ROLE PROFILE

Job Title:

Customer Spend Analyst – Japan

Level:

6A

Function

Asia Pacific Commercial Services – Commercial Experience Tower

Reports To:

Customer Investment Management Team Leader

Context/Scope:

The Customer Investment Management (CIM) team sits within the Commercial Services Operations team of the global End to End Commercial (E2EC) Tower. Commercial Services Operations is an exciting and evolving area of the Diageo Global Business Services (GBS) service offering and the responsibilities in this area will continue to develop with agility and pace to continue to meet and exceed the wider business requirements.

CIM team is the first point of contact for Commercial Sales and Field Sales teams and is responsible for Key Account/National Account level customer, Outlet level customer Agreements, Invoice management and subsequently document retention.

CIM team is responsible for tasks required to ensure that our commercial customers’ promotional invoices are tracked, validated and coded correctly, including the appropriate records retention, thus ensuring compliant and controlled cash and account management.

This role is dedicated to the Japan market. The successful applicant will act as the day-to-day operational partner to the Japan commercial and field sales teams and will interact directly with Japan market customers, distributors and wholesalers. A strong working knowledge of the Japan trade environment and the ability to operate confidently in Japanese and English are central to the role.

Dimensions:

a)   Market/Role Complexity

The role matches working hours to the countries/markets being serviced. This role services the Japan market and will operate to Japan Standard Time (JST) business hours; the successful applicant must be able to accommodate these working patterns and the associated peak-period demands of the Japanese commercial calendar.

The Japan market operates a complex customer landscape of national key accounts, wholesalers and on-trade outlets, with market-specific documentation, invoicing and record-retention expectations. The role therefore requires both language capability and genuine market understanding, not translation alone.

Top 3-5 Accountabilities

The Customer Spend Analyst – Japan will have specific on-going responsibility including but not limited to:

• Deliver CIM service offering for their Japan customer cluster within Service Level Agreement (SLA) timings and thresholds.
• Liaise directly with Japan market customers and the Japan commercial / field sales teams on any contract and invoicing related issues, in Japanese where required.
• Responsible for all Customer Investment Management processes for the specific Japan cluster assigned.
• Provide support, execution, and adherence to processes to enable an efficient Contract and Invoice Operations process for Diageo Japan customers, and call out when appropriate issues are noted.
• Review, interpret and process Japanese-language customer agreements, invoices and supporting documentation, ensuring accurate coding, validation and records retention.
• Perform volume analysis and calculate customer invoice amounts.
• Ensure 100% compliance across all areas of Invoicing and audits, in line with both global control standards and Japan market requirements.
• Take ownership and devise strategies on invoicing processes; nurture the relationship with partners to understand context, payment terms, activation status, etc.
• Act as the market-facing point of contact for Japan, building trusted relationships with Japan stakeholders and representing GBS professionally in local business etiquette and communication norms.
• Creating possibilities for the team to succeed in a changing environment.

The responsibilities will not be limited to the ones stated above; new instructions can be communicated ad-hoc by the line manager or CIM manager. CIM is a growing team which enables an agile environment.

Qualifications and Experience Required

Essential

• Business-level Japanese – fluent written and spoken (JLPT N1 or equivalent native/near-native proficiency). The role requires reading and drafting Japanese business correspondence and interpreting Japanese-language contracts and invoices.
• Excellent written and spoken Business English (working language of the GBS centre and global stakeholders).
• Demonstrable understanding of the Japan market – customer and channel structure (key accounts, wholesalers, on-trade / off-trade), commercial practices, and Japanese business etiquette.
• Proven ability to work closely with commercial / field sales teams and customers in Japan, building credibility with senior market stakeholders.
• Good background in trade spend management(highly Preferrable)
• Mandatory experience in Order to cash process.
• Results oriented, strong communication skills.
• Learning agility to master new skills, business operations.
• Ability to excel in an SLA and timebound service delivery operation.
• Build and sustain excellent relationships with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong problem identifying and problem-solving skills.
• Highly numerate and detailed with high analytical skills and good reconciliation, accounting knowledge.
• Strong Excel skills.
• Willingness and flexibility to work Japan Standard Time (JST) business hours.

Desirable

• Prior experience working within or servicing the Japan market in a commercial, finance or customer operations capacity.
• Strong SAP, Excel skills.
• Experienced in working within a shared service centre environment.
• Multi-tasking with precision to accuracy.
• Familiarity with Japan-specific documentation, tax and record-retention requirements.
• Salesforce & Power BI application experience is a plus.

Barriers to Success in Role

• Lack of drive and pro-activity.
• Insufficient Japanese language capability to handle customer correspondence, contracts and invoices independently.
• Limited understanding of the Japan market and its customer, channel and commercial practices.
• Inability to build effective working relationships with Japan commercial teams and market customers, including across cultural and time-zone differences.
• Lack of business English communication skills.
• Lack of attention to detail.
• Lack of influencing skills.