Sales & Marketing Controller DSM

This search procedure has been closed (14-02-2011).
Field
Finance
Salary
100k - 150k per annum
Location
Sittard
Employment
Permanent
Headhunter
Career Openers

Company Profile

History

In 1902 the Dutch government formed the nationalized coal company 'De Nederlandse Staatsmijnen' (Dutch State Mines) that was later to become DSM. The bituminous coal from the mines was converted into coke, yielding large amounts of coke oven gas. DSM managed to convert this by-product into a profitable commodity, ammonia, a key raw material for nitrogenous fertilizers. In the post-war era, chemical products and synthetic polymers became more prominent. By 1970, chemicals and fertilizers comprised the company's chief activity, accounting for two-thirds of its turnover. Petrochemicals then took center stage. In just twelve years, profits from raw materials for plastics grew by a factor of fourteen. No mean feat in view of the fact that DSM had to fight its way into a market dominated by major companies with long-established names. By the time the last mine closed (in 1975), DSM had transformed into a chemical company. In the 1970s and '80s DSM underwent major reorganizations to ensure itself of sufficient scale, greater guarantees for market consumption, and diversification into high-quality plastics and fine chemicals. In 1989 DSM was privatized and its shares were floated on the stock exchange. During the 1990s, the company paid greater attention to aligning its R&D efforts with market needs and shifted its focus to developing value-adding processes and products, particularly products for the pharmaceutical and the food industries and performance materials for the automotive and transport industry and the electrical and electronics sector.

General

DSM's activities are grouped into five clusters: Nutrition, Pharmaceuticals, Performance Materials, Polymer Intermediates and Base Chemicals and Materials. The Nutrition cluster comprises DSM Nutritional Products and DSM Food Specialties. These nutrition and food ingredient businesses serve the food, feed, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The nutrition cluster has customized formulation activities in more than 44 locations and a marketing/sales presence reaching over 60 countries. Manufacturing technologies in the Nutrition cluster are largely based on biotechnology, fermentation, chemical process technology and particle engineering. The Pharmaceuticals cluster comprises the business groups DSM Pharmaceutical Products and DSM Anti-Infectives. DSM is a leading independent supplier to the pharmaceutical industry. Many of today’s medicines around the world contain ingredients produced by DSM. DSM Anti-Infectives is one of the few penicillin producers outside of China. The Performance Materials cluster comprises the business groups DSM Engineering Plastics, DSM Dyneema and DSM Resins. The business groups’ products are used in a wide variety of end-use markets: the automotive industry, the aviation industry, the electrical and electronics industry, the sports and leisure industries, the paint and coatings industry and the construction industry. The Polymer Intermediates cluster consists of DSM Fibre Intermediates. DSM Fibre Intermediates produces caprolactam and acrylonitrile, which are raw materials for synthetic fibers and engineering plastics. Other products include ammonium sulfate (a fertilizer), diaminobutane, sodium cyanide and cyclohexanone. The Base Chemicals and Materials cluster consists of DSM Elastomers. This is a non-core business that DSM intends to sell. DSM Elastomers manufactures synthetic rubbers (EPDM) for use in cars and other transportation vehicles, white goods, various industrial products and construction materials and as motor-oil additives.
 

DSM Engineerind Plastics

The Business Group DSM Engineering Plastics (DEP) produces and sells a broad range of engineering plastics in the market segments Automotive, Electrical & Electronics, General Industries and Extrusion/Packaging. With a global turnover of more than € 700 million in 2009 and 1600 employees, DEP is one of the prominent suppliers of Engineering Plastics worldwide.

DEP focuses its marketing resources in market segments where it has in-depth knowledge of an industry and its processing and design needs. Their Research and Technical centers support local engineers to help customers find the best solution that can create new value for their business. Automotive customers are supported globally by Marketing & Technical Centers that enable DSM to provide design assistance, CAE or special testing facilities for new product developments.

DSM continuously develops new materials to respond to market needs like:

  • Matched rheology oxygen barrier film grades 
  • Higher modulus grades to replace metals 
  • Laser marking grades for simplified manufacturing 
  • Breathable films for greater comfort 
  • Robust lead-free tolerant connector high flow grades for very thin walled parts 
  • New high heat cable jacketing material

Areas of expertise 

  • Wear and friction applications 
  • High temperature UTH components 
  • Insulators for electronic parts 
  • Barrier films for food packaging 
  • Auto powertrain metal replacement 
  • Electrical LV distribution devices 
  • Rugged sports and leisure goods 
  • Breathable films 
  • Noise reduction

The DEP Business Group (BG) is divided into 3 regional Business Units (BUs): Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. Sales offices and representatives are located within almost all major countries in Europe, Asia Pacific and the USA. Within this truly global and dynamic organization a vacancy exists in the Business Unit Europe Control department for a Marketing & Sales Controller. The Marketing & Sales controller (=M&S Controller) is a new position to strengthen Customer and External Focus.
 

Position Profile

General

The M&S Controller is the financial champion in challenging the business. In this role you safeguard the implementation of the segment plans in Marketing & Sales by means of defining the appropriate Key Performance Indicators, setting the right targets (Volumes, Prices, Margins, PTO, etc) and developing reports to enable easy monitoring of the actual performance (close cooperation with assistant BU control). In case the actual performance deviates from plans/targets, you will start discussions and pro-actively share possible corrective measures with the persons responsible.
You process and maintain product target prices and monitor them. You are a facilitator as well as a challenger in Internal Control discussions within functional process organization.
Regarding functional areas you use control activities in order to ensure that the business strategy is executed, using minimal resources and generating optimal benefits.

In this role you make site visits and join sales in negotiation with major customers.

Interview with Raoul Vorage BU controller and Geert Orsell HR manager

Raoul: We handled the economic downturn relatively well. Volumes are increasing again, but profit is lacking behind. We want to change from volume selling to value selling. We have good insight in the cost based on advanced activity-based costing models and current price setting too is based on cost plus. Sometimes we are facing difficulties to realized necessary prices increases. With the current finance systems we can easily explain the differences, but this is not enough. Controlling should be more proactive in business steering like sales & margin control. If we want to make the next step we need to go from cost plus to value selling. We have to understand our end markets better. We need to know more about the process and market of our customers so that we can improve our price setting and focus our R&D towards specific product market combinations. We are selling in almost 3000 product market combinations (PMC). Not all PMC are attractive in terms of profitability or future growth. In some small PMCs we should operate with a distributor while in the bigger PMC we should be more flexible with our prices based on volume and strategic growth. This outside-in approach is integrated in Customer and External Focus which is one of the strategic behaviors of DSM worldwide.

Geert: In our Business Group we are also focusing on Engaging people and Drive for Results. Knowledge is key in our industry, but to make the difference we need more guts and inspirational leadership. The M&S controller needs to be proactive with great communicative skills. Personal impact is important to succeed in this role. We don’t want a policeman. The M&S controller works in close cooperation with the Marketing Director and Sales Director. Our sales organization includes 60 account managers. 5 of them focus on the bulk products while the rest focuses on customers with more specific demands. While finance and sales people seem to have different personalities, synergy is found in close cooperation and open communication with mutual understanding.
Drive for results has been become more important within DSM. This should be integrated further within our culture which is off course still strongly influenced by the complex and technical environment. Drive for results will be rolled out in all the levels of the organization, but it is difficult to make a proper translation for the different departments. Accountability for performance is one of the strengths of Financials. So the M&S controller has also a key role in this process. 

Personal Profile

Person

You have an academic degree (Business Administration preferred) and preferably combined with a post-graduate degree in Controlling or equivalent to Registered Controller (NL qualification) and/or Auditing. You have more than 8 years working experience, preferably in an international business to business environment and with affinity to Marketing & Sales. You combine a broad view on business steering models and business processes. Experience with ERP systems is an asset. You have the ability to influence people without direct leadership and you are used to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams / have cross cultural awareness.

Strategic behaviors

  • Engage People: stimulates performance and development of employees, builds open, supportive and diverse teams, creates an inspiring and inclusive work environment, leads by example
  • Customer and External Focus: delivers added value to customers, pursues sustainable customer relationship, thinks outside-in
  • Act Responsibly: acts in line with common goals, takes personal ownership, contributes actively to joint results
  • Drive for Results: drive to meet and exceed results, delivers with a sense of urgency and speed, makes it happen
  • Improve, Innovate & Change: achieves operational excellence, drives continuous improvements, stimulates ideas to emerge and develop, initiates and manages change

Conditions

100k OTE
Excellent reallocation compensation

Location
Sittard, The Netherlands with 5-10% travelling

More information

You can apply by using the form below. For more information you can contact:

Career Openers +31 35 646 0343
www.careeropeners.nl
Geert-Jan Joosten +31 6 53 78 84 64

This search procedure has been closed (14-02-2011).