Head of KWS Serbia (m/f/d)
KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. Over 5,000 employees in more than 70 countries generated net sales of around €1.8 billion in the fiscal year 2022/2023. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for 165 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugar beet, cereals, vegetables, oilseed rape and sunflower. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests, and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested more than €300 million last fiscal year in research and development.
Join our dynamic team as the new Head of KWS Serbia (m/f/d), to lead the KWS commercial operations in Serbia (and satellite distribution markets - North Macedonia and Bosnia Hercegovina) of all crops focusing on serving customers through the optimal channel (semi-) direct, distributors, sugar industry), considering the individual crop objectives, strategies, and action plans as well as guidelines coming from KWS headquarters.
The position is permanent and will be filled on a full-time basis as soon as possible. The place of work is in Becej.
Key Responsibilities:
- Drives change and builds the structure of a cross-crop and customer centric organization in alignment with the Heads of Region
- Efficiently leads the commercial processes of a Customer Centric Organization
- Managing and administering the legal entity, KWS Srbija d.o.o., representing the company in front of authorities and ensuring that the company operates within the boundaries of local regulations and KWS Company standards. Represents KWS Srbija d.o.o. in front of customers or authorities in legal, financial and employer matters
- Leading the cross-crop sales, marketing, product development and logistics teams of KWS Srbija d.o.o. Fills open positions with appropriate candidates, stabilizes team size and structure, manages potential conflicts within organization
- Plan and define sales objectives and action plans together with the local Management Team, after analyzing figures and results, taking into consideration deadlines, feedback, skills, market situation incl. financial and economic development, and customers’ situation, to be able to achieve national objectives
- Manage and implement marketing and commercial policies and activities, aligned with the Head of Region, and together with the Product development & Marketing teams, taking into consideration sales objectives, campaigns, discounts and offers that could be implemented in the areas, to achieve the objectives of sales, brand awareness
- Ensure a sustainable team structure is in place for continuous team development, cross-functional collaboration, succession planning, compensation management, and disciplinary matters, working in close collaboration with Business Partner HR and ensuring global policies and procedures are respected
- Aligning processes and ensuring necessary reporting to HQ (Einbeck) and Administration Centre (Berlin)
Profile:
- University degree in agriculture or business administration fields (higher degrees would be an advantage)
- Strategic visionary and ethical awareness
- Target-oriented, and strong commitment to achieve target results
- Excellent organization, communication and analytical skills
- Ability to focus and prioritize
- Cooperative and able to manage conflict
- Resilient
- Excellent leadership skills
- Stakeholder & change management.
- Minimum 5 years of management experience in global companies, preferably in agriculture sector, leading large and diverse teams in matrix organizations.
- Knowledge of the Serbian Agricultural Input material sector (preferably hybrid seeds), or, alternatively, fertilizers of crop protection products dectors.
- Experience of leading a multi-tasking commercial organization
- Experience with commercial contracts, deals, legal issues
- Fluent in Serbian and English language (verbal and written)