Fragrance and Flavours Portfolio Procurement Manager B&W and Foods

Job Title: Fragrance and Flavours Portfolio Procurement Manager B&W and Foods

Procurement Team: Sourcing | Raw Materials – Fragrances and Flavours

Organization: Procurement/Supply Chain

Work Location: Mumbai HO, India

Role’s key contribution:

This role is part of Procurement’s Sourcingteam, which is responsible for leading supplier relationships, and possessing and delivering Value Chain Expertise, Scale & Global Leverage and Sourcing Best Practices.

Your role is to source Fragrances and Flavours aligned to the Business Group and Supply Chain Strategy for B&W / Foods. You will be responsible for leading the innovation agenda, focussed on desire at scale and unmissable product superiority in the Fragrances & Flavours portfolio for the B&W / Foods Business Groups. You need to ensure you have best in class service, partnerships, the most competitive prices and genuinely committed to Unilever’s sustainably led business model, connected with Unilever and the business agenda.

The role is based in Mumbai, India and reports into the Fragrance & Flavours Procurement Director. You will work in close partnership with the Global Senior Manager for B&W Fragrances and Foods Flavours

Responsibilities of the Role:

• You are a strategy guru: You lead the co-creation of the innovation agenda for your portfolio. You monitor and understand the dynamically changing consumer market, ensuring a future fit trend driven portfolio, delivering desirability at scale and affordable superiority. With a focus on emerging technologies, you lead the development of not only the current portfolio, but future capabilities.

• You are external facing and an expert in the supplier landscape: You assess, identify, and select the appropriate supplier base that meet the needs of the business. You ensure and manage overall performance of suppliers and surpass stakeholder needs.

• You take considered decisions under pressure: You handle complex and diverse customer, supplier, supply chain or operational issues within generally defined practices and policies in selecting methods and techniques for obtaining solutions.

• You are a born leader: You are a leader of procurement projects in your portfolio and for your materials. You take on a role leading portfolio wide activity such as accurate price forecasting and complexity reduction.

• You are a storyteller: You use your strategic influencing skills to drive Procurement considerations and strategic recommendations with Stakeholders.

• You create growth for Unilever: You work closely with Brand, R&D, Supply Chain, Strategy and Insights and Category Procurement teams to support the launch of innovations and new product development.

• You achieve key financial targets: Delivering the business financial targets for Buying Performance, Product Superiority and Complexity reduction for the portfolio materials/services and suppliers. You prepare information on purchase prices and conditions to enable proper budgeting and cash forecasting.

Key Skills

To drive additional value from the unique position you are in, you need to be excellent in:

• Procurement Sourcing Strategy – (level 2 - Capable) 

• Ability to find, evaluate and select the best suppliers to drive savings, increase value and manage risk.

• Supplier Analysis – (level 3 - Intermediate) 

• Ability to assess the weaknesses and strengths of prospective and current suppliers with respect to their – availability of capable staff, business model, capacity, sales revenue, stocks, reputation, mark-ups, mark-downs, gross margins, quality, service, reliability, pricing policies, payment terms, etc.​

• Value Chain Understanding – (level 3 - Intermediate) 

• A value chain is a set of activities that an organization carries out to create value for its customers. Value Chain understanding is the ability to understand how the company makes value, by understanding all the activities and how they connect. Understanding the value chain allows us to look for ways to add more value.

• Supplier Negotiation – (level 3 - Intermediate) 

• Successful negotiations are not a win-lose proposition. The best negotiations result in a win for all parties, which leads to stronger relationships and a desire to continue a partnership that is mutually beneficial.

• During the procurement process, a negotiation between corporate buyers and sellers is the first step in developing a supply contract which has a direct effect on profit or loss. To be a good negotiator you need to: prepare and plan, be knowledgeable about the subject matter negotiated; be able to think clearly and rapidly under pressure and uncertainty; be able to express thoughts verbally; be a good listener; have sound judgment and integrity; and be able to persuade others.

• Contract Negotiation – (level 2 - Capable)

• Contract negotiation is the process of coming to an agreement on a set of legally binding terms. When two companies negotiate, both parties seek to obtain favourable terms and minimize financial, legal, and operational risk.

• Sourcing Resilience – (level 3 - Intermediate)

• Ability to run procurement operations to focus not only on 'just in time' but also on 'just in case', by anticipating and planning for uncertainty. It does involve finding robust alternative suppliers and anticipate situations that can have an impact on such as: out of stock, bankruptcy, climate issues...

• Stakeholder Management – (level 3 - Intermediate)

  • Ability to identify and then understand the motivations and behaviours of anyone who can affect what you are trying to achieve on a project; then developing relevant strategies to influence outcomes.

• Strategic Partnerships – (level 3 - Intermediate)

  • Ability to join forces with like-minded strategic partners to reach objectives that would be unattainable if going solo.

  • Ability to adopt a deliberate approach to ensure the planned benefits of the relationship are achieved. This includes:

    • developing and maintaining strong individual relationships with your strategic partner and its stakeholders

    • obtaining a deep analytical understanding of your strategic partner and the relationship

    • defining a clear strategy & plan for the strategic relationship

    • ensuring a strong governance, monitoring, and evaluation of the strategic relationship

    • and regularly refreshing and adapting your approach to the strategic relationship

• Collaboration – (level 3 - Intermediate)

• Enables people within an organization or outside an organization to engage with each other productively and efficiently.

• Program Management (level 3 - Intermediate)

• Lead the planning and implementation of key change programmes.

Additional Skills:

…. related below core procurement skills:

• Cost Models (level 2 - Capable)

• Contract Management (level 2 - Capable)

• Supplier Relationship Management (level 3 - Intermediate)

• Service Risk Management (level 2 - Capable)

• Digital Dexterity (level 2 - Capable)

• Data Driven Decision Making (level 2 - Capable)

• Effective Communication (level 3 - Intermediate)

• Change Management (level 2 - Capable)

• Strategic Influencing (level 3 - Intermediate)

• Critical Thinking (level 2 - Capable)

• Business Acumen (level 2 - Capable)

Knowledge of the Fragrance portfolio is not a skill, but it is essential to be effective in a Raw Materials role.

Key Standards of Leadership:

• Business Acumen – Creates new opportunities for profitable growth through the core and beyond.

• Passion for high performance - Generates intensity & focus to motivate people to deliver results at speed.

• Talent catalyst - Inspires powerful teamwork & collaboration, connecting people for better results.

• Consumer Love – Understand the role of fragrance as a key driver of consumer preference and product superiority.

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Skill Levels explained: see image below.