Market Collaboration Lead (all genders)

at  Mars

JOB DESCRIPTION:

This role exists to enable the creation of the demand plan(s) that will be created for the Mars Wrigley segment led organisation. The demand plans are critically important for the organisation because they are used as the basis for decision making in the signature processes, S&OP+ and S&OE.
The job holder will own the creation of the consensus forecast for a portfolio of the cluster demand plan over the required horizon. The job holder will assess historical actual trends, future statistical trends, identify the primary year on year forecast drivers, evaluate risks and opportunities, and manage upside and downside scenarios in collaboration with Sales, Marketing, Category and Finance teams.
The portfolio plans will include the Category, Sales or Marketing assumptions that will form the building blocks of the demand plans. The job holder will be accountable for ensuring the assumptions are clear to the Market Collaboration Head or Senior MCLs, who will take the plans for into the DMR for sign off by the Sales director.
The job holder will work in a team of associates located across the cluster. The reporting line could be to a remote line manager. They will be expected to manage a variety of local and regional senior stakeholders. The reporting line will be into the regional Enterprise Planning organization. The job holder will collaborate with the Supply Chain Director in their respective cluster. And they will need to build the confidence of the Cell and Account teams.

• Owns the Consensus forecast taking onboard the system input (and forecasting analyst inputs where applicable) as the major building block for their portfolio (in periods for the full horizon) to drive the supply plan.
• Ensures that demand plans are shared/received in the format, level of detail, accuracy and timing required by all business stakeholders and supply chain partners, with documented assumptions, to achieve the various business objectives.
• Understands drivers of base sales trends (last year, previous years and YOY), upside and downside scenarios.
• Assesses trends, risks and opportunities together with the Sales, Marketing, Category and Finance teams.
• Incorporates approved upside and downside scenarios on top of the system generated forecast at appropriate level of hierarchy.
• Monitors consumption versus forecast and works with product availability teams to respond to forecast evolution during the cycle.
• Collaborates across the E2E planning organization on risks and opportunities.
• Collaborates with product availability on the short-term demand plan assumptions.
• Reviews forecast performance metrics from previous cycle (and collaborates with Forecasting Analyst where applicable) to develop an action plan to improve performance.
• Applies Segmentation principles and FVA to ensure focus on value-add activities.
• Provides insights for their portfolio to the MCL Head / Senior MCL to share in the DMR.