General Manager Brazil

Chama is a game-changing technology scale-up. Millions of people benefit from the company’s disruptive business model. Chama’s app enables households to order home-delivered gas cylinders with their smartphones. The new General Manager Brazil leads the business in Chama’s number one country, supporting its ambitious growth goals in the near future.

Improving the lives of many

In the absence of a natural gas grid, over 90 percent of households in Brazil rely on bottled liquid gas for cooking and hot water use. They use a system of corporate distributors and a network of independent legal and illegal resellers to replace empty cylinders. For decades, consumers have suffered from a lack of transparency in this market, leading to families paying too much, waiting too long, or being put in danger by faulty cylinders from clandestine dealers. The Chama platform brings price and quality transparency, making ordering gas cylinders cheaper, faster, safer and more convenient.

The uber for residential gas delivery

The name Chama exactly describes the product: Gas cylinders on demand. After consumers download the app and enter their address, the app shows an overview of all accredited resellers delivering in the area. For each reseller, Chama lists the price of a cylinder, the estimated time of delivery and the average rating the reseller got from previous customers. After a successful delivery, consumers can set a reminder for their next purchase, so they never have to run out of gas again. Only reliable and certified resellers are allowed to offer their services through Chama. This way, dangerously installed cylinders by unofficial dealers become a ghost from the past.

Helping resellers grow

Chama also aids the resellers in growing their business. Chama markets its proposition through television, internet and radio. Once customers start using the app, all the reseller has to do is focus on fast delivery and high-quality service, against a competitive price. If they do well on these dimensions, the resellers becomes the dealer of choice. Chama also provides business intelligence to affiliated resellers. A web portal gives them access to important information, like predicted demand. Associated drivers can use the driver app to provide them with the fastest route to the customer.

Chama first launched in November 2016 in Brazil, a massive market of about 400 million bottles per year. The company currently serves approximately 1.4 million households in the metropolitan areas of Sao Paolo, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba. Chama has approximately 90 employees operating from Amsterdam and Sao Paolo. The consumer app and other applications are being developed in The Netherlands, where the company is headquartered. Marketing, BI/Growth, Sales and Operations (CS) are based in Brazil, close to consumers and dealers. The Product and Tech functions are located in the Amsterdam headquarters – centralized because of Chama’s continuing ambitions for international expansion. The company is very internationally oriented, with people from Brazil, The Netherlands and about ten other nationalities. Chama grows with 10 to 20 percent month-over-month, and has secured a substantial long-term investment to continue its extraordinary growth trajectory. First focus is conquering Brazil, with the ambition to grow its presence to 20 big cities in the next two years. A next step is entering other major markets in Latin and South America, Africa and Asia.

The Vacancy: General Manager Brazil

Chama’s Brazil office is in search of a General Manager, to lead the local business in this crucial growth phase: growing the business in the current four cities (incl. home base Sao Paulo) and expanding to twenty cities in Brazil in the next 12-24 months. The General Manager will have P&L responsibility for the entire Brazilian business; lead a management team of direct reports; and supervise the larger team of Chama employees in Brazil.

A key challenge for the GM is to manage dealer relations and improve Chama’s quality of service in terms of speed and reliability of delivery at attractive prices for consumers. As Chama works with thousands of connected dealers and drivers who compete under complex local market dynamics, engaging with dealers on a strategic, tactical and operational level is an important element of the role.

The role includes leading a country office with ~50 employees, as well as the responsibility for a large budget. The three direct reports of the GM Brazil consist of the Head of Operations/BI (covering a Manager CS, Manager Sales, Manager Dealer Engagement and Manager Business Intelligence), the Head of Marketing/Growth and the Head of Finance and HR. To provide the right level of leadership and support to these Heads and their teams, the GM Brazil needs to have solid management experience and be an excellent sparring partner on several topics. But the GM should not be ‘just’ a manager; he or she also needs to have a vision for the future of the company. The Amsterdam-based CEO heavily focuses on strategy to make Chama’s growth ambitions possible. The GM Brazil should be a strategic sparring partner. He or she will be encouraged to take initiative and to identify and seize opportunities, in cooperation with the leadership and the Product and Tech functions in Amsterdam.

Operations: Customer Service, Sales and Dealer Engagement

Chama currently serves around 1.4 million households in Brazil, working with ~1,500 dealers in 4 cities. In expanding Chama’s scope to ~10,000 dealers in 20 cities, whilst introducing new services, products and categories in parallel, Chama needs to continuously adapt and streamline its operations covering customer service, dealer acquisition and engagement. This requires adapting the strategy and the organization, changing and improving structure and processes, but also making sure that the teams like e.g. customer service are served with ever improving technology e.g. tooling, automation and artificial intelligence. In building and managing the dealer base, segmentation and strategic account management are important. The GM needs to be able to communicate effectively with different types of stakeholders, ensuring they remain engaged with Chama. This includes building personal relations with dealers, creating trust, convincing them of the benefits of working with Chama on an ongoing basis, and standing his or her ground in tough conversations while also truly listening to resellers’ doubts or complaints.

Business Intelligence: Data engineering, data science and insight driven strategy

Chama’s BI capability is one of the strongest in its kind, providing Product, Operations and Finance with valuable operational, tactical and strategical data and insights. A small team of engineers, data scientists and strategists captures, cleans, blends and enriches the vast amount of data to generate and democratise valuable insights throughout the organisation. The GM needs to be a strategic sparring partner for the Head of BI and unlock its full value in supporting critical business decisions, marketing and operations.

Marketing/Growth: TV, radio, digital marketing, PR and customer retention

The Head of Marketing/Growth is responsible to grow the customer base through acquisition of new customers as well as improving the customer life time value by increasing customer retention. Chama markets its services across a range of channels including TV, Radio, Out of Home, and Digital. Digital marketing is run in-house, while the Head of Marketing works with a top tier agency to define the overall marketing and brand strategy, production of campaigns and commercials and creative content, and media buying. The GM needs to support the Head of Marketing with general marketing strategy, sourcing and strategic management of the agency, and budget allocation to get the best possible results in terms of user growth and acquisition costs. Next to marketing the General Manager supports the Head of Marketing/Growth to improve retention by analysing the customer base, taking initiative through experiments and campaigns as well as development of new product offerings. This requires the GM to be highly analytical and creative.

The ideal candidate for this role has a stellar track record in terms of leadership, strategy, marketing and sales experience, and is still in an upward curve in his or her career. The General Manager Brazil should expect plenty of opportunities for personal and professional growth, making this role ideal for a high performer with great ambitions.

Candidate profile

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer you will:

• Own the growth strategy for Brazil and lead its implementation
• Lead and manage the country team to best meet the evolving needs of the market
• Build deep relationships with key stakeholders, including dealers and partners
• Manage the P&L of the market and set/achieve ambitious targets

To accomplish this, you will have:

• 10 years experience in a leadership role at a dynamic organization, of which at least 3 years in the online industry
• Successful trackrecord in managing B2B sales and B2C marketing
• Experience managing P&L and/or large budgets
• Experience managing ~50 people team
• Structured problem solving skills
• A growth mindset with the ability to deliver results despite obstacles
• A “street-smart” commercial and entrepreneurial mindset with strong bias for action / taking initiative
• Excellent communication, people and relationship building skills
• The right candidate should be obsessed with data and be super analytical
• Fluent in English and Portuguese
• Affinity with tech and with the Chama solution, and the ambition and drive to realize Chama’s exponential growth ambitions in a short period of time
• A background in a digital market place and/or merchant/dealer driven sales environment is a plus

Chama works with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
Contact Jessica Lim at jessica@topofminds.com for more information.

*Please do not apply if you don’t have any experience in the online industry.