Director of Global Strategy – London – eCommerce / Online Retail

Head of Global Strategy / Management Consultant / Director of Global Strategy (eCommerce, Retail)

London, £100 – 110k, bonus, benefits

Working for a global eCommerce organization, the Head of Global Strategy / Management Consultant / Director of Global Strategy (eCommerce, Retail) role involves developing a roadmap of strategic initiatives to overcome legal, cultural and logistical challenges and facilitate the sale of products to consumers across different global terriroties.

The Head of Global Strategy / Management Consultant / Director of Global Strategy (eCommerce, Retail) will:

• Overcome global trading challenges (such as a hold-up in customs processing in Europe or a postal strike in China having material impacts on delivery times)
• Leverage a cross-functional team from across the global organization (business owners in China/APAC, technology leads based in California, search and category experts in the EU business, our emerging markets team)
• Be responsible for developing the cross-border business into a long term source of value and competitive advantage for the global business
• Set and own the strategy for Cross Border Trade in Europe: Identify the trading corridors, categories and groups with the largest untapped opportunity for growing the cross-border business and prioritise the investments required to capitalize on this
• Develop a deep understanding of the customer and partner needs and the associated barriers / challenges
• Determine the balance between growing the cross-border business and managing it to the highest possible trust/customer experience standards
• Set the vision for the global platform and the size of the commercial opportunity this represents; translate this into budgets/targets for the business
• Align the strategy with the EU leadership team as well counterparts in the North American and APAC businesses
• Deliver the investments and initiatives to achieve your strategy: Work in partnership with EU, North American and APAC leadership and business managers to manage the portfolio of cross-border investments to successful delivery. In some cases you will be leading the change yourself; on other projects you will be ensuring the efforts of other teams deliver the desired result
• Be the advocate in the global business for cross-border activity: Build the profile and priority of cross-border trade
• Form and lead the cross-functional team: Bring together the business owners and leads on the key cross-border workstreams into a productive and effective cross-functional team; over time, it is likely that you will also build a direct team
• Develop effective global partnerships with cross-border counterparts – especially with your business partner in North America, the leadership of the APAC business, the European Management team and the Global Finance teams
• The role is based in London but given the nature of these responsibilities the position involves reasonably high levels of travel – for instance China or North America visits every month or two, intra-EU travel on a weekly or fortnightly basis

Candidates for the Head of Global Strategy / Management Consultant / Director of Global Strategy (eCommerce, Retail) role must have:

• Global strategy experience, ideally for a retail or eCommerce organization or similar global entity
• Ability to set clear vision and strategic direction for a complex global business
• Experience of uncovering deep customer insight and translating this into ideas/initiatives which will create breakthrough business impact
• Ability to build external/market perspective of a commercial opportunity and translate it into a concrete business plan
• Appreciation of the challenges of designing strategies which cut across different operating units and countries in a large global company, and the pragmatism to propose appropriate actions in this context
• Evidence of strong intellectual thinking ability – e.g. MBA or high calibre previous employment
• Proven experience leading business transformation in a cross-functional environment
• A track record of turning ideas into business success in a complex business or organization
• Excellent relationship building and interpersonal leadership skills, at senior levels
• Previous experience working in partnership with senior stakeholders in other geographies or operating units
• Experience of, or a demonstrated passion for, global commerce and international trade
• Experience of doing business in a multi-national / global role, or other experience providing similar perspective
• European or Chinese language skills are ideal but not essential

Please apply to [email protected]