Commercial Director

Commercial Director
Reports to: Managing Director
Level: Senior Management

Background:

Having completed several years of intense realignment resulting in significant performance improvement, the Leadership Team are focussed on the vision for the future and myriad possibilities ahead. The right candidate will bring new thinking to our team and enable us to build on, and shape, the progress we have made to date. We are at the exciting stage of having a broad set of opportunities (both organic and acquisitive) in which the Group Board are prepared to invest. This is a unique opportunity to lead a period of radical activity to help propel the business to the next level and help shape longer term cultural development embracing innovation and execution.

Journey:

After achieving early strategic alignment with the MD and the wider senior team (FD & HRD), the role will have considerable autonomy to shape the future of the business. In order to realise our longer–term potential we recognise the need to invest in our bench–strength and this is a key consideration in the recruitment of this role.

With a start–up mentality you will develop and experiment with new business models and value propositions moving from concept, execution and incubation before moving the model into a BAU state where we can achieve and support the scale that has been identified. With this remit, the need for opportunity evaluation and sequencing will be critical. You will need to demonstrate early successes in this area that will give confidence to the Group Board for further investment.

At present the opportunities that have been identified are built to support a strategy to maximising the potential in our core market "people in property" by leveraging the core business platform. This will be important to both maximise our route to market for existing products/services and to build a market share in The UK SmartHome fulfilment sector. With this in mind, the individual will have a real appetite for digital transformation and a track record in its delivery.

Key Outputs/Metrics

New product and service development growth – EBITDA, P&L, working capital and cash flow
Positive performance metrics
Customer satisfaction
Engaged and motivated team
Offers new thinking, ways of working and quickly becomes a key member of the Leadership Team
Essential qualifications and experience

Given the broad remit of this role, it is likely that the ideal candidate who ticks all the boxes does not exist. However we are looking to meet individuals that have the right experience in a good proportion of the specification and more importantly the intellectual capability, emotional experience and core commitment to be able to succeed.

The ideal candidate will have a start–up mentality and agile approach to operating. You will be passionate about building businesses and excited by being able to do that in a way that supports the vision. You will be able to produce growth engines that leverage the current platform and fuel the company's future growth.

You will believe that anything is possible; not with blind unsubstantiated optimism but a pragmatic "why not" approach. You persevere. You have the vision, combined with strong enthusiasm, high energy and strong work ethic to encourage and drive your teams to achieve.

You have experience of building businesses from scratch and know how to execute. You can design and construct the right operating environment for your team to develop and learn.

Cultural development is key and taking the Leadership team on the journey with you will be vital.

You're comfortable with uncertainty. You don't fear failure. You see failure as an opportunity to learn and iterate toward a solution.

You understand how to balance priorities across the organisation and how to work with your peers and other senior managers in a pragmatic and diplomatic manner. You address conflict head–on with one focus in mind: secure the resources you need to execute your ideas.

Further key attributes:

Self–starter, team player
Low ego and humble – able to roll up sleeves and get involved – Understand the importance of our blue– collar workforce
Ability to inspire and energise with strong influencing skills
Strong network to support team and customer development
Significant experience in business services
Proven ability to land new large projects into a business from start to finish
Prior experience in the insurance market and/or ecommerce retail preferable but not essential
Experience of leading or involvement in digital marketing teams
Experience of developing strategic alliances, strategic suppliers, joint ventures
Track record of delivering successful and sustainable ecommerce projects
Acquisition experience
Key Accountabilities & Activities

The right candidate will play a key role in the future leadership of the organisation which will shape and evolve the role. However we envisage activity in the following key areas:

Business Growth and Marketing

Customer experience and brand development based on a customer journey that exceeds customer expectations, supports the core business conversion and delivers new revenue streams
Marketing strategy and marketing from 'the inside out'
Digital Transformation

Leads digital development that moves us into a market leading position – Low base currently, significant improvement required
Maximise our general route to market through the insurer channel and pave the way for a broader range of services which are delivered using technology and support a self–serve model
Further identification and realisation of synergy benefits in post M&A and core operational plans
New Propositions

Incubate new ideas that leverage the current core business and support our future growth:
Explore the use of big data to create new propositions that add value to our insurer clients and customers
Explore direct to consumer propositions which leverage the core business infrastructure and b2b channel (e.g. Insurer led SmartHome activity )
Support M&A to further accelerate growth
We envisage that the individual will be able to add immediate value to the organisation and that assuming responsibility for several key functions will support their development agenda including:

Marketing and Digital

Individual will have managed and understood marketing in previous roles, understand the importance of brand and reputation and as such will be able to recruit and develop a team that will quickly build tactical momentum and set the tone for further development in this area
Support brand consistency and raise awareness in existing b2b channels to further drive brand development with "people in property"
Focus on marketing through the whole customer lifecycle and beyond with progressive approaches to Ecommerce implementation
Use digital to improve the customer journey and, in turn, the customer experience with focus on self– serve in order to remove customer pain points
Link proposition improvement to this activity with the implementation of "options" based selling in order to fulfil the core business vision
Supply Chain

We have identified that the transformation of our supply chain is critical over the next 12–24 months and to realise the potential of innovation as envisaged, this component of our platform will need to be in place and as such the successful candidate will develop and lead this programme
Resource function effectively
Review commercial agreements to improve efficiency and margin • Sourcing reviews and improvements
OEM programme
Benefits for you:

Very competitve basic salary
Highly rewarding bonus scheme
Executive company vehicle
Pension scheme
Opportunity to progress within an amazing business
If you are interested then please apply and a member of our team at RSD Recruitment will be in touch