Vice President - Head of Corporate Strategy

Company Description

• Develop and execute our Corporate Strategy for Freshworks, working closely with our GTM leadership and product engineering leadership teams to define our future strategy, identify strategic initiatives to serve our customers and develop GTM strategies to align our sales/PR/marketing departments for product launches.
• Lead the development of immediate and three-year business plans for Freshworks sales strategy, ensuring alignment with business strategy; quantify business outcomes (i.e. revenues or other Key Performance Indicators) and resource budgets (financial and headcount); and ensure integration of key activities or projects across the organization.
• Identify the capabilities needed to meet the current and emerging business needs of a significant business area.
• Evaluate current capabilities, identify gaps, and prioritize development activities.
• Build a high performing strategy team. Motivate others to develop their capabilities and fulfill their personal potential. Build capabilities across the organization through mentoring and people development.
• Lead the development and implementation of sales strategy, anticipating complex issues, challenges, and opportunities, and ensuring integration with wider corporate strategy.

• Responsible for designing, building, landing, and monitoring the organization's sales strategy, key strategic priorities and performance against goals.
• Responsible for developing the 3 year strategy and business plan, which informs the annual operating plans to guide the size, location, and structure of the global sales organization and the design of our Go-To-Market strategy. Partner closely with the product engineering teams on the product roadmap to support our 3 year strategy.
• Responsible for identifying the strategic initiatives across Marketing, Sales, Partner, and Services GTM teams, and working closely with the product teams, Finance and HR.
• Responsible for ensuring that the sales organization has a coverage model designed to meet revenue targets.

• Responsible for developing and delivering the strategic planning approach for the sales organization defining and driving short/mid-term go to market strategy (18 months to 3 years out).
• Identify and manage stakeholders up to and including executive level, finding understanding needs/issues/concerns and reacting to these by leading and coordinating the development of stakeholder engagement plans to support the communication of business information and decisions.
• Corporate Strategy Design to lead the development of corporate strategy, representing the priorities of the go to market organization, applying functional expertise to test the viability of the strategy and contributing creative ideas and insights to support the strategy formation process.
• Set appropriate performance objectives for direct reports and hold them accountable for achieving these; take appropriate corrective action where necessary to ensure the achievement of annual business objectives (in the form of OKRs).
• Represent the organization in a variety of industry, institutional, and/or professional forums, boards, and committees, to promote the company or institution brand or efforts.
• Customer and Market Analysis to serve as the organizational authority on conducting research and analyzing data to develop a comprehensive understanding of customer and market conditions that enables maximum return on investments.
• Risk Strategy Modeling. Undertake strategic and tactical risk modeling and scenario planning for business-critical decisions to support business strategy and to identify and mitigate risk in line with the risk appetite.
• Action Planning. Applies expertise to act as the organizational authority on developing appropriate plans or performing necessary actions based on recommendations and requirements.
• Identify and surface opportunities for revenue and growth acceleration through possible strategic partnership or acquisitions.
• Create forecast models and budgets to determine asset allocations and monitor the performance of the company generally, and go to market organization specifically.
• Ensure capital adequacy.
• Improve client/customer experience.
• Optimize go to market productivity.
• Develop feedback/communication channels between sales and product/business teams.

• Business Insight: Applies knowledge of business and the marketplace to advance the organization's goals. Ensures that the team understands and discusses relevant industry changes. Gives strong messages about how people's efforts make a difference to the broader organization.

• Strategic Mindset: Sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into breakthrough strategies. Is a strong big picture thinker; makes frequent, clear references to the organization's vision and strategy and the efforts required to drive them forward. Effectively integrates long-term opportunities and challenges with day-to-day activities.

• Provides Clarity: Plans and prioritizes work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals. Focused on plans and improvises in response to changes, including risks and contingencies. Aligns own team's work with other workgroups. Looks ahead to determine and obtain needed resources to complete plans.

• Ensures Accountability: Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments. Helps teams hold each other accountable for goals, adherence to policies and procedures. Tracks team metrics and milestones, redirecting effort, as necessary, for continued progress.

• Drives Vision & Purpose: Paints a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action. Makes the vision real for others and encourages people to buy in; paints an engaging and illuminating picture of future possibilities for the team. Gives people an understanding of how their efforts and contributions make a positive difference.

• Adaptive: Adapts approach in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations. Is a powerful role model for adaptability; adeptly shifts approach and helps others do the same. Can be both persistent and flexible, as needed. Helps others adapt swiftly to new situations.

• Develops Talent: Develops people to meet both their career goals and the organization's goals. Builds long-term succession for key roles. Builds a learning culture in the team; uses teachable situations to offer insightful coaching. Recommends and facilitates activities and assignments that help people grow.

• Optimizes Work Processes: Knows the most effective and efficient processes to get things done, with a focus on continuous improvement. Encourages and rewards continuous improvement and quality outcomes. Equips others to handle day-to-day tasks effectively on their own. Integrates systems to improve quality and service.

• This leader manages an international team of 5 senior strategy team members and reports directly into the SVP, GTM Strategy, Operations, Enablement & IT.

• 15+ years go to market strategy, business planning, sales enablement, business development, technical pre-sales, or related work experience
• Demonstrated success in a leadership role with a SaaS based product organization or equivalent
• Experience level enables job holder to provide leadership to others regarding work related systems, processes, and challenges (more than 10 years)
• Experience interpreting strategy and policy in order to set and deliver objectives within short (immediate) to mid-term (3 years)

• Bachelor's Degree in related field OR equivalent experience. MBA preferred.