Job description
The Company
Originally founded in 1979 as Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), SymphonyIRI Group is the world’s leading innovative partner that helps clients transform insight into impact at every level of
their organization across sales, marketing, merchandising, category/brand management and shopper marketing to achieve high performance and growth. Driving the transformation of the consumer packaged
goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries, only SymphonyIRI has the unique offering of intelligent people with deep domain expertise across a variety of different industries and specialties, the
innovative solutions powered by predictive analytical models and breakthrough information processing and business intelligence capabilities supported by revolutionary technology platforms and the
integration of unrivaled empirical information on markets, consumers and shoppers from virtually any source to deliver new levels of performance and growth.
The company has been providing market solutions for CPG manufacturers and retailers for nearly 30 years. In late 2003, the company was acquired by the industry-visionary company Symphony
Technology Group, run by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani. That acquisition has been the catalyst for a major transformation. Since the acquisition, the company has focused on changing the value proposition for
its CPG, retail and healthcare clients by striving for a ten-fold increase in the value its clients realize from its market information, analytic, strategic consulting and decision support software
solutions. To support these efforts, SymphonyIRI has been focused on developing predictive, on-demand analytic applications designed to empower manufacturers and retailers to manage their businesses
for profitable growth.
Currently privately held, SymphonyIRI Holdings, Inc. serves as a holding company for the equity interests of SymphonyIRI shareholders. Symphony Technology Group, a leading provider of enterprise
solutions that enable maximum business performance in the consumer products and retail industries, is the majority shareholder of SymphonyIRI Holdings. With its vast client base, Symphony enhances
SymphonyIRI’s collective powers of investment, industry expertise, research and development, global operations, and technology to address its clients’ needs.
Reporting Relationship
The Director will report to a Vice President in the Shopper Marketing practice. The Vice President reports to the Senior Vice President of the Shopper Marketing practice.
Responsibilities
The Director will occupy a position central to the success of SymphonyIRI’s premier Shopper Marketing practice. This is a client-facing position. Through driving deep Shopper Insights, he/she will
optimize the relationship between several Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers and their Food/Drug/Mass Merchant (FDM) retail partners as related to Shopper Marketing. The Director will work
primarily within an established base of existing SymphonyIRI retail and manufacturer relationships.
The Director will "own" their client relationships from a Shopper Marketing perspective and be a lead consultant in leading analytical projects. He/she will start with a discussion of client
business issues, write the proposals, connect the issues to a research plan/project framework, match the issues to a custom or “off-the-shelf” SymphonyIRI Shopper Marketing solution, work hands-on to
build the solution and finally, delivering Insights that will have measurable client business impact. Approximately 50% of his/her time will be spent on direct contact with clients and associated
project management tasks.
The Director will have a big “sand-box” in which to function in terms of analytical tools, client and client issues. From a tool perspective, he/she will work extensively with SymphonyIRI’s
revolutionary web
based report generating tools and advanced panel queries/analysis. Approximately 50% of his/her time will be spent working in a hands-on capacity with SymphonyIRI’s technology tools and rich data
sets derived from multiple sources. Using different modeling techniques for execution to form results around pricing for example.
Key client business issues include assortment optimization, promotion effectiveness, new item introduction and consumer segmentation and targeting. The current economic environment requires that the
Director bring fresh thinking and innovation to identify/address current and future consumer trends.
Externally, the Director will work at all levels across multiple client functions including Category Management, Consumer Insights, Sales and Brand Management. Internally, he/she will work with
Retail Client Solutions, (on-site CPG manufacturer SymphonyIRI client teams), Retail Analytics, Technology, the Consumer Centric Retailing team and the broader Consumer & Shopper Insights team.
Having the out-goingness to foster collaborative internal relationships will be essential to the Director’s success.
The Director will be well-positioned to add value to SymphonyIRI and to our clients from their first day. He/she will tackle substantive client issues that cut across to total store (versus a
single category) and participate in “writing the game rules” for a growing and dynamic business practice.
Requirements
- 8 or more years of retail or CPG experience or a high degree of passion and comfort with the retail and CPG manufacturer space. This experience may be gained in one or more of the environments
below:
- Top-tier consulting firm (i.e., Accenture)
- CRM-oriented software firm (i.e. Peppers & Rodgers)
- Retail (i.e., Target)
- CPG manufacturer (i.e., Kraft)
- Travel or hospitality (i.e., American Airlines or Starwood Resorts)
- Market Research (i.e., Dunnhumby
- Strong project management skills; proven skills to maintain focus and poise amidst concurrent and competing priorities
- Experience with consumer panel data or customer data is a plus
- Strong experience or potential to foster internal and external consultative client partnerships
- Expert in PowerPoint and Excel
- Proven curiosity and skills to acquire, assimilate and new information with little directio
- Strong applied and pragmatic mathematical/modeling skills
- Proven skills impactfully summarizing or presenting complex technical subject matter for/to a non technical audience; strong and well-rounded communication skills
- Ability/drive to make decisions with conviction in ambiguous and fast-moving environments; must be comfortable “filling in the blanks” with only 70% of the facts at-hand
- SAS or SPSS is a plus
- Ability to travel 30-50% of the time
- Undergraduate degree is required. Advanced degree is a plus
- Chicago location preferred but open