Ethical Tea Partnership - Business Innovation Lead

Credit - Arete

Business Innovation Lead May 2022

Credit - Arete

About Ethical Tea Partnership The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) is a non-profit membership organisation working with tea companies, development organisations and governments to improve the lives of tea workers, farmers and their environment.

Much of the world’s tea is grown in places that face significant sustainability challenges. ETP’s programmes are focused on driving forward long-term systemic changes in three impact areas economics, equality and environment. These programmes aim to improve the progress that is being made towards attaining the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in tea-growing regions.

With the support of its 50 members, including the biggest multinational companies in the tea sector, ETP’s programmes to date have reached over one million people. As well as supporting communities

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

on the ground, the organisation leads the sustainability agenda through business innovation and influencing.

ETP holds a strong track record in driving and delivering change in tea-growing regions through a range of partnerships; these span national tea boards and tea research institutes, producer associations, local and international NGOs, UN agencies such as the FAO and UNICEF, institutional donors such as IDH - Sustainable Trade Initiative, GIZ, and others.

The organisation is made up of small, but dedicated, expert teams across most tea-growing regions, including Africa and Asia, as well as a London-based secretariat.

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Credit - Abbie Trayler-Smith, Panos

The Role Title:

Business and Innovation Lead

Location:

London (UK) for at least 2 days per week (Candidates must have the right to work in the UK); Or any of the offices in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, India, Sri Lanka, China, or Indonesia.

Salary:

£50,000

Reporting to:

Executive Director

The Business and Innovation (BI) Lead will be responsible for leading ETP’s work on identifying and advocating for better business practices, effectively leading the “Business Pilots” pillar of the ETP Strategy 2030. This includes understanding what companies might be doing that inadvertently contributes to social or environmental problems, followed by piloting alternative business models in close collaboration with companies. The BI Lead will also play a key role in the evolution of the industry leadership platform known as the Global Tea Coalition.

The role-holder will be innovative, reactive and strategic, bringing fresh thinking to ETP and will be an advocate for the power of business to address social and environmental issues.

This position reports to the Executive Director and will work closely with ETP’s Programmes teams and colleagues in teaproducing regions.

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

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Responsibilities In the first instance, the BI Lead will be responsible for the following projects. Over time, this portfolio of projects will evolve – largely driven by the role-holder’s research and ideation.

• Play an active role, often representing ETP’s position, in the Global Tea Coalition, working closely with the Executive Director.

• Lead on the Business Pilots pillar of the ETP Strategy2030.

• Business Pilots are a sub-category of ETP’s projects and programmes. They focus on business innovation and new models for operating in tea, for example, pioneering an out-grower model in Sri Lanka, or trialling ‘open book’ accounting to show value distribution in supply chains.

• The BI Lead will be responsible for identifying potential projects with companies and scoping their implementation, including baseline analysis, support with partners and advisory, identifying sources of catalytic funding (from impact investors, for example), evaluation of the direct impact on tea workers and communities etc.

• The role holder will also be responsible for developing case studies on business pilots which can be shared with other companies (and stakeholders).

• Oversee outsourced research projects, such as value chain analyses, living wage-living

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

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income research, gender mapping, etc and feed into the Programmes and Policy functions as appropriate.

Engage with ETP members regularly to understand their needs and challenges. Proactively network and broker connections between members and opportunities. Track members’ sustainability priorities and feed back into ETP’s planning.

Scan the horizon of other sectors, namely agriculture commodities such as coffee, cocoa and sugar, for models and pilots that are transferrable to tea and build relationships with potential partner organisations.

Monitor the “responsible business” movement for opportunities e.g., B-corp; WBCSD; WEF; WFTO; GRI; etc. and create regular briefings for members on emerging themes and topics.

Turn learning into practice, taking global concepts to local implementation.

Represent ETP in public fora relating to business innovation and responsible business.

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Credit - Abbie Trayler-Smith, Panos

Candidate profile You will bring: • A track record in working with the private sector (directly or in partnership) and demonstrable success in influencing company behaviour.

• Relevant and substantial experience in international development and / or responsible business, ideally with experience in agriculture.

• Familiarity with “for-purpose” business models and market development work.

• Experience in working with corporate sustainability standards and certifications would be an advantage.

• A history of working with international teams and groups, directly and remotely with the cultural awareness to make this a success • The skills to engage with people from different sectors and backgrounds, to bring together different ideas and craft them into a concrete idea.

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

• Experience of monitoring, evaluation and learning would be helpful, and certainly the ability to bring in best practice principles into design of business pilots.

You are: • An accomplished communicator with adaptive communications techniques, both verbal and written.

• Someone who likes innovating and implementing ideas, trying things out and learning from mistakes.

• Someone who brings a positive outlook and the belief that business has the potential to do good in the world.

• An experienced report writer, producing impactful and succinct high-level reports and case studies, that demonstrate impact.

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Credit - Arete

How to Apply All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter as two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit. The documents should be saved in MS Word in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyyyy) e.g., Malika Cook-CV-052022ETP. International candidates applying to work in the UK office would need to have the right to work.

Please note that all our clients recruiting in the UK are legally obliged to confirm that the appointee is eligible to work in the UK. As of 1 January 2021, government’s new regulations will apply. For further information visit the Home Office website.

Timeline Closing date: Preliminary interviews: Final panel interviews:

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

Equality Statement Equality and diversity are at the core of Ethical Tea Partnership’s values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.

Selection Process All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.

Queries If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at etp-business-innovation-lead@oxfordhr. co.uk in the first instance.

10 July 2022 01 August 2022 15 August 2022

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Credit - Abbie Trayler-Smith, Panos

About Oxford HR Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive search mandates at board and senior management levels. We also offer human resource and organisational development consultancy.

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world.

We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed to meet the specific needs of our client.

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www.oxfordhr.co.uk | Company No. 6456325

Ethical Tea Partnership Business and Innovation Lead

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