CMI Innovation Assistant- Hair

Job description

Background:

The world around us has changed and if anything, the pace of change is accelerating. We are facing a lot of disruptors, from local players who are agile in responding to local consumer & market trends to start-ups who are utilising latest breakthrough technology.

In the outside world, it's the products & services and innovation culture that puts the human first which are winning the innovation game: human needs, desires and creators' ingenuity; shared & circular economies in hyper connected worlds, homes and cities; creative repositioning of entire industries making them obsolete; the leverage of digital design and advanced technology as differentiators & enablers of superior consumer experiences; innovations that genuinely improve and add meaning to Brands and people's lives; and acute levels of externalised accelerators, innovation partnerships and collaborations. These famous innovations we all talk about and admire are quite simple ideas. Yet make seismic shifts, powered by the people that make them & the people they serve.

Vision:

The vision for Innovation is to bring innovations to lives by rapidly translating trends, new insights & ideas into action and driving bigger, better and more disruptive innovations that deliver valued consumer experiences. CMI's Innovation will become the industry's hot house for Innovation. A hub of creativity, know-how, agility, rigour and business acumen. A bridge internally and externally of leading edge Innovation applications and partnerships into our business.

Scope:

Innovation will be focusing on two pillars:

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New Product Development (NPD) and Core Innovations: The focus here will be on funnel innovations and renovations of the core and NPD. We will help the business generate & implement high growth & market/trend responsive innovations in short time. We will do that by delivering bigger, faster & leaner innovations & implementing a new suite of approaches & toolkits in developing and testing innovations.
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The Disruptive Innovations: It is all about Game Changers in this pillar. We will identify and introduce new to the world products & services, and new business models. This will include adjancies, channels and brand experiences as well as M&As (mergers and acquisitions) and Partnerships (licensing). We will identify and utilise macro trends, Innovation metrics, monitoring & feedback to come up with disruptive innovation ideas and move them from ideation only to implementation (including prototyping, launch models, etc.) for hair.

Deliverables:

We are responsible for driving innovation GROWTH for Unilever Beauty and Personal Care catetgories (Hair), not just about generating and testing new ideas. We will get there through rapid build/ measure/ learn loops as well as best-in-class research approach and implementation of cheaper and more agile research tools without sacrificing the required rigour.

Core Responsibilities:

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Identify & integrate consumer insights into various innovation projects. This will include funnel innovations & renovations on Core and NPD.
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Lead different innovation research projects from ideation/co-creation workshops to final testing of the full mix, using a differentiated pathway of methodologies depending on innovation type and risk to Unilever.
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Ruthless simplification of all systemic processes and standardising & automating research methods.
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Lead meta learnings, cross-pollination, innovation monitoring and real time management of innovation projects.
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Be responsible for building and developing relationships with the global-wide Innovation team and across key business partners including CMI (consumer market insights), CTI (consumer technical insights), Marketing, R&D and Finance.

Competencies:

You should be proactive in identifying new trends and innovation ideas on various categories and acting with speed & agility in landing them with the business partners.

You should be connected externally with the latest competitive moves, innovation ideas and trends. You need to demonstrate strong collaboration, communication & presentation skills as you will be required to give internal presentations to senior brand and category leadership teams.

You should have a founder mentality & Bias for Action in speed and simplification to embrace new disruptive innovation ideas that transform the business and unlock growth opportunities.

Skills/ Experience/ Qualifications:

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Personal passion for Innovations & Trends
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Innovation research experience
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Strong project management skills
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Good analytical thinking and communication skills to present clearly, simplify complex topics and influence decision-making
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Strong communication skills both written and verbal
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Ability to prioritise and deliver pipeline of innovations across brands and workstreams
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Comfortable working with data (analysis, synthesis and interpretation)
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Comfortable working independently and as part of a virtual and global team, including reporting to a line manager not based in the same location.
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Resourceful and able to upskill yourself on new tools and systems through online learning and support from co-located agency partners
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A team player; accountable, open minded who likes to work in rapid and agile way

Direct Reports : UK.

Key Interfaces:

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Global-wide Innovation CMI team
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Business Partners: CMI BPI, Marketing, CTI, R&D, Finance, Marketing Transformation Team
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Research Agency partners – Qual, Quant and Technology agencies
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Research Innovation Foundation Team, People Data Center (PDC) as key CMI partners
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Global hair CMI Team+ CMI BPC Latam. Sedal & Dove Global.