Commercialization Director, Whitespace Innovation, Int'l Bev

Overview:

Overview of the Innovation & Commercialization Function:

The Commercialization function is part of the broader Consumer Groups organization (incl Marketing, Insights, Design, R&D) and plays a key role in PEP’s accelerated growth agenda across International Foods & Beverages categories.

Purpose:

• Powering Positive Growth by delivering smart E2E solutions that are positive for the portfolio, people & planet, one smile at a time.

Mission:

• We are 3 Lens innovation experts (consumer desirability, product viability and feasibility).
• We creatively orchestrate teams to build & intentionally scale human centric solutions.
• We drive bold choices, agility & winning execution.

Key deliverables:

This will be one of the senior role in the International Beverages Commercialization team, the individual will be a member of the commercialization beverages commercialization council along with being responsible for the innovation & change agenda for European FOBO.

The scope of the International Beverages Europe FOBO team is primarily focused on rapidly developing & deploying PepsiCo’s Big Bet innovation programs across all global categories for Europe enabling our Triple 15 vision.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the commercialization function for the Whitespace Innovation for IB.
• Build a team environment that supports high levels of breakthrough thinking, leading the cross functional teams through phases of both divergent and convergent thinking to create actionable solutions.
• Integrate inputs from the cross functional team & franchise bottlers to develop cross functional make-to-learn plans that identify & solve for critical issues across the three lenses of consumer desirability, technical feasibility & business viability.
• Partner with critical supplier & customer supply chains to develop innovative E2E business models.
• Manage scope, risks & contingencies, costs & resources at program & project level.
• Effectively manage senior stakeholders, ensuring clear & compelling communications.
• Develop & manage integrated, cross-functional timelines to accelerate delivery of in-market pilots.
• Employ design-thinking, Waterfall & Agile project management techniques as appropriate to enable fast, iterative learning via the in-market pilots.
• Lead cross-functional team meetings to drive progress against all key milestones, deadlines, and deliverables, and engage with senior leadership to enable fast decision making on mission-critical issues.
• Managing the innovation hopper and pipeline; understanding the value, gaps, risks, resources and trade-offs required to deliver our targets and ensure we make the right innovation portfolio choices.
• Proactively engaging with the BU and Global teams to build and enable flawless commercialization of Horizon 2 & 3 initiatives.
• Developing and embedding world-class people, processes, systems and scorecard capability into the BU.
• Driving continuous improvement across all innovation governance and Commercialization KPIs.
• Leading the Stage Gate process and innovation governance forums for FOBO Europe.

Qualifications:

Key leadership competencies for the role include:

• Ability to identify key priorities, drive intentional trade-offs & drive out low value add initiatives. Balance a sense of urgency with the need to deliver quality results in the right way (Results).
• Exceptional critical thinking & storytelling skills to simplify complexity, identify smart solutions & communicate in an elevated way that inspires confidence and drives action (Clarity).
• Leverages a deep understanding of PEP’s business, consumers, customers & external environment to collaboratively build strategies & plans that resonate across geographies & categories (External Perspectives).
• Develops a compelling vision, purpose & direction for the European FOBO innovation agenda (Inspirational Leadership).
• Identifies trends, anticipates issues/risks and develops multi-year plans that are both intentional and agile/flexible (Forward Thinking).
• Demonstrates emotional intelligence & understanding of others, and seeks out different perspectives, to build shared objectives that deliver the best outcomes (Inclusive & Respectful).
• Collaborates beyond boundaries to engage the right individuals in key decisions and keeps them apprised of significant change, whilst keeping momentum behind agreed commitments (Networks).
• High level of business acumen: must be commercially savvy with outstanding analytical & solutions focused problem-solving skills.

Qualifications & Experience:

• 8- 10 years of project or program management experience.
• Be Comfortable with ambiguous thinking & iterative development.
• Proven results delivering significant business change within a fast-paced, cross-functional, matrix environment.
• Strong ability to influence others at all levels and effectively empower and delegate across multiple cross-functional project teams.
• High level of organizational savvy and the ability to lead within ambiguity.
• Strong process & project management skills – ideally in both Waterfall & Agile project management.
• Educated to undergraduate degree level (MBA preferred).
• Experienced practitioner in highly complex innovation delivery.