At Organically Grown Company our mission is simple: To actively cultivate a diverse, sustainable and engaged organic trade from farm to marketplace. It’s through this mission that we continue to pursue our vision of an equitable and regenerative organic agricultural system for global health. As of 2018, we are owned by a Perpetual Purpose Trust, whose main purpose is not to extract a profit, but rather to help OGC and other like-minded businesses fulfill our mission – serving sustainable food and agriculture communities.
The organic produce industry is not for the faint of heart. We work really hard each and every day to bring the best organic produce into markets and homes from hundreds of awesome farms. We look for people who share our passion for organic agriculture and sustainable business practices; who value teamwork, candor, transparency and an egalitarian workplace; and who engage others with joy and gratitude. Our products are “just in time,” need careful handling, and change by the season. Our coworkers embrace that challenge and strive to provide exceptional customer experiences while in pursuit of operational excellence. We do all this with gratitude, integrity, collaboration, resiliency and grit. We believe in doing things a little differently here at OGC, and living our values authentically.
THE POSITION:
This position will be part of our leadership team, reporting directly to the CEO. The VP of Sales & Sourcing oversees sales, marketing, sourcing, procurement, and business development activities. The primary responsibilities will be leading sales and procurement strategy development and execution, as well crafting and executing as broader business and industry innovation initiatives. Specific responsibilities will include oversight of sales, sourcing and business development teams to grow and innovate end to end processes, systems, and buying and selling opportunities. Experience and knowledge in marketing trends, analysis, pricing and forecasting, channel strategy development and effective relationship building and selling methods is critical. Engaged collaboration will take place with and through a broad supply chain distribution network, including quality assurance, inventory management, logistics, operations, and transportation.
Successful leaders at OGC are humble, lifelong learners who are excellent listeners and teachers, and value deep, authentic collaboration with the cross-functional team. They are motivated to be the CEO’s of their business areas, and are able to both set vision and simultaneously roll up their sleeves to partner, teach, and model how to obtain results. They must be able to demonstrate and coach teams in effective problem understanding and solution creation/implementation, be creative out-of-the box thinkers, and above all value mentoring and empowering coworkers at all levels. They believe that their own success is measured not by personal accomplishment, but by how their team is growing contributing, both as individuals and as a whole. They are innovators and change agents, who prioritize achievement and continuous improvement for growth that is grounded in data, analytics and holistic root cause understanding.
An ideal candidate has a demonstrated natural curiosity and passion for learning and truly believes that change happens through developing deep understanding, and building strong detailed systems-based understanding and interpersonal relationships. This candidate embraces complexity, and has a healthy dose of patience and polite persistence built into the way they operate along with striving to have fun, work hard, share grace, and actively demonstrate grit and gratitude. Resilience, positivity, and creative, inclusive problem solving are core to the way the ideal candidate operates. Demonstrated experience scaling an organization and leading change effectively is vital.
The ideal candidate for this role is a sales, sourcing, and supplier management professional, with experience managing cross functional teams highly skilled in complex negotiations, process improvement, and relationship management. In depth knowledge of produce varieties, the organic trade and growing practices, sustainability, and produce merchandizing required. Additionally:
- Ten or more years of experience in the commercial produce industry with a proven track record of consistently exceeding objectives.
- The ability to translate our history and company story into effective brand development.
- Relevant experience constructing both a vision and implementation plan for growth.
- Direct experience and a passion for organic production methods. Broad knowledge of the organic and natural trades.
- Experience leading and collaborating on strategic planning, and developing analytics to drive and measure change.
- Ability to hold a flexible travel schedule to meet both customer and business needs.
