CROP FOCUS: CROP CARE

ROLES

• The Portfolio Manager is the manager of his/her crop and is the voice of the customer interfacing between the market and the product development team.
• This Portfolio Manager is accountable for driving the crop master planning for his/her assigned crop and manages the full life cycle of the product from concept to product development, launch, communicating the product value that will lead to a sale, and finally, extend or end product life while ensuring the financial health and competitive positioning of the crop in the market.
• As a team leader, the Portfolio Manager (PM) is expected to provide direction to his/her team, manage their performance and ensure successful delivery of results.
• Works closely with the AVP Sales and Marketing, Technical Operations, Sales Managers, Finance and Accounting

RESPONSIBILITIES

Brand Management

• Identifies and establishes the brand positioning of the different products within the crop portfolio aligned with the overall marketing strategy of the company.
• Develops strategies to build and market the brand through various marketing programs and activities.
• Regularly tracks brand performance versus competition. Provides solutions to continuously strengthen/evolve the brand and protect brand equity. Discusses market insights and recommendations with concerned department/s for action and submit as a quarterly report to the President and Chairman.

Crop Portfolio Management

• Guided by the company’s growth plans and financial targets, is responsible for crop portfolio planning, product life cycle management, product positioning and pricing.
• Ensures that the company’s crop portfolio plan is aligned with the overall crop master plan.
• Liaises and agrees with Demand Planner on min and max of stock buffers for the company. Monitors over/under selling with Sales and liaises with Seed Production to ensure stock production alignment.
• Provides information for management by preparing short-term (1 year) and long-term product (3 years) sales forecasts and special reports and analyses; answering questions and requests.

Product Development and Market Introduction

• Works collaboratively with Technical Operations- R&D Team, Sales Manager in developing new product concepts that meets the specific market requirements while finding opportunities to leverage new concepts.
• Monitors the product development process and keeps track of the agreed timelines. Gather key updates from each stage and discuss the results with key stakeholders as part of the ‘gate review’ process before advancing the product development to the next stage. Ensures that all identified issues in each stage are promptly resolved. Keeps the team abreast of significant market updates so that adjustments in the plan are made accordingly.
• Responsible for planning and organizing new product launches/ introduction activities. Summarizes the pre and post market introduction results for sharing with stakeholders.

Market Intelligence

• Takes the lead in collecting data regarding market and competition, new and emerging needs, trends, practices and issues related to our crops from multiple sources of information (ex. farmers, vegetable traders, seed producers, seed distributors, seed shop owners/sellers, market vendors, industrial channels, consumers).
• Consolidates, analyzes and summarizes data. Discusses market insights and recommendations with concerned department/s for action.
• Produce a post-marketing campaign report to be submitted to the Chairman of the Board and President seven (7) calendar days after the campaign, highlighting number and demographics of attendees, media coverage, and total budget used.

Marketing Communication

• Guided by the brand and product strategy, develops marketing communication materials/tools that highlights the differentiating features, advantages and benefits (FAB) of our products versus competition.
• In coordination with the Corporate Communication Manager, ensure media coverage of trade shows, fairs and other marketing campaigns.
• Provide inputs and/or trains salesforce on how to use available marketing tools to support value-based selling to customers.
• Gathers customer and market feedback (especially on new product launches) by regularly participating in field visits, market visits, sales events, and interacting with farmers, traders, distributors, seed shop owners, sellers, brokers, consumers, and employees from Sales and Technical Operations - R&D.

Financial Management

• Manages the top line sales forecast (based on 4-yr business plan), profitability in collaboration with sales manager based on product portfolio strategy in terms of volume, value, and product mix.
• Plan the operating budget and ensure spending is controlled or kept within allowable limits for variance, in case of unforeseen circumstances. Prepares business cases for CAPEX requirements, as applicable.
• Accountable for delivering the financial targets of the crop and maintaining the financial health and competitive position of the product lines. Reviews performance of product lines (i.e. total sales revenue, new product sales contribution, profitability, market share, market positioning, customer value perception) and takes proactive actions to course-correct.
• Report ROI of marketing campaigns highlighting new businesses created and total sales change.

QUALIFICATIONS / KEY SUCCESS FACTOR

• Experienced (average of 2 years) in Sales, marketing, gained from an agriculture industry
• Strong sense of business ownership vs mere ‘product ownership’ (thinking and acting like a true enterprise owner) and passionate to deliver results
• Balances all important factors when making decisions (customer needs, company expectations/capabilities/limitations, competition)
• Sharply analytical and data management savvy yet remains intuitive
• Effective communicator; able to package and deliver messages in a clear and convincing manner and able to influence the right action from audience
• Strong execution capability
• A natural orchestrator; able to keep the team moving along the same direction and same pace
• High degree of creativity and innovativeness
• Agile

WORK SET-UP

• Office & Field based employee.