Account Manager Japan - Global Travel Retail

About Us

Diageo is the world’s leading premium drinks company with an outstanding collection of brands, such as Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness. Our purpose – Celebrating life, every day, everywhere – has an important role in our company, for our people, our diversity, our brands, in how we perform and how we create shared value.

Pre-Covid Global Travel (GT) was the fifth largest NSV and third largest operating profit market for Diageo (Pre-Covid-19) and is responsible for representing and selling Diageo products in more than 110 countries. GT has a global remit, operating as a market within the distinct channel of Travel Retail (TR) and is structurally organised to ensure our key customer facing roles are in close proximity to our key customers. GT has two commercial hubs; Europe and Americas operated from London and APAC & Middle East operated from Shanghai, with back office support provided from London and shared services teams.

Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected Consumer Products Company in the world. To achieve these, we need the world’s very best people.

Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you.

About You

The Account Manager role specifically has a huge responsibility in delivering our growth plan through excellent management of our Japan Travel Retail customers & world class execution of the commercial Joint Business Plans.

Delivery of the AOP through these customers and Brand Ambassadors is a key part of this role. Engaging & managing stakeholder relationships will be a driver to success. Market share growth is the number one metric of success and the candidate must have experience & capability to recognise the levers to increase Diageo share.

About The Role

The role requires the Account Manager to live by the Diageo Leadership Standards every day in order to manage a fast moving multi-cultural business. The business operates within a very ambiguous environment with complex market conditions, customers & consumers.

• Manage & deliver the P&L and leads S&OP & AOP cycle.
• Excellent forecasting skills, across all metrics: depletions, shipments, Trade Spend & A&P
• Regular audits & reviews of distributor customer performance vs. the agreed commercial scorecard. Holding the customers to account & agreeing action plans to close the gaps
• Entrepreneurial & creative mind-set, which delivers interventions to over-achieve all KPI’s whilst closing any risks to plan. Expert at commercial scenario planning to deliver opportunities at pace
• Agrees Joint Business Plans/Diageo 365 essentials which deliver long term, sustainable value for all stakeholders
• Lead cross-functional team work with finance, customer marketing etc. to create exceptional JBPs
• Build trade plans that delight our local consumers at the POP and create exceptional on/off-trade experiences for our consumers whilst still delivering category growth and increasing Diageo share
• Ensure airport level world class Every Day Great Execution, on-time, every time & communication, design etc. is as per Diageo Global Brand Standards
• Ensure complete compliance & governance for all projects is in place & relevant SOAs/Policies adhered to without question
• Building exceptional relationships, and maintaining these despite difficult commercial negotiations will be critical to success in this role

Experience Required/Skills/Capabilities

• Relevant Client Management/ Key Account Management experience including complex and difficult negotiations
• Extremely agile in being able to move from Strategy Planning to Implementation – candidate must have a proven ability in developing and implementing strategy, solving complex problems and effective decision making, whilst then also being passionate about execution and being able to drive projects through to completion.
• Needs to be proactive, driven and resilient – a self motivator who thrives in ambiguity and can overcome obstacles / find solutions.
• Ruthless attention to detail – for commercial planning and in delivering on execution.
• Able to inspire a multifunctional sales team and bring the team on a journey to success
• Excellent understanding of P&L management
• Proficiency in both English and Japanese, or equivalent skills to work with both Japanese customer and international colleague.

Diversity statement

Celebrating our inclusive and diverse culture is core to Diageo’s purpose of “celebrating life every day everywhere”. This purpose is, in itself, inclusive in nature, as it values everybody irrespective of background, disability, religion, gender identity, sexuality or ethnicity.

We know that for our business to thrive and for Diageo to realize its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the 180 countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base. We view diversity as one of the key enablers that helps our business to grow and our values, purpose and standards set the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution each person brings.

Flexibility is key to success in our business and many of our staff work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time, compressed hours, flexible location. Please talk to us about what flexibility means to you and don’t let anything stop you from applying.