Regional Product Manager - Powder Coatings

Job Description

1. Product Portfolio Management

· Integrated Business Planning process: Lead regional PMR to discuss how we are performing according to plan, if the plan is still valid to reach our business goals, define any vulnerabilities and required gap closing actions or additional opportunities. PMR covers following subjects:

• business status region vs budget,
• defined KPI review,
• Stage Gate project review checking actuals versus business cases, defining gap closing actions (incl. other major opportunities from Lab Work Requests (LWR), localizations or CRM pipeline),
• LWR review by R&D and NPI performance review,
• regulatory and quality, VE and IPM status, margin and pricing activities updates,
• portfolio and complexity reductions actions incl. RTS and MTS/MTO review.

· Product Lifecycle Management through de- and reactivation of products at regional and/or country level, the latter based on customer/commercial requests doing checks like profitability according to agreed volume and revenue thresholds, RM availability with R&D. De-activations opportunities are identified by reports prepared by the PM analyst listing products without commercial activity in the last 18 months (incl. NPI after 12 months and reactivated products after 6 months). Work with ISC and demand planning to deplete inventory and deactivate products at site level. Work with commercial organization on feasibility and customer communication. Continuously monitor portfolio by taking out duplicates, end-of life or non-compliant products.

· Financial Performance and Profitability: run at least once per year a full portfolio analysis by region/country based on Z-square analysis with defined volume and GM% thresholds, resulting in obsoleting or consolidating low volume and underperforming products, identifying pricing and/or value engineering opportunities, adjusting costing data, adjusting MTS/MTO allocation in collaboration with ISC and manufacturing organization, etc. This also includes specific RTS portfolio health checks and managing required RTS extensions or reductions with regional segment managers and commercial organization.

· Innovation and Continuous Improvement: lead certain regional Stage Gate projects; coordinate product development projects by ensuring alignment of the Stage Gate process and with market inputs and business strategy.

2. Product Master Data and ERP System Management

· Can include extension of products between systems, review of specific data related to regional legislation like commodity code, storage conditions, and other NOVA and labeling characteristic data with the appropriate help from PSRA or RD&I.

· Manage information on packaging, labels, TDSs, SDSs, export and customer related documentation according to regional requirements.

· Assess and review product costing data to ensure our profitability data is accurate, work with ISC controllers to develop and review process in case this is not in place yet.

· Regional lead of projects such as OneLabel implementation, complexity reductions from finished products to raw materials and product allocation to manufacturing sites, OnePIM and InRiver for TDS creation.

· Champion Product Coding Standard adherence in the region and work with R&D and Marketing organization to accomplish this, which can include specific training.

· Develop processes and tools in case these are required or need to be improved.

3. Product related Communication

· Work with global product managers to ensures creation of high-impact sales tools and customer retention tools such as white papers, newsletters, presentations, product demos, etc.

· To manage flow-in of new products, provide and maintain product portfolio overviews which can be also in systems like ConnectApp, Product Catalogue as interface to MyInterpon portal, etc.

4. Product Stewardship, Sustainability and Regulatory

· Be familiar with and ensure compliance with regional applicable policies and procedures related to any regulatory or HSE standards in collaboration with the PSRA team. Lead implementation or change-management projects, e.g. export of dangerous goods, microplastics, etc. Define regional requirements with regional PSRA and hand over to global product managers if impact is bigger than the region, e.g. BPA restriction, PFAS, food-contact or drinking water compliance, etc.

· Develop & implement action plans in line with PSRA guidance to ensure that information on product packaging, TDS, SDS, labels are compliant with legal requirements of destination location.

Job Requirement

·       Experience of 5+ years in either R&D, Manufacturing, Marketing with additional experience as a Product Manager for at least 3 years

·       University qualification in business; marketing; engineering or chemistry

·       Sound understanding of Project Management & Program Management and Customer and Supplier relationships

·       Excellent written and verbal communication

·       Proven ability to develop product and marketing strategies and effectively communicate recommendations to executive management

·       Developed business acumen and strong analytical and problem-solving skills

·       Skilled at working effectively with cross functional teams in a matrix organization

·       Comfortable executing product plans and in engaging key internal and external customers

·       Commercially astute and technically strong with excellent business analysis skills too

·       Results focused, excellent communicator who enjoys a collaborative working style