Job description
The Company:
Founded in 1979, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services, empowering its clients to grow their business profitably
in a complex marketplace. Driving the transformation of the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries, only IRI provides a unique combination of real-time market content,
advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software, and professional services.
In late 2003, IRI was acquired by the industry-visionary company Symphony Technology Group, run by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani. IRI is owned by Symphony Technology Group, a strategic investment group with
more than $ 1.1 billion in revenues. Dr. Wadhwani, Chairman of both Symphony and IRI, has successfully built three enterprise software companies over the last 30 years; the most recent of these,
Aspect Development, Inc. was acquired for $ 9.3 billion.
The acquisition has been the catalyst for a major transformation of IRI. IRI has crafted a new vision for itself, and for the industry it serves. With revenues approaching $600 million annually,
IRI’s mission is to increase its value proposition to clients by 10X through innovation and focus on enabling insightful decisions. Since the acquisition, the Company has continued to focus on
customer satisfaction, streamlining its organization and supporting disciplines, globalizing operations, strengthening its leadership team, and launching multiple new products and services.
The company’s portfolio of services, solutions, and technology enable leading retailers and their suppliers around the globe to see what they are missing, act faster with greater confidence and
win at the shelf. Ninety-five percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 in CPG and retail leverage IRI to power their business. For more information, visit www.infores.com.
Marketing & Analytic Solutions (MAS):
IRI’s industry-renowned analytic experts consult with clients to design custom solutions to address critical business issues. The company provides custom analysis aimed at improving future
decision-making through the analysis of historical data. In-store promotions, advertising and direct marketing are the key elements of many marketing budgets; the key is finding the most effective
combination of each to improve sales and profitability and build brands in both the long and short term.
Through analyzing the effects of different marketing activities, the MAS team recommends the combination of marketing activity that goes furthest towards meeting the ultimate objective of
increasing product sales and marketing objectives. IRI’s leading edge analytical modeling, consumer insights and testing services help their clients analyze consumer response to marketing activity
across a broad spectrum of issues.
Responsibilities:
- Build practice on a firmly established base of top CPG companies. Typical client interface will occur at the level of Director and Vice President, some Executive/C-level interaction is to be
expected. Key functional areas of interface include: Market Research, Marketing, Sales and Brand Management.
- Deepen and widen relationships within client base. The Consultant will partner proactively with their clients as a trusted advisor and consultant versus an "account manager". He/she will learn
about and leverage and the full suite of IRI analytics tools to identify and address a variety of critical client issues including those related to spending efficiency, consumer targeting, marketing
mix analysis, pricing strategy and portfolio analysis.
- -Scope client issues within a project framework, manage deliverable development/innovation and derive/present the insights/strategy to the client.
- Manage one or more direct report(s) as well as shared resources in IRI’s Global Operations Center in Bangalore, India. Team leadership includes; assisting with the preparation of analyses,
developing/mentoring and monitoring project progress and work-flow to assure achievement of delivery commitments.
- Achieve and maintain alignment with key inter-IRI business areas including; Client Solutions, Strategic Solutions Group (new business), Retention and Renewals, the Automated Decisions Group
(software), the Panel & Testing Solutions Group and Analytic Research & Development.
Requirements:
- Four or more years of experience solving business issues with the consultative application of advanced analytics. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) or Pharmaceutical experience is highly preferred.
Analytics experience should include consumer-insights work within one or more of the environments below:
- CPG or Pharmaceutical Manufacturer (working with or purchasing advanced analytics)
- Quantitative market research supplier
- Boutique consulting firm (specializing in analytics) or Tier One consulting company
- Advertising agency
- Financial Services (e.g., using transaction data to develop consumer promotions)
- Retail (using Customer data or POS-data driven analytics)
- Direct Marketing
- Software (e.g., CPG or Retail pricing, assortment or promotion solutions)
- Experience delivering insight to internal or external clients by building on a technical foundation that includes a conceptual understanding of modeling techniques and a basic grasp of
statistics
- Hands on SAS experience is a must
- 3 or more years of Forecast Modeling experience
- A practical versus academic understanding of analytics applications. - General knowledge of quantitative syndicated research products, services and methodologies—capacity to tie quantitative
tools to key client business issues and revenue/margin commitments
- Demonstrated ability to sell analytic concepts internally or externally
- Demonstrated leadership acumen—for direct reports and cross-functional project teams
- Must be able to be on-site at the client at least 3 days a week in the Western Suburbs of Chicago
- Local candidates preferred
Education
A Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics from an accredited institution is required. An advanced degree is preferred.