Business Development Manager - Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong & Global Customer (Costco APAC)

Location:  Tokyo, Japan


Position Title:  Business Development Manager – Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong & Global Customer (Costco APAC)

Summary:

Leads business development and commercial delivery across Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, while also owning selected global customer responsibilities for APAC, including Costco. The role is accountable for delivering net sales, gross profit, market share, and operating income through strong distributor management, customer planning, and disciplined commercial execution across multiple markets and channels.

This position develops and executes market-specific growth strategies, joint business plans, and customer engagement plans in partnership with Customer Marketing, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain. The incumbent serves as the key commercial lead for distributor partners and strategic customers, ensuring alignment on assortment, pricing, promotions, forecasting, service levels, and execution standards.

The role also acts as the primary interface for Costco and other designated global customer stakeholders in APAC, building long-term partnerships, identifying growth opportunities, and ensuring strong cross-market coordination. Success in this role requires balancing strategic planning with hands-on execution, market insight, and effective collaboration across internal and external stakeholders to deliver sustainable topline and bottom-line growth.

Major Duties/Responsibilities:  
 

Summary of major duties:

25%  BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & MARKET STRATEGY

Develops and executes country strategies for Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to deliver revenue, gross profit, market share, and operating income targets.
Builds market and channel development plans using consumer, shopper, customer, and competitive insights to unlock sustainable growth opportunities.
Partners with cross-functional teams to translate brand, category, and shopper strategies into executable market and customer plans.
Drives joint business planning with distributors and priority customers, with clear performance measures and regular progress reviews.
Identifies whitespace opportunities, new channels, and expansion initiatives to strengthen the company’s presence across assigned markets.

35%  SALES OPERATIONS, DISTRIBUTOR MANAGEMENT & COMMERCIAL EXECUTION

Leads commercial communications and negotiations with distributors and key customers on annual targets, pricing, contracts, investments, and operating KPIs.
Ensures strong execution of assortment, promotions, merchandising, demand planning, and service levels across Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Partners with Supply Chain and Finance to drive forecast accuracy, healthy inventory, timely purchase orders, and disciplined trade spend management.
Establish effective operating rhythms with distributor partners, including monthly business reviews and sales planning meetings.
Acts as the central point of coordination for resolving customer and distributor issues by aligning internal stakeholders and driving timely decisions.
Build strong, trust-based relationships with distributor principals, retailers, and other commercial partners to support long-term growth.

30%  GLOBAL CUSTOMER / KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT (COSTCO)

Owns the end-to-end commercial relationship for Costco within assigned APAC scope, serving as the primary point of contact between the customer and the company.
Develops and executes joint business plans with Costco, including annual targets, assortment priorities, pricing, promotional programs, and growth initiatives.
Monitors performance, shopper trends, competitive activity, and account-specific opportunities to optimize sales, profitability, and execution quality.
Coordinates closely with regional and global customer teams to align account strategy, resolve issues, and scale best practices across markets where relevant.
Proactively addresses customer inquiries, supply or execution challenges, and commercial risks while identifying opportunities for expansion and innovation.

10%  P&L Responsibility

Shares accountability for delivering the market P&L across Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, including assigned global customer responsibility for Costco in APAC, with a focus on net sales, gross profit, trade investment, and operating income.
Partners with Finance, Supply Chain, and distributor stakeholders to build plans, manage risks, and track performance against financial targets, ensuring disciplined investment and profitable growth.
Maintains strong commercial controls, reporting accuracy, and compliance across the sales organization and distributor network, including funding, claims, and audit-related processes.
Applies a solid understanding of distributor financials, customer economics, and inventory dynamics to influence decisions that improve financial performance and operating effectiveness.
Works cross-functionally to support efficient inbound and outbound supply planning, helping ensure product availability, service levels, and cost management across assigned markets and customers.

Competencies:  

Strategic Agility

Thinks strategically by clearly anticipating future trends, challenges, and consequences, creating breakthrough strategies and plans to achieve a competitive advantage, and proactively adjusting strategies and plans in order to sustain a competitive advantage.

Business Acumen

Understands how businesses work including how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace. Maintains working knowledge of competitors as well as current and possible future policies, practices, trends and information affecting his/ her business and organization.

Drive for Results

Pushes self and others to exceed goals and achieve breakthrough results. Recognizes the key actions necessary to achieve results; establishes and communicates the priorities to others; and, maintains own and others focus on achieving the important goals. Demonstrates persistence in overcoming roadblocks to achieving results and encourages others to do the same

Problem Solving and Decision Making

Uses a systematic process to solve difficult problems including gathering and examining information from a variety of sources; identifying the root cause of problems; drawing appropriate conclusions; generating viable solutions; and, weighing the pros and cons to arrive at a final decision. Makes decision in a timely manner, sometimes with incomplete information and under tight deadlines and pressure.

Team Leadership

Motivates direct reports and team or project members to perform at their highest potential by understanding their individual needs, soliciting their input, empowering them to achieve breakthrough results, holding individuals accountable for own actions, and recognizing individual contributions and achievements. Takes an active role in developing others, including hold development discussions, constructing development plants and monitoring progress toward goals, providing stretch tasks and assignments, providing timely, honest, and “actionable” feedback, and taking corrective action as necessary.

Process Management  

Identifies the processes required to accomplish work tasks; simplifies and integrates processes and work tasks to enable efficient work flow; utilizes best practices to organize people and activities; measures results against key metrics; uses resources efficiently.

Building Talent Capability

Builds talent capability throughout the organization through recruitment, performance management, workforce planning, succession planning, career development, and diversity initiatives. Partners with the business and HR to forecast future talent needs and develop clear objectives and processes for Succession Planning. Supports the business and HR in identifying key talent/hi-potentials, providing a set of integrated tools and assessment processes to support the placement, development and calibration of key talent. Develops policies and programs for effective management of the people resources of the corporation.

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities:  

• Deep knowledge and exposure to sales and marketing
• Proficient in MS Office based applications
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; strong interpersonal and presentation skills
• A high level of understanding of finance and Supply Chain (logistics) of the business
  
  

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements:  


Education:  Candidates with Bachelor or MBA.  He or she must know and understand current trade trends, market conditions and sales enablers through continued education and training.

Experience:  Minimum of 7-9 years solid work experience in sales (key account management, distributor management and traditional trade.) Must have worked at least in two markets outside his or her home market.  Demonstrated ability in key functional tasks and a clear progression or expansion in terms of areas of responsibility or increase in business size and complexity.