Innovation Director - Senior Marketer - Veterans Sourcing Group
New York City, NY 10177
About the Job
Innovation Director - Senior Marketer
Languages: English (strong business proficiency in written and verbal communication). Spanish or Portuguese an advantage.
Location: NYC - HYBRID
Introduction:
Innovation is a must win battle for our company. Innovation is at the heart of value creation for the Group and is critical in the transform and accelerate journey. Innovation accounts for 1/3 of the expected growth from the Group. The Group has established a clear direction of making the strategic brands bigger, with an expectation of more Billion brands in the near future.
A new Global Innovation Direction has been created in order to have a holistic view of the brand and market challenges and develop innovations to address these opportunities. A Global innovation will ensure a maximize allocation of resources and avoid duplication. The expertise of the Global Innovation direction will allow more impact and faster development.
The new Global Innovation Direction should enable a more Simplified, Empowered and Disciplined way to do Innovation.
The new Global Innovation Direction has identified 6 groups of brands / categories: Premium and Super Premium Scotch brands (UK based), Malt and GTR exclusive Prestige Scotch (UK based), Martell (China based), Jameson/Absolut/American Whiskies (US based), Malibu/Kalhua/HoT (US based), Gin/Rum (UK based). These groups of brands / categories will be led by Head of Innovation, will a global international scope of work.
The person needs to be a senior marketer who thrives with complex projects, has strong project management and influencing skills, who knows how to truly collaborate for superior results and who is truly passionate about innovation. They need to have an entrepreneur mindset and feel accountable in delivering results by having a robust framing of opportunities. The person is accountable for end-to-end creation and delivery of Global innovation. They need to have an entrepreneur mindset and feel accountable in delivering results by having a robust framing of opportunities.
Vision: Drive powerful and scalable NPD innovations on our strategic international brands, fueled with strong consumer-centricity and proximity to markets
Job aim:
Deliver the Vision by:
• Driving Consumer Centricity, a key ingredient in the company brand building model, across the business by putting consumers and shoppers at the heart of all decision making.
• Driving a leading-edge innovation capability in close collaboration with key Markets, Brand Companies and GBD.
• Implementing an Innovation Roadmap & KPIs according to the business needs/strategy of the brands / categories and in line with the group priorities.
• Fostering & coordinating collaboration and interaction with Brand Companies, Market companies, GBD Innovation Team and Insights COEs where relevant.
• Proactively contributing to the global company Innovation community to build and share learnings.
• Managing a diverse team of Innovation Experts.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Create and deliver a program of innovation on brands they are responsible for and support markets to accelerate their expansion across the region:
o In collaboration with the Innovation Director, the BrandCo and the lead markets, design and implement the innovation roadmap to build sustained business growth and competitive advantage across the region.
o Develop the strategic framework of the categories / brands the person is responsible
o Ensure projects are aligned with the markets' needs.
o Build strong business cases with robust and rigorous data analysis, both external and internal (financials data…)
o Leverage agile approaches and research methodologies to create strong and differentiated innovations that delight consumers.
o Manage projects through Stage Gate from Basis for Interest to Post-Launch Analysis.
o Partner with MarketCos to support the creation of the strongest possible route to market.
o Ensure Best Practice and launch learnings are captured and shared as products are expanded across the region (Post-Evaluation Analysis, reporting etc…).
o Ensure business needs are built into the pipeline review, annual Innovation planning and budget.
o Partner with Brand Companies to ensure innovation concepts build long term brand equity and are aligned with Brand Strategy.
• Drive consumer centricity across the business:
o Build robust foundational consumer insight and strategic frameworks to identify innovation opportunities and whitespaces.
o Leverage a range of agile consumer research tools from ideation through to launch to accelerate consumer learning and strengthen the consumer-centricity of innovation.
o Ensure learnings are shared with other Innovation teams
o Be the expert of competitive intelligence for the category they are responsible
• Build a leading-edge innovation capability and ecosystem that feeds business strategy, Portfolio management and local planning in affiliates:
o Be the expert of Brand Companies production capabilities they are responsible for
o Pro-actively contribute to the innovation network and ecosystem by building internal and external capability that delivers superior innovation.
o Help to define and optimize the ways of working with Brand Companies and Markets to effectively and efficiently deliver the Innovation pipeline including collaborating closely with R&D & Supply Chain to deliver the pipeline.
• Foster strong collaboration and interaction within Brand Companies and Markets:
o Challenge / inspire on business opportunities and identify possible synergies and pain-points in markets to strengthen the innovation program.
o Ensure strong collaboration on common projects with Brand Cos / within Market Cos / with GBD Innovation Team through regular catch-ups and agreed KPIs.
o Identify and share best practices to feed global company Innovation and Marketing teams.
• Ongoing management and talent development of direct reports. Budget management to ensure budget is being spent smartly.
Required Skills
SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES
CONSUMER CENTRIC
Consumer focus - Enable to build strong consumer relationship and delivering consumer-centric solutions
Cultivates innovation - Create new and better ways in insights / research methodologies – embrace disruption with an ability to risk and experiment
Tech savvy - Anticipate and adopt forward looking insights and research methodologies
GROWTH MINDSET
Strategic mindset
- See ahead to future possibilities and translate them into breakthrough strategy for insights
- Become a trusted advisor with a strong affinity for action, Pro-actively participate in (strategic) decision making – Consulting mindset
Drives vision & Purpose
- Able to influence the organization for all teams, especially Marketing, to display key Consumer Centric behaviors:
- Clarity in what our brands provide to our consumers.
Languages: English (strong business proficiency in written and verbal communication). Spanish or Portuguese an advantage.
Location: NYC - HYBRID
Introduction:
Innovation is a must win battle for our company. Innovation is at the heart of value creation for the Group and is critical in the transform and accelerate journey. Innovation accounts for 1/3 of the expected growth from the Group. The Group has established a clear direction of making the strategic brands bigger, with an expectation of more Billion brands in the near future.
A new Global Innovation Direction has been created in order to have a holistic view of the brand and market challenges and develop innovations to address these opportunities. A Global innovation will ensure a maximize allocation of resources and avoid duplication. The expertise of the Global Innovation direction will allow more impact and faster development.
The new Global Innovation Direction should enable a more Simplified, Empowered and Disciplined way to do Innovation.
The new Global Innovation Direction has identified 6 groups of brands / categories: Premium and Super Premium Scotch brands (UK based), Malt and GTR exclusive Prestige Scotch (UK based), Martell (China based), Jameson/Absolut/American Whiskies (US based), Malibu/Kalhua/HoT (US based), Gin/Rum (UK based). These groups of brands / categories will be led by Head of Innovation, will a global international scope of work.
The person needs to be a senior marketer who thrives with complex projects, has strong project management and influencing skills, who knows how to truly collaborate for superior results and who is truly passionate about innovation. They need to have an entrepreneur mindset and feel accountable in delivering results by having a robust framing of opportunities. The person is accountable for end-to-end creation and delivery of Global innovation. They need to have an entrepreneur mindset and feel accountable in delivering results by having a robust framing of opportunities.
Vision: Drive powerful and scalable NPD innovations on our strategic international brands, fueled with strong consumer-centricity and proximity to markets
Job aim:
Deliver the Vision by:
• Driving Consumer Centricity, a key ingredient in the company brand building model, across the business by putting consumers and shoppers at the heart of all decision making.
• Driving a leading-edge innovation capability in close collaboration with key Markets, Brand Companies and GBD.
• Implementing an Innovation Roadmap & KPIs according to the business needs/strategy of the brands / categories and in line with the group priorities.
• Fostering & coordinating collaboration and interaction with Brand Companies, Market companies, GBD Innovation Team and Insights COEs where relevant.
• Proactively contributing to the global company Innovation community to build and share learnings.
• Managing a diverse team of Innovation Experts.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Create and deliver a program of innovation on brands they are responsible for and support markets to accelerate their expansion across the region:
o In collaboration with the Innovation Director, the BrandCo and the lead markets, design and implement the innovation roadmap to build sustained business growth and competitive advantage across the region.
o Develop the strategic framework of the categories / brands the person is responsible
o Ensure projects are aligned with the markets' needs.
o Build strong business cases with robust and rigorous data analysis, both external and internal (financials data…)
o Leverage agile approaches and research methodologies to create strong and differentiated innovations that delight consumers.
o Manage projects through Stage Gate from Basis for Interest to Post-Launch Analysis.
o Partner with MarketCos to support the creation of the strongest possible route to market.
o Ensure Best Practice and launch learnings are captured and shared as products are expanded across the region (Post-Evaluation Analysis, reporting etc…).
o Ensure business needs are built into the pipeline review, annual Innovation planning and budget.
o Partner with Brand Companies to ensure innovation concepts build long term brand equity and are aligned with Brand Strategy.
• Drive consumer centricity across the business:
o Build robust foundational consumer insight and strategic frameworks to identify innovation opportunities and whitespaces.
o Leverage a range of agile consumer research tools from ideation through to launch to accelerate consumer learning and strengthen the consumer-centricity of innovation.
o Ensure learnings are shared with other Innovation teams
o Be the expert of competitive intelligence for the category they are responsible
• Build a leading-edge innovation capability and ecosystem that feeds business strategy, Portfolio management and local planning in affiliates:
o Be the expert of Brand Companies production capabilities they are responsible for
o Pro-actively contribute to the innovation network and ecosystem by building internal and external capability that delivers superior innovation.
o Help to define and optimize the ways of working with Brand Companies and Markets to effectively and efficiently deliver the Innovation pipeline including collaborating closely with R&D & Supply Chain to deliver the pipeline.
• Foster strong collaboration and interaction within Brand Companies and Markets:
o Challenge / inspire on business opportunities and identify possible synergies and pain-points in markets to strengthen the innovation program.
o Ensure strong collaboration on common projects with Brand Cos / within Market Cos / with GBD Innovation Team through regular catch-ups and agreed KPIs.
o Identify and share best practices to feed global company Innovation and Marketing teams.
• Ongoing management and talent development of direct reports. Budget management to ensure budget is being spent smartly.
Required Skills
SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES
CONSUMER CENTRIC
Consumer focus - Enable to build strong consumer relationship and delivering consumer-centric solutions
Cultivates innovation - Create new and better ways in insights / research methodologies – embrace disruption with an ability to risk and experiment
Tech savvy - Anticipate and adopt forward looking insights and research methodologies
GROWTH MINDSET
Strategic mindset
- See ahead to future possibilities and translate them into breakthrough strategy for insights
- Become a trusted advisor with a strong affinity for action, Pro-actively participate in (strategic) decision making – Consulting mindset
Drives vision & Purpose
- Able to influence the organization for all teams, especially Marketing, to display key Consumer Centric behaviors:
- Clarity in what our brands provide to our consumers.
Source : Veterans Sourcing Group