Regional Category Manager, Travel

Job Description

Regional Category Manager, Travel is part of the Travel, Meetings, Card & Fleet organization within the Global Supplier Management Group (GSMG). This role reports to the Director, Global Procurement Strategy, Travel, Meetings & Congress and is responsible for regional category management, procurement, and program design for the Travel category.  They will also support regional procurement activities related to the global card program.  

The Regional Category Manager (RCM) will work with the global team to lead the development and implementation of a regional procurement and operations strategy, leveraging a Supply Strategy Council (SSC) framework and collaborating with multiple business partners as well as global procurement, regional/local TMC&F Operations professionals, and the Global Program Design team in a matrix organization.  In addition, the RCM will be responsible to participate in cross-functional teams through the sourcing process and to lead strategy oversight for regional and/or local components of the category in full alignment with the global strategy.   

Day to day responsibilities of this role include establishing the regional category strategy, performing procurement events, managing key metrics and analytics/BI and insights, including savings, supplier diversity and working capital delivery to established objectives in full alignment with the global strategy.  The RCM will engage with business stakeholders and align procurement objectives and global sourcing strategies with their business objectives. 

Additionally, the role will directly support operational excellence across the Travel and Corporate Card categories.  The RCM will manage and drive the Travel strategic activities and will partner cross-functionally with the team to develop, deliver and measure agreed key deliverables.

A close partnership and working relationship with the Global Category Manager, Global Program Management, regional operations teams, stakeholders and supplier partners will be required to ensure high-quality service delivery, in full alignment with global strategies.

The RCM is responsible and accountable for coordinating internal activities across three stakeholder groups:

• With Procurement Colleagues: Participates in teams of global, regional and local representatives to develop and implement strategic sourcing plans as well as to ensure alignment on key initiatives and priorities for broader Enterprise and TMC&F services categories.  Act as a member of the team willing to carry out the mission and ensure that input from all members is taken into account.

• With Business Partners:  Identifies and engages with stakeholders to define and meet or exceed business requirements and identify and manage profit plan savings targets.  Understands strategic business requirements across a 1-3-5 year horizon.  Acts as a trusted advisor to a wide range of business partners in the business organization with a keen ear for needs and wants, and the ability to influence and guide strategic decision making, but also the courage to appropriately challenge the status quo.

• With Suppliers:  Responsible for building relationships with regional suppliers and managing key supplier performance against business requirements using proven processes; ensures adequate inclusion of diverse suppliers in RFPs and contracts as applicable.  Supports Global and Enterprise wide supplier relationships.

Strategy Creation

Target: Definition and planning of high-level objectives targeted to long term results that will impact the way our company views and purchases this category. This is the "big picture" creation and it entails active engagement with senior stakeholders as well as critical members of the business in the category during the course of the Sourcing Excellence Process (SEP).

Typical Activities: Meetings with stakeholders to discuss SEP approach; participation in workshops and meetings during SEP; dialogue and meetings with Global Procurement in connection with Target; participation in Market Intelligence activities in connection with Target;  data gathering and analysis in connection with Target, leveraging regional and local operations teams and others that contribute to fundamentally change or effect the status quo in pursuit of a long term competitive advantage to the company.

Strategy Execution

Target: Implementation of tactical plans or projects directly linked to a strategy created during the course of Sourcing.

Typical Activities: Development, rollout and execution of RFIs/RFPs and direct negotiations pursuant to supplier selection aligned with strategic goals; process re-engineering in coop