Area Sales Manager- Commercial

Our Company

Tokyo-based Bridgestone Corporation is the world’s largest manufacturer of tires and other rubber products. We employ over 140,000 people around the world, operate 3 technical centers and 178 manufacturing plants and sell products in more than 150 countries. "Serving Society with Superior Quality” has been our mission since Shojiro Ishibashi founded Bridgestone in 1931 and we look for individuals who share our passion to fulfill this mission.

Bridgestone Middle East & Africa (BSMEA) operates from locations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco , Kenya and Ivory Coast. From these locations BSMEA covers 68 markets through 80 partners.

Role Summary

The Area Sales Manager – Commercial will report to the Sales Manager -Commercial .The Area Sales Manager is primarily responsible for handling distributers in designated markets.  This is a regional role, based in Dubai, interacting with our entities based in Middle East, and Africa.

The Area Sales Manager is responsible for setting and executing the marketing sales plan and targets, in line with the Bridgestone Group core values.  They take full ownership of their territory in regards to knowing the market channels, the competition and relevant pricing of the product.

Main responsibilities

• Client relationship
  • Managing our distributor senior Management and Sales Staff.
  • Key account management.
  • Ensuring optimization of profitability for the distributors and BSMEA.
• Supply chain interaction
  • Responsible for interacting with the supply chain to ensure smooth flow of supply (over 1,000 SKUs).
  • Ensure the premium image of the brand is consistently portrayed.
• Strategic Enhancements
  • Managing and reporting on daily operational issues.
  • Responsible for improving the strategic mix and
  • Strive to enhance the approach to market, in line with Bridgestone’s high standards.
  • Responsible for ensuring Bridgestone MEA strategy and vision is deployed and shared effectively.
  • Managing Marketing activities and calendar, and plan along with the budget with the central Marketing team.

Key Activities

• Contribute to market share and profitability and ensure Bridgestone, Firestone and secondary Brand presence in the markets.
• Conduct market intelligence and performance review of distributors. Execute strategic action plans based on results.
• Liaise with and build effective relationships with the channels, mix, fleets, and key decision makers within these areas.
• Manage, through reports and team meetings, all internal stakeholders.
• Thorough understanding of price position and profitability among all markets covered by BSMEA.
• Responsible for internal coordination and further enhancement of stock optimization.
• Work with the distributor to co-ordinate and conduct effective and timely promotions.
• Work with the distributor on the monthly orders and forecast.
• Management of effective utilization of advertisement subsidy.
• Manage, to be a business consultant for our distributors.

Requirements for the role

• Bachelors or Masters level qualification in Business, Finance, Operations or similar field.
• Experience in the tire industry or related sectors.
• 3 years’ of experience in similar field.
• Proficient in MS Excel.
• Effective team player.
• Strategic problem solver.
• Sales focused and results orientated.
• Great negotiation skills.
• Excellent written and verbal English essential, Arabic a benefit.

Bridgestone Behaviors:

Qualified candidates need to demonstrate the following behaviors:

• Agility – to work in a matrix, complex and fast paced environment.
• Courage – to share ideas, challenge the status quo.
• Ownership – to see the bigger picture and take ownership by thinking and acting beyond the role (self-starter)

Bridgestone Leadership Essence:

Qualified candidates for this important position will therefore need to demonstrate the following:

• Establishes strategic direction and effectively communicates the vision: Communicates a clear and inspiring vision for the business; drives competitive and innovative strategies and is able to generate alignment against the strategic direction
• Demonstrates business acumen to achieve results through others:  Understands, educates and applies the fundamental business concepts by which a company operates in order to deliver results and create a climate that fosters personal commitment to excellence
• Promotes and enhances company culture:  Champions the organization’s shared values and beliefs
• Effectively manages across cultures: Achieves effective collaboration, alignment, and communication across multiple dimensions of cultural diversity
• Demonstrates self-awareness and emotional intelligence:  Recognizes one’s personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits.  Understands emotions and their effects
• Intellectually curious in support of learning agility:  Actively identifies new areas for learning; regularly creates and takes advantage of learning opportunities; uses newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learns through their application
• Embraces and leads change and innovation:  Encourages different and innovative approaches to address problems and opportunities; facilitates the implementation and acceptance of change within the organization
• Identifies and develops organizational talent:  Attracts high calibre diverse talent , leads and guides others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives through on-going development and collaboration