Global Initiative Leader

Location:

New York, US

Direct Reports: N/A

Together,
WE enable individuals to look, feel, and be their true selves.

Wella Company is one of the world’s leading beauty companies, comprised of a family of iconic brands such as Wella Professionals, Clairol, OPI, Nioxin and ghd. With 6,000 employees globally, presence in over 100 countries, Wella Company and its brands enable consumers to look, feel, and be their true selves. As innovators in the hair and nail industry, Wella Company empowers its people to delight consumers, inspire beauty professionals, engage communities, and deliver sustainable growth to its stakeholders.

The Global Initiative Leader (GIL) is responsible for leading the activities of a multi-functional team, who together develop and execute a comprehensive initiative plan to deliver in-market success. The Initiative Leader uses his/her expertise in Initiative Systems to deliver outstanding, breakthrough business results. Collaborates with all the multi-functional team members, but especially with the Commercial/Brand Leader and Go-to-Market Leader to ensure that all necessary learning, qualification and execution activities of the initiative are completed in support of a successful launch.

The Initiative Leader will be expected to manage a portfolio of projects which may vary between new product launches & Supply Chain design depending on Business needs.

• Owns the E2E readiness and timeliness of the initiative across technical, commercial and financial aspects.
• Leads the integration of the multi-functional team and leverages our innovation processes for breakthrough speed and productivity with quality execution.
• Supports SIL in execution post commit gate as required (depends on categories and initiative specifics)
• Collaborates with multi-functional partners to deliver a portfolio of initiatives, that is sufficient to fulfill the brand innovation strategy in consumer offer, business scale and profitability, and meeting Wella standards.
• Build alignment with initiative stakeholders on all plans. Crisis-Like Collaboration. Drives and consolidates Initiative team recommendation (including SKU portfolio and sourcing, make vs buy).
• Ensures the adherence to operating strategies for new launches or drives team options recommendation if need be to go out of operating strategy.
• Owns driving any initiative issue to resolution while demonstrating courageous leadership and smart risk taking.
• Oversees action plan led by SIL and IP and leads resolution plans in case of escalation through the alert process. Effectively frames & communicates to leadership to ensure fast decision making.
• Is the SPOC to leadership for all initiative reporting, Gate decisions and change management. Coordinates communication and recommendations with functional leadership (across Supply Chain, Procurement, R&D and Commercial functions).
• Deliver Initiative Success. Clarify business objectives and expectations. Deliver project Success Criteria. Focus on Business First, Project Second.
• Guide initiative teams to develop holistic Gate-process-based learnings to deliver on-time Commercial, Technical & Market readiness.
• Coaches the Initiative team members in delivering their tasks in synchronization and with efficient cross functional interaction in the project environment.

• Understanding of new product development processes & stage gate approach
• Exposure to production environment & interaction with packaging, process, manufacturing functions
• Strong Microsoft Excel & Microsoft Project capabilities
• 2-3 years project management related experience essential
• Additional background in planning / purchasing / R&D / technical environment also beneficial
• Preferably to have experience of Wella Operations or related industry, pharmaceutical, paint, food, FMCG

• Strong Leadership and teamwork skills
• Demonstrates a strong sense of individual accountability
• Is autonomous, action-orientated and pragmatic
• Is committed to deliver results, goes after the stretch target
• Takes conscious and calculated risks
• Makes fast decisions balancing intuition and facts
• Proactively seeks improvement, is a solution…