Innovation Director, Consulting – Foresight, Brand & Innovation Practice (Remote)

Kantar Remote
director consulting foresight brand remote kantar people growth team foresight brand management director
October 1, 2022
Kantar
Denver, Colorado
FULL_TIME

Insights

Kantar is the world's leading data, insights and consulting company and our Insights colleagues are experts in human understanding. They help clients define what brands should stand for, how to disrupt and renew their offer, how to connect with audiences and how to win with consumers and customers. 

Job Details

Job Title:Innovation Director, Consulting - Foresight, Brand & Innovation Practice

Job Location: Open to candidates based at any Kantar Office location or willing to work 100% remote (anywhere in USA)

About the company:

Kantar, the world's leading marketing data and analytics company.  We understand more about how people think, feel, shop, share, vote, and view than anyone else. Combining our expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies. Kantar's 25,000 people based in more than 100 countries help the world's leading organisations succeed and grow. Nobody knows people better than Kantar. We provide insight and inspiration to help our clients, our people and society to create and flourish in an extraordinary world.

Kantar Consulting is a specialist growth consultancy. We help clients find new sources of growth through strategic foresight, brand strategy, cultural insight, and innovation. We help brands understand the current and future needs of consumers and guide them in how to meet those needs and make meaningful connections. Our clients span the Fortune 500 across sectors (think: Clorox, Coca-Cola, Sanofi, Google, and Samsung).We pride ourselves on being an engine of growth for our clients.

 The Director will be a significant force in driving our business and project teams forward, leading strategic client accounts and relationships, shaping offers and approaches, and overseeing complex projects that use strategic foresight, trends, cultural insight, and innovation to help our clients unlock new sources of growth.

About the role:

As a Director within our consulting team, you will be among an eclectic mix of innovation, brand and foresight specialists with unparalleled global expertise and proprietary knowledge, tools and techniques. You will be a significant force in driving our Innovation practice forward, shaping its future direction and growth, while collaborating with other Innovation experts across the Kantar business to deliver end-to-end solutions and client service.

You will take a lead role in helping clients create significant growth opportunities for their brands and businesses through innovation and new product development. Focused on front-end' innovation, you'll use multiple data sources to identify and bring to life inspiring and commercially robust opportunities, and then create winning concept ideas to exploit these opportunities. You'll contribute to thought leadership, and find compelling ways to codify and share our POV on innovation with clients and wider audiences.

What do we look for in a Director?

We are looking for an exceptionally versatile, passionate, and experienced Innovation specialist with an ability to use innovative approaches to help clients identify rich opportunities, leverage creative and commercial methodologies, and facilitate sprints, ideation, and validation to drive innovation strategy.

  • A big picture thinker - with a strong ability to provoke and inspire clients to think differently about how to drive growth for their industry, business, category, or brand
  • Confident revenue generation ability to drive new business and consistently deliver profitable solutions
  • A steadfast curiosity, open-minded and willing to learn - always on the lookout for innovative ideas and inspiration, new ways of working, frameworks and thinking that can inspire our team.
  • A keen interest in wider culture and business as well as social, technological, economic, environmental, human and political change
  • A creative problem-solver; able to think both analytically AND creatively and bring a fresh perspective by connecting the dots in unexpected ways
  • Collaborative, yet independent and proactive - comfortable with sharing thoughts and opinions to build on ideas, and facilitating teams to do the same
  • Interested in brands, innovation, and business futures - how they connect with people, how they communicate, how they sell and how they can evolve
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; you will need to build effective relationships internally and with clients, and have a desire to contribute to wider thought leadership
  • An ability to lead, mentor and train teams to deliver excellence

KEY OUTCOMES

  • Build and lead client relationships up to senior level, establishing yourself as a credible expert in strategic innovation with an ability to articulate engaging points of view on macro trends, brands, innovation, and new business models.
  • Lead projects from brief to delivery, driving teams to deliver superior thinking and client experience, and overseeing time, quality, and budget successfully. This will involve leading areas of project work as well as guiding project managers and junior team members.
  • Contribute heavily to the winning of new projects with clients. This includes scoping client questions, writing proposals and leading client pitches.

ESSENTIAL CAPABILITIES

  • Industry experience: 8+ years' demonstrable experience in a management or growth strategy consultancy, brand, or innovation agency with a particular focus on foresight, trends agency or similar
  • Client / Account Management: Experience of managing mid- to large-sized accounts independently, and playing a key role on larger global accounts with experience of proposal writing, pitching and a track record of new business development
  • Leadership & Team Management: Strong leadership skills and experience of efficiently managing teams, complex workstreams, and commercial responsibilities
  • Innovation Expertise: Evidenced experience of strategic front-end innovation methodologies, from opportunity scoping and development to ideation and facilitation.
  • Delivery of strategic outputs: Elevating the strategic scope and impact of project outputs, working collaboratively with a team. Leading complex projects independently with limited senior input. Managing and motivating project teams to deliver high quality work on time and on budget, with well-developed recommendations and implications.
  • Trained Facilitation: Experience of moderating / facilitating innovation and strategy workshops.
  • Strategic thinking: Proven strategic thinker, able to derive strategic recommendations for clients that will make a positive difference to their business. Able to demonstrate powerful thinking about innovation, brands, companies, and wider macro issues.
  • Storytelling: Experience of multi-disciplinary approaches (using a mix of source materials: qual, quant, industry content, macro reports, trends etc.), pulling out strategic implications and recommendations, and finding compelling and visual ways to present an innovation story.
  • Authority on specific sector or topic areas such as technology, CPG, sustainability, or wellness
  • Experience helping distill where culture is headed and how this shows up visually through emerging design, fashion, branding, and other visual media

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

  • Able to tackle complex challenges and consider multiple viewpoints as well as fresh research 
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and a desire to collaborate with others 
  • Excellent writing and presentation skills; the ability to tell a story and defend a point of view 
  • Demonstrated track record of client relationship management and new business development (eliciting briefs, prospect assessment, proposals, pitches) 
  • Ability to take initiative and to work both independently and within a team  
  • Excellent organization and time management skills with the ability to multi-task and superior attention to detail 
  • Experience designing, conducting, and analyzing qualitative or quantitative research is desirable, but not a requirement
  • BS/BA degree in the social sciences, business, marketing, or related disciplines, though other relevant subjects are also welcome; advanced degrees are a plus 
  • Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint 

Kantar Benefits

We provide a comprehensive, highly competitive benefits package, including

  • Medical plans with comprehensive, affordable coverage for a range of health services
  • Health Savings Account/FSA
  • Dental, Vision and benefits to cover unique healthcare needs
  • Wellness Program
  • 401k with matching
  • Tuition Reimbursement, Commuter benefits
  • Unlimited PTO

At Kantar we have an integrated way of rewarding our people based around a simple, clear and consistent set of principles. Our approach helps to ensure we are market competitive and to support a pay for performance culture, where your reward and career progression opportunities are linked to what you deliver. We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in. Apply for a career that's out of the ordinary and join us. We want to create an equality of opportunity in a fair and supportive working environment where people feel included, accepted, and are allowed to flourish in a space where their mental health and wellbeing is taken into consideration.  We want to create a more diverse community to expand our talent pool, be locally representative, drive diversity of thinking and better commercial outcomes. 

At Kantar, the diversity of our employees provides a richer environment for our employees and broader depth and breadth of thinking for our clients.  Kantar is committed to inclusion and diversity; therefore, we welcome applications from all sections of society and do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status or any other legally protected characteristics.

Privacy and Legal Statement 

PRIVACY DISCLOSURE: Please note that by applying to this opportunity you consent to the personal data you provide to us to be processed and retained by The Kantar Group Limited ( Kantar ). Your details will be kept on our Internal ATS (Applicant Tracking System) for as long as is necessary for the purposes of recruitment, which may include your details being shared with the hiring manager.

The salary range for this role in Illinois is

Job Title:Innovation Director, Consulting - Foresight, Brand & Innovation Practice

Job Location: Open to candidates based at any Kantar Office location or willing to work 100% remote (anywhere in USA)

About the company:

Kantar, the world's leading marketing data and analytics company.  We understand more about how people think, feel, shop, share, vote, and view than anyone else. Combining our expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies. Kantar's 25,000 people based in more than 100 countries help the world's leading organisations succeed and grow. Nobody knows people better than Kantar. We provide insight and inspiration to help our clients, our people and society to create and flourish in an extraordinary world.

Kantar Consulting is a specialist growth consultancy. We help clients find new sources of growth through strategic foresight, brand strategy, cultural insight, and innovation. We help brands understand the current and future needs of consumers and guide them in how to meet those needs and make meaningful connections. Our clients span the Fortune 500 across sectors (think: Clorox, Coca-Cola, Sanofi, Google, and Samsung).We pride ourselves on being an engine of growth for our clients.

 The Director will be a significant force in driving our business and project teams forward, leading strategic client accounts and relationships, shaping offers and approaches, and overseeing complex projects that use strategic foresight, trends, cultural insight, and innovation to help our clients unlock new sources of growth.

About the role:

As a Director within our consulting team, you will be among an eclectic mix of innovation, brand and foresight specialists with unparalleled global expertise and proprietary knowledge, tools and techniques. You will be a significant force in driving our Innovation practice forward, shaping its future direction and growth, while collaborating with other Innovation experts across the Kantar business to deliver end-to-end solutions and client service.

You will take a lead role in helping clients create significant growth opportunities for their brands and businesses through innovation and new product development. Focused on front-end' innovation, you'll use multiple data sources to identify and bring to life inspiring and commercially robust opportunities, and then create winning concept ideas to exploit these opportunities. You'll contribute to thought leadership, and find compelling ways to codify and share our POV on innovation with clients and wider audiences.

What do we look for in a Director?

We are looking for an exceptionally versatile, passionate, and experienced Innovation specialist with an ability to use innovative approaches to help clients identify rich opportunities, leverage creative and commercial methodologies, and facilitate sprints, ideation, and validation to drive innovation strategy.

  • A big picture thinker - with a strong ability to provoke and inspire clients to think differently about how to drive growth for their industry, business, category, or brand
  • Confident revenue generation ability to drive new business and consistently deliver profitable solutions
  • A steadfast curiosity, open-minded and willing to learn - always on the lookout for innovative ideas and inspiration, new ways of working, frameworks and thinking that can inspire our team.
  • A keen interest in wider culture and business as well as social, technological, economic, environmental, human and political change
  • A creative problem-solver; able to think both analytically AND creatively and bring a fresh perspective by connecting the dots in unexpected ways
  • Collaborative, yet independent and proactive - comfortable with sharing thoughts and opinions to build on ideas, and facilitating teams to do the same
  • Interested in brands, innovation, and business futures - how they connect with people, how they communicate, how they sell and how they can evolve
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; you will need to build effective relationships internally and with clients, and have a desire to contribute to wider thought leadership
  • An ability to lead, mentor and train teams to deliver excellence

KEY OUTCOMES

  • Build and lead client relationships up to senior level, establishing yourself as a credible expert in strategic innovation with an ability to articulate engaging points of view on macro trends, brands, innovation, and new business models.
  • Lead projects from brief to delivery, driving teams to deliver superior thinking and client experience, and overseeing time, quality, and budget successfully. This will involve leading areas of project work as well as guiding project managers and junior team members.
  • Contribute heavily to the winning of new projects with clients. This includes scoping client questions, writing proposals and leading client pitches.

ESSENTIAL CAPABILITIES

  • Industry experience: 8+ years' demonstrable experience in a management or growth strategy consultancy, brand, or innovation agency with a particular focus on foresight, trends agency or similar
  • Client / Account Management: Experience of managing mid- to large-sized accounts independently, and playing a key role on larger global accounts with experience of proposal writing, pitching and a track record of new business development
  • Leadership & Team Management: Strong leadership skills and experience of efficiently managing teams, complex workstreams, and commercial responsibilities
  • Innovation Expertise: Evidenced experience of strategic front-end innovation methodologies, from opportunity scoping and development to ideation and facilitation.
  • Delivery of strategic outputs: Elevating the strategic scope and impact of project outputs, working collaboratively with a team. Leading complex projects independently with limited senior input. Managing and motivating project teams to deliver high quality work on time and on budget, with well-developed recommendations and implications.
  • Trained Facilitation: Experience of moderating / facilitating innovation and strategy workshops.
  • Strategic thinking: Proven strategic thinker, able to derive strategic recommendations for clients that will make a positive difference to their business. Able to demonstrate powerful thinking about innovation, brands, companies, and wider macro issues.
  • Storytelling: Experience of multi-disciplinary approaches (using a mix of source materials: qual, quant, industry content, macro reports, trends etc.), pulling out strategic implications and recommendations, and finding compelling and visual ways to present an innovation story.
  • Authority on specific sector or topic areas such as technology, CPG, sustainability, or wellness
  • Experience helping distill where culture is headed and how this shows up visually through emerging design, fashion, branding, and other visual media

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

  • Able to tackle complex challenges and consider multiple viewpoints as well as fresh research 
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and a desire to collaborate with others 
  • Excellent writing and presentation skills; the ability to tell a story and defend a point of view 
  • Demonstrated track record of client relationship management and new business development (eliciting briefs, prospect assessment, proposals, pitches) 
  • Ability to take initiative and to work both independently and within a team  
  • Excellent organization and time management skills with the ability to multi-task and superior attention to detail 
  • Experience designing, conducting, and analyzing qualitative or quantitative research is desirable, but not a requirement
  • BS/BA degree in the social sciences, business, marketing, or related disciplines, though other relevant subjects are also welcome; advanced degrees are a plus 
  • Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint 

Kantar Benefits

We provide a comprehensive, highly competitive benefits package, including

  • Medical plans with comprehensive, affordable coverage for a range of health services
  • Health Savings Account/FSA
  • Dental, Vision and benefits to cover unique healthcare needs
  • Wellness Program
  • 401k with matching
  • Tuition Reimbursement, Commuter benefits
  • Unlimited PTO

At Kantar we have an integrated way of rewarding our people based around a simple, clear and consistent set of principles. Our approach helps to ensure we are market competitive and to support a pay for performance culture, where your reward and career progression opportunities are linked to what you deliver. We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in. Apply for a career that's out of the ordinary and join us. We want to create an equality of opportunity in a fair and supportive working environment where people feel included, accepted, and are allowed to flourish in a space where their mental health and wellbeing is taken into consideration.  We want to create a more diverse community to expand our talent pool, be locally representative, drive diversity of thinking and better commercial outcomes. 

At Kantar, the diversity of our employees provides a richer environment for our employees and broader depth and breadth of thinking for our clients.  Kantar is committed to inclusion and diversity; therefore, we welcome applications from all sections of society and do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status or any other legally protected characteristics.

Privacy and Legal Statement 

PRIVACY DISCLOSURE: Please note that by applying to this opportunity you consent to the personal data you provide to us to be processed and retained by The Kantar Group Limited ( Kantar ). Your details will be kept on our Internal ATS (Applicant Tracking System) for as long as is necessary for the purposes of recruitment, which may include your details being shared with the hiring manager.

The salary range for this role in Illinois is - 108,200- 180,300 USD Annual. Your final base salary will be determined based on several factors which may include but are not limited to location, work experience, skills, knowledge, education and/or certifications. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

Country

United States of America

Location

Chicago, N. Green Street

Why join Kantar?

We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in.  We understand more about how people think, feel, shop, share, vote and view than anyone else. Combining our expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies, nobody knows people better than Kantar.

And because we know people, we like to make sure our people are looked after as well. Equality of opportunity for our people is our highest priority and we encourage our people to work in a way that supports their health and wellbeing. While we encourage our colleagues to spend part of their working week in the office, we understand no one size fits all, and we're flexible in our approach to ensure people feel included and accepted. We're committed to creating an inclusive culture and value the diversity of our people, clients, suppliers and communities, which is why we welcome applications from all background and sections of society. Even if you feel like you're not a perfect fit, we'd love to receive your application and talk to you about this job or others at Kantar.


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