Group Innovation Manager, Oceania

With two centuries of family heritage, Beam Suntory is a world leader in premium spirits. As a truly global business, we bring together the best of our culturally diverse heritage. We value both agility and long-term thinking, we share a collective commitment to excellence and a dedication to craftsmanship, and across borders and roles, we collaborate to delight our consumers responsibly, and contribute to a more sustainable society for all of our stakeholders.

Our Vision is Growing for Good and our mission is to be the world’s most admired, fastest-growing premium spirits company. We’re a business that runs on responsibility, integrity, ambition and drive, and we celebrate exceptional performance. We welcome our people to dream big and tenaciously pursue ambitious goals – we call it our Yatte Minahare Spirit. But perhaps most importantly – we value differences, and we appreciate what each of us can contribute. We inspire each other, and challenge ourselves to innovate, improve, advance new ideas, and try new things. We create endless opportunities to Unleash Your Spirit every day in a culture that is charged, creative, challenging, and fun.

What makes this a great opportunity?  

As a world leader in premium spirits, Beam Suntory inspires human connections through our globally recognised portfolio of brands, including the iconic Jim Beam and Maker's Mark Bourbon brands, Canadian Club Whiskey, Suntory brands including highly admired Luxury Whiskey brands such as Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hibiki and Toki as well as Roku Gin, Haku Vodka and -196 premix. Beam Suntory was created in 2014 by combining the world leader in bourbon and the pioneer in Japanese whisky to form a new company with a deep heritage, passion for quality, innovative spirit and vision of Growing for Good. Headquartered in New York, NY, Beam Suntory is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings Limited of Japan. Our culture is anchored deeply in a set of core values, including our East-Meets-West Culture, Yatte Minahare spirit, Giving Back to Society, Delighting Consumers, responsibly and Embracing Diversity & Inclusion. 

Mission of Role  

RTD (Ready-To-Drink) / Refreshment is one of Beam Suntory’s global growth platforms and we have an ambition to develop the RTD business to US$3BN globally in 2030. Locally, it is the largest growth contributor to the Oceania business to 2030. The Group Innovation Manager leads local development & coordination of Beam Suntory Oceania’s Innovation portfolio (predominantly RTD, high level pipeline coordination for FBS) in close partnership with Global key stakeholders (Suntory Global RTD Development team, Global Brand Houses such as Jim Beam, House of Suntory), local cross functional teams and our partners. The role needs to demonstrate a broad set of capabilities including strategic thinking, critical decision making, people leadership as well as key stakeholder influence at all levels, making pragmatic decisions and getting hands dirty to deliver execution. It is essential that the role work collaboratively with Marketing and Agency partners to deliver final product mix; with NPD Commercialization, Technical R&D, Quality Assurance team to ensure that the project is delivered OTIF.  The role also works closely with local Consumer Insights team and Category Management team to identify local consumer & shopper insights and customer sell in stories. As our Manufacturing & Distribution partner, Coca-Cola European Partners is essential in delivering and executing NPDs, and the role plays a critical role in influencing the BSI agenda with CCEP. 
 

Role Responsibilities 

NPD PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

• Plan, develop and manage 3-year innovation pipelines and prioritization
• Lead localization and development of RTD NPDs to support delivery the commercial goals 
• Partner with Marketing teams and Global key stakeholders to ensure that RTD Innovation platforms are well aligned to the brand vision and JTBD 

R&D AND COMMERCIALIZATION PROCESS

• Lead total coordination from research briefing, designing research methodologies to final debrief partnering with Oceania Insights Manager (incl. agency coordination, research operation, physical stimulus)
• Lead required internal processes & approvals, ensure all the information and documents are developed in the timely and quality manner, well thought out and prepared (e.g. gate documents, S2S internal documents) incorporating inputs from Commercialization Manager, Category Manager and Commercial Finance Manager
• Manage development of technical NPD process including liquid brief, product & packaging development, consumer researches, commercialization, GTM planning together with relevant expert functions
• To manage budget effectively including PO and tracking

INSIGHTS GENERATION

• Identify consumer insights, unmet needs and opportunities to ensure the NPD platforms are continuously reviewed and renewed
• Work closely with Category teams to build the customer sell-in insights and stories for successful NPD acceptance
• Lead PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action), NPD performance tracking, capture learnings (what worked, did not, what would we do differently from our launches) to build robust institutional knowledge for future innovation successes
• Competitor NPD insights – Drive learnings from their strategy and execution 

LAUNCH & EXECUTION 

• Partner with cross functional groups to ensure effective implementation of agreed plans, deliver innovation plans OTIF and within the budget
• For New to World NPDs, lead briefing and development of launch activities (e.g. PR, BTL activities, Web site, Digital, SKU Vantage etc.) including support execution planning & coordination with Beam Suntory Shopper Activation, CCA NPC team, State interface

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

• As a custodian of Innovation life cycle management, lead collaborative, effective working relationship with Category team, Shopper Activation team, Commercial Finance team, NPD commercialization team, R&D Technical Director, Supply and Logistics Team, Insights Manager and Marketing teams 
• Influence effective working relationships with CCEP team to gain utmost support and deliver quality executions in market, and lead the BSI-CCEP cross functional project team for some key projects
• As a Point of Contact for Innovation, lead the effective working relationship with Suntory GRD team, Global Brand Houses, APAC teams as appropriate
• Manage and inspire agency partners to deliver the best output
• Support and work closely with OLT 

Qualifications & Experience

• 10+ years experience in a consumer marketing / brand management / innovation / consumer strategy development 
• Research, Insights & Strategy development experience preferred 
• Tertiary qualifications (preferably Commerce or Business with Marketing Major)
• Liquor / beverage industry experience is valued but not essential
• Good understanding of project management, NPD stage gate process

Relationships 

• Cross Functional Business Team which includes Brand, Insights, Category Management, Shopper Activation, Commercialization, R&D, Supply Chain & Finance 
• CCEP Sales teams, NPD teams
• Suntory GRD team
• Global Brand Houses
• External agencies and partners (e.g. Research, Packaging, Innovation etc.)

Job Specific Competencies

• Effective analysis, interpretation, insights generation & recommendations on strategy and plans based on broad set of data (e.g. brand profitability, market information, consumer insights)
• Excellent understanding of consumer and brand marketing philosophies and practices, brand marketing experience including development of brand strategy and plans
• Briefing & judging innovation concepts, packaging designs aligned to the consumer Job to be Done
• Strong aptitude for commercial & financials
• Ability to influence and partner with all external stakeholders (agencies, sales team, key customers)
• Natural team leader, ability to inspire and lead cross functional teams without reporting line
• Effective collaboration cross functionally
• Excellent project manager with a proven record and an understanding of efficient cost control
• Preparing and delivering effective presentations
• Proactive, driven and resilient with a positive outlook
• Self starter, thought initiator
• Ability to challenge status quo constructively and come up with alternatives / innovative solutions
• Balanced judgment and commercial mindset, leveraging fact and intuition in a timely manner
• Demonstrated strong planning and organizational skills to deliver excellence in execution
• Ability to make decisions and apply judgment
• Strong communication skills (both oral and written)
• Creativity to identify alternative approaches and solutions
• A confident manner and the ability to influence and persuade constructively
• Enthusiasm to roll the sleeves up and make things happen

Beam Suntory Behavioral Competencies

• Honour our legacy
• Build our future
• We over Me
• Be inclusive