About the position
Experience required for this role:
- Proven experience in business processes design and implementation
- Commercial expertise including: Agent management
- Africa Risk management experience will be advantageous.
- At least 5 years relevant experience in the clearing and forwarding industry, with a focus on African trade.
- In-depth knowledge of trade regulations, customs procedures, and logistics in the African region
Qualifications:
- Matric
- Tertiary qualification in international supply chain essential
- At least 5 years management experience
- Management post-graduate qualification will be advantageous.
Competencies:
Knowledge:
- Strong leadership and managerial qualities
- Supply Chain knowledge will advantageous
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills to interact with clients and various stakeholders
- Strong proven working knowledge of International Forwarding and clearing industry with a focus on African trade
- Must be numerate
- Must be familiar with African customs processes
Skills:
- Agent relationship management
- Well - developed inter-personal skills coupled with expert written and verbal communication
- Excellent negotiation skills
- Sound Planning and organisational skills
- Ability to manage and work under pressure
- Customer (internal and external) centric
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to make data-driven decisions
- Must have a high level of emotional intelligence
Key responsibilities of this role:
Africa Agent Network Management
- Facilitate the signing up of additional agents where necessary
- Cultivate strong relationships with agents by fostering trust and cooperation
- Define relevant KPIs to measure the performance African agents
- Set up a system to regularly evaluate the performance of African agents
- Have regular engagements with African agents to foster continuous improvement
- Facilitate dispute resolution between agents and the operations teams
- Maintain open and regular communication with African agents.
Client Management:
- Understand client-specific Africa trade needs, and support Business Development and Operations to provide effective solutions to meet their requirements
Managing information and Reporting:
- Identify and address potential risks related to shipping, customs, documentation, or other logistical challenges
- When issues arise, such as delays, damages, or disruptions in the supply chain, find solutions promptly and efficiently
- Collaboration on pricing strategy
- Collaborate with sales, operations, and Trade Lane to ensure that Africa pricing strategies align with business objectives and profitability targets.
- Collaborate on pricing strategy development considering market dynamics, competitive landscape, and customer demands
- Provide inputs for the Balanced Scorecard (if required)
- Ensure confidential information is treated as such and put measures in place to ensure it is treated appropriately
- Conduct market research to identify potential trade opportunities, trade patterns, and emerging trends in the African region
- Monitor each African trade lane performance, costs, and revenue to ensure profitability and identify areas for improvement
- On agreed intervals, prepare the following reports: KPI reports (for agents and trade lanes), country market and industry reports, profitability reports, risk management report, rates trends report
- Put in place and maintain processes and procedures to ensure accurate upload of Africa information on internal system e.g. Cargowise
- Utilise relevant Management Information System (e.g. Monthly Dashboard and KPI's) in decision making
- Interpret and use information on system delivery from Service Reports and Customer Surveys
- Interpret and use information from Balanced Scorecard- analyse, interpret trends
- Prepare Africa Tradelane and EXCO reports timeously
- Disseminate information to direct reports and ensure it filters down to teams
Financial Responsibility (if applicable):
- Achieve Africa budget and forecast
- Maximize Profits by rate negotiations with suppliers and improving profits where
possible
- Manage cash flows - invoicing, query resolution and collection
- Minimize financial waste
- Safeguard assets
Performance Indicators:
- Client retention and growth
- Timely and accurate reporting
- Meet internal and external client KPIs
- Efficient resource planning and usage
- Meet ESG targets
- Meeting SHERQ objectives
- Adherence to business processes
- Achieve Africa budget and forecast
- Minimize financial waste
- Stakeholder engagement and management
- Compliance
- Agent Query Resolution
Desired Skills:
- Supply Chain
- clearing and forwarding industry
- African trade
- Africa Risk management
- Logistics Manager
