • Govern marketing investment allocation and monitor promotional effectiveness across the cluster.
Process Excellence & Compliance: • Build robust planning processes to deliver desired business results across all East Africa markets. • Ensure compliance with all regulatory and legal norms as well as Glenmark's internal codes of conduct. • Manage partner relationships with key customers, distributors, wholesalers, pharmacy chains, hospital chains and other external stakeholders. • Stay informed on market trends, competitor activities and regulatory changes; ensure all commercial activities comply with local regulations, industry standards and company policies. • Manage Business Development deals and agreements (commercial and non-commercial)
Organizational Leadership & Capability: • Lead the East Africa cluster organisation in line with Glenmark's structure, values and matrix operating model. • Build and nurture a high-performance culture that out beats competition and drives accountability. • Build a strong, cross-functional organisation capable of driving regional performance and leveraging global capabilities. • Effectively network to ensure team members build positive relationships across the organisation and work collaboratively in a matrix structure for quick decisions. • Hire, develop and retain best-in-class commercial talent within the East Africa geography. • Coach and mentor Country Managers and direct reports; build a strong succession pipeline. • Drive people management excellence — build a high-performing, engaged and motivated team that consistently delivers on company objectives.
Key Relationships/Stakeholders External • Industry Associations & Trade Bodies • Government Agencies & Regulatory Bodies (across EA markets) • Distributors, Wholesalers, 3rd Party Partners • Key Customers – KOLs, HCPs, Hospital Chains, Retail Chains
Internal (other than Direct Reports) • SVP & Business Head – MEA • MEA Leadership Team • EEM Leadership Team • Country Managers / Sub-cluster Heads (Direct Reports) • Regional & Global Functional Leads (Marketing, Finance, HR, Regulatory, Supply Chain) • CMD / Global Leadership
Desired Experience and Knowledge Educational Knowledge • University Degree in Science / Pharmacy and/or Master's Degree in Marketing / International Business. • MBA from a reputed institution strongly preferred.
Experience • 10+ years of experience in the Pharmaceutical industry with experience in managing P&L or leading Sales / Marketing teams of sizable scale. • Minimum 3–5 years in a country manager or cluster leadership role with direct commercial ownership. • Proven track record of growing businesses in emerging / African markets; East Africa experience strongly preferred. • Track record in General Management including oversight of sales, marketing, business development, portfolio management and all commercial functions, • Prior experience of having scaled a business significantly through product and market development initiatives. • Should have managed large teams and demonstrated consistent, above-plan sales results. • Should have managed full P&L responsibility — i.e. revenue and profitability targets. • Mixed experience in a local and global company is desirable.
Knowledge and Skills (Functional and Technical) • Therapy knowledge across Dermatology and Respiratory — Sales management skills, marketing management, new launch excellence. • Understanding of local Pharma (preferred) and Medical device market across East Africa. • Experience in generics, innovative / patent protected and OTC business segments; experience in one of the core TAs (Respiratory, Oncology, Dermatology) is a plus. • Thorough understanding of the pharma market landscape across East Africa. • Good understanding of regulatory frameworks and registration pathways in EA markets. • Good understanding of growth opportunities within the geography and ability to define a winning business model. • Strong commercial acumen — sales operations, marketing strategy, distribution management, SFE. • Resourceful, strategic and analytical thinker with strong commercial problem-solving skills. • Ability to deliver quality results on time and in a highly ethical and professional manner; compliance is a must. • Strong communication, negotiation and influencing skills — able to work across diverse, multicultural teams. • Organized and logical; high degree of flexibility to change direction when needed. • Data-driven mindset; ability to analyze market and field data to generate actionable insights
Key Attributes • High energy levels, passion and ownership mindset. • Ability to take necessary steps to manage change and transformation across the cluster. • Ability to provide clarity of direction and take decisive action under ambiguity. • Fast learner; open to change in a fast-growing company in a dynamically changing environment. • Ability to inspire, empower and coach teams and individuals for excellence. • Quick to translate strategy into actions; strong execution mindset. • Willing to take tough calls in the interest of the company and cluster. • Strategic mind set — ability to take a helicopter view of issues while maintaining execution focus. • Hands-on mindset with strong execution capability for short-term business excellence. • Strong influencing and interpersonal capability across internal and external stakeholders. • Honesty, integrity and the ability to thrive in large, multi-cultural environments. • Problem Solving and Analytical Thinking
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