Senior Innovations Manager at Diageo

Job Description :

Are you hungry for a big opportunity?  Do you yearn for a fast-moving, entrepreneurial culture?  Do you measure success by what you do as much as what you say?  Are you motivated by brilliant execution of new ideas that delight consumers and are compelling to the retailer?

The role is an integral part of the Innovation leadership team. The innovation team is charged with the responsibility of delivering 25% of the business growth to come through Innovations in the next 5 years. This is a critical task in achieving the future growth for the business.

The innovation team therefore plays a critical role in shaping the future of the business, delivering innovations that respond to consumer and customer trends and innovations that are reshaping the choice available to our consumers.

We believe in learning quickly and adjusting our plans as we execute. This calls for constant awareness of the environment, acting on insights that can be boldly and quickly executed in the market. We have learned that innovations sometimes surprise us.

We are creators, we build brands from scratch such as Chrome, Balozi and Orijin and also create new variants of local brands such as Kenya Cane Citrus and Smirnoff Ice Guarana. In the spirit of making marketing simple, we also work collaboratively with global teams to introduce international brands in a way that is compelling and truly transformational such as recently launched Captain Morgan Gold.

To deliver that we need a black-belt Senior Innovation Manager, accountable for delivering game changing innovation projects. A self-motivated, entrepreneurial individual who will be a great addition to the team and who shares our beliefs. If this is you, then welcome to the Innovation team at EABL.

Purpose of Role

A key part of this role is to ensure the use of creative excellence, disciplined project leadership and management in crafting new opportunities and brands from multiple start points.

The Innovation Manager will lead projects designed to deliver against the local market’s programme, priorities and strategy as well as influencing the business with the scalability of projects.

The role will require:

• Inspiring leadership and influencing skills both within project teams, with global teams and with senior leaders around the business.
• Great consumer and customer understanding to generate insights on consumer behaviour that would deliver successful innovations uptake and great commercial execution.
• Strong team leadership to deliver brilliant execution through agency partners for both above-the-line and below-the-line work in order to deliver the innovations in an accessible way that meets consumer needs and is profitable to the business.

Top 5 Accountabilities

• Product Innovation: Through a natural instinct of what consumers want, lead the development of Concepts, Design & Communications for both new brand launches as well as brand extensions on existing brands. Complete this through the GATE process, influencing & inspiring the organisation behind your vision.
• Project management:  leading the development of multiple innovation projects at once, you will be an expert in project management & mastering a range of project management tools will deliver all projects on time & within budget. 
• World-Class Execution Launches: Working in partnership with the Supply brand change managers and Commercialisation Managers to develop and commercialize the product innovation. Will require clear setting the execution standards and goals for launches, delivering & executing full consumer & commercial launches flawlessly, to time & to budget. This will include new brand launches as well as rolling out proven innovations from other markets.
• Influencing & Inspiring. It is critical that you can effectively influence & inspire the cross-functional project team to deliver the Ambition. This means genuine relationships, tough conversations when needed & above all to be a master of inspiring the business to the opportunity the innovation has for the business in the future.
• Performance management: Through a strong understating of the business and understanding the relative commercial levers required to deliver the performance ambitions you will consistently measure and intervene to make sure all projects deliver to target. Timely escalations and course correction based on judgement from the performance tracking.

Key Relationships: EABL Kenya Executive team, Marketing team, Technical and brand change team, Finance team, Consumer research team, Sales and commercial team, Procurement team, Corporate Affairs team, Supply chain team, Quality and Brand assurance team, 3rd party agencies.

Qualifications & Experience Required:

• You have 7+ years of marketing, innovation or commercial experience & have a proven track record of amazing results.
• You will demonstrate meticulous project management, strong marketing judgement & commercial grounding to ensure delivery of plans.
• You will have strong entrepreneurial flair to both identify new opportunities & navigate your project challenges through the complex business landscape.
• A great communicator, you build strong interpersonal networks within the business & have the ability to manage stakeholders in a clear concise manner. You are comfortable managing complexity with a demonstrated track record of managing an agenda of multiple priorities & stakeholders, juggling multiple projects & complex project timeline.
• You demonstrate drive, delivery & determination.
• Resilience is key! You should  be result oriented with a track record of consistently delivering strong performance.
• Line management & leadership. Leading, inspiring & coaching cross functional team members and 3rd party agencies.

Qualifications: Educated to Graduate level in a related field.