Business Sustainability and Upgrading Manager (BSUM) Jobs – TechnoServe
Job Title: Business Sustainability and Upgrading Manager (BSUM)
Organisation: TechnoServe
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Reports to: VINES Chief of Party (additional: TechnoServe Country Director)
Travel: Remote rural locations
About US:
TechnoServe is a leader in harnessing the power of the private sector to help people lift themselves out of poverty. A nonprofit organization operating in 29 countries, we work with enterprising men and women in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. By linking people to information, capital, and markets, we have helped millions to create lasting prosperity for their families and communities. Founded over 50 years ago, TechnoServe has been named the #1 nonprofit for fighting poverty by the ImpactMatters charity ratings agency.
About VINES Program:
TechnoServe, CRS and Frontier Co-op are implementing VINES, a five year, $13 million, USDA Food for Progress program that will make Uganda the world’s next leading supplier of high-quality vanilla. Led by CRS, VINES will leverage the expertise of CRS and its world class consortium of partners (including TechnoServe), associated experts and leading international buyers to provide technical assistance to enhance the production of safe, clean, pure vanilla, develop market links with US trade networks, and strengthen an enabling public policy network to reduce vanilla theft to transform the lives of 16,200 farmers, 356 self-employed service and input providers, 480 processors’ employees; and generating 15,820 new on-farm seasonal and permanent processing jobs to reach 32,856 vanilla stakeholders. In turn, this will provide international buyers with a new origin that will stabilize the extreme price volatility for this unique spice.
Within the consortium, TechnoServe will lead in market analysis, business planning, farmer business capacity building, agripreneur and youth training, input supply and business relationship management.
Job Summary: As the manager and lead of TechnoServe’s contribution to the VINES consortium, the Business Sustainability and Upgrading Manager (BSUM) will oversee a team of 7 and be responsible for achieving activities and results under TechnoServe’s scope of work.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Principal Responsibilities:
- Develop strategy for and oversee team focused on business viability, providing strategic advisory support as needed
- Provide business advisory and professionalization support to VANEX
- Ensure an inclusive approach following TechnoServe principles, including equitable benefits for women and men from the program
- Oversee training and support of fee for service agents providing farmer training
- Recruitment and support to Microenterprise Specialist, ME Counsellors delivering micro-entrepreneurship training to 720 micro-entrepreneurs
- Recruitment and support to Business Sustainability and Upgrading Specialists delivering sector-wide trainings and custom advisory to processors and capacity building of Producer Organizations (POs)
- Conduct local, regional and international market analysis for potential agroforestry system crops to support the strategies for POs
- Support a TechnoServe Fellow to complete an Industry Strategic Plan for the Vanilla sector
Capacity Building of Agricultural Extension Services
- Adapt existing curriculum to targeted groups
- Develop and execute Training of Trainers for processor-supervised extension agents and support the establishment of a viable fee-for-service business model
- Coach and support extension agents to train commercial farmers
- Develop Agro dealers and input suppliers
- Lead team to deliver training to including input suppliers, soil testing services, nurseries, and other youth employment opportunity activities
- Capacity building of post-harvest handling and processing
- In coordination with Business Sustainability and Upgrading Specialists, lead:
- managerial capacity building of producer organizations, including five-year business plans
- Improved member relations and services of producer organizations
- managerial capacity building of processors
- improve processor capacity in curing and storing
Facilitate Market linkages and Agricultural Finance
- provide sector wide trainings in market analysis, profitability analysis, value proposition design and testing, business planning, financial record preparation, and general support in how to prepare a supply chain upgrading plan
- Provide pre-investment support and advisory to processors and other supply chain businesses
- Identify and deliver technical and financial training and BDS support that required to complement any commercial finance for the partners’ co-investment
- Lead relationship development with commercial finance providers to leverage additional finance
- provide business advisory and professionalization support to VANEX
Program Coordination and Implementation:
- Prepare narrative reports to prime and contribute to CRS and TechnoServe M&E reporting
- Coordinate with members of the VINES consortium and maintain good working relationships
- Maintain strong working relationships with partners and relevant stakeholders in the agribusiness investment space
- Actively participate in regular team meetings to track implementation progress and share relevant program and administrative data
- Ensure the delivery of technical training packages is of high quality, is appropriate to the local context and is effectively reaching participants
- Share best practices and lessons learned with team members
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
Required Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Abilities:
- Degree qualifications in business-related studies required
- Track record of building strong client and stakeholder relationships
- Strong project management and some financial analysis skills
- Minimum of five years’ field and technical experience with agribusiness development, agribusiness experience in Uganda is required
- Experience working with food aggregation and processing, supply chain development, out-grower networks, and knowledge of Market Systems Development approach preferred
- Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills a must
- Ability to develop well-written, cohesive analyses and reports
- Ability to generate innovative solutions in work situations
- Proven ability and experience working with teams will be an added advantage
- Fluency in English required
Competency is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) directly related to successful performance on the job.
Core Competencies include:
- Integrity and honesty: Is widely trusted; seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; does not misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
- Team Work/ Relationships: Works co-operatively and flexibly with other members of the team with a full understanding of the role to be played as a team member and/or leader, to achieve a common goal. Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and networks.
- Learning attitude: Proactively takes advantage of opportunities to learn. Actively identifies new areas for learning; applies and shares new knowledge and skill appropriately.
- Diversity/Inclusiveness: Demonstrates an understanding and appreciation for diversity and supports diversity efforts. Interacts effectively with and inclusively with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, ages, and genders.
- Communication: Expresses ideas effectively in individual and group situations. Listens effectively; shares information, ideas and arguments; adjusts terminology, language and communication modes to the needs of the audience; ensures accurate understanding; acts in a way that facilitates open exchange of ideas and information; uses appropriate non-verbal communication.
- Decision making/Problem Solving: Is able to analyse situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution. Is able to make effective decisions on a day-to-day basis, taking ownership of decisions, demonstrating sound judgement in escalating issues where necessary.
- Results Oriented/ High Quality Deliverables: Stays focused on the efforts necessary to achieve quality results consistent with programmatic or departmental goals. Demonstrates the ability to achieve effective results; works persistently to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how small; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks.
- Planning & Time Management: Establishes a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal. Effectively plans, schedules, prioritizes and controls activities; identifies, integrates and orchestrates resources (people, material, information, budget, and/or time) to accomplish goals. Prioritizes work according to the program or department’s goals, not just own job responsibilities; manages own time effectively.
- Business Acumen: The ability to use information, ask the right questions and take decisions that make an impact on the overall business performance.
Job Specific/Technical Competencies include:
- Financial & Resource Management: The ability to estimate, justify, and manage appropriate funding levels to support goal accomplishment. Managing Resources is about understanding human, financial, and operational resource issues to make decisions aimed at building and planning efficient project workflows, and at improving overall organizational performance.
- Donor/Partnership Management: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, or organizations to help achieve business goals.
- Analysis, Research, Report Writing: Experience in business planning and analysis, modeling for feasibility and execution. Able to analyze and express oneself clearly in business writing.
- Innovative Mindset: Curious inquiries, asks questions and seeks out information from multiple sources, learns from mistakes, sees change as an opportunity.
- Managerial Competencies:
- Emotional Intelligence: The act of knowing, understanding, and responding to emotions, overcoming stress in the moment, and being aware of how your words and actions affect others. Emotional intelligence consists of 4 attributes: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
- Strategic Thinking: Managers should recognize key actions, underlying problems, make connection and patterns, see consequences and implications. Anticipates obstacles realistically and plans ways to deal with them.
- Staff Development: managers are required to work with employees to plan on the development of skills and abilities so that they can fulfil current or future job/role responsibilities more effectively.
- Trust to Delegate: managers should have trust and willingness to assign responsibilities to direct reports and give them discretion and authority to carry them out.
- Feedback/Coaching (mentoring): managers should give instructions, suggestions, explanations, and feedback to subordinates. (SPI+R)
Career Pathways: The position that may be a next career opportunity for employees in this job title include Program Manager
How to Apply:
If you are interested and you meet the requirements, apply through the link below;
NB: Please submit a resume, cover letter and three professional references. Please note that only shortlisted candidates shall be contacted.
Deadline: 14th March 2021
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