Senior Manager, Strategy & Business Development

Requisition ID: 35486 

Whirlpool Corporation is consistently recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies. Our values are the driving force behind everything we do. Respect, integrity, diversity and inclusion, teamwork and the spirit of winning propel our teams to excellence. Get to know us and see what it's like to be part of the world's leading major home appliance company.

POSITION FUNCTION:

The Global Corporate Strategy team is aligned with the C-suite at Whirlpool, and drives initiatives in four major areas: Business Development, Strategic Initiatives, Competitive Intelligence, and Strategic Planning. 

• Business development and M&A – Responsible for the M&A strategy, as well as assessment  and execution of specific acquisition, joint venture, alliance and divestiture opportunities on a global basis. 
• Strategic initiatives – Lead important strategic initiatives mandated by the Board of Directors or the Executive Committee on behalf of the enterprise, which involves partnering with global & regional business leaders. Types of initiatives we drive include market entry strategy, growth strategy, and portfolio strategy. Going forward there is an increasing focus on the digital transformation of the enterprise, including Whirlpool’s Digital Consumer Journey and direct to consumer strategies.
• Competitive strategy & intelligence – Partner with the Executive Committee to shape the competitive strategy for the company and embed it into regional plans. Assess competitor activities and performance, including being accountable for ongoing competitive monitoring. 
• Strategic planning – Define the strategic planning process for the enterprise, including long range planning, strategic planning, and strategy reviews with the Board of Directors.

PRIMARY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: 

The role is project case-dependent, and includes the following. 

• Business Development, including M&A: Provide core analytical input into potential mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships and divestitures to ensure maximum return on invested capital and consistency with the overall business. Proactively assess the competitive landscape for potential deals in line with our Digital Transformation and direct to consumer strategies. Drive critical elements of the M&A process from outreach to business case development, Board review, negotiation strategy and deal closing. 
• Applied Strategy: Analyze key strategic growth opportunities for Whirlpool and work towards “cracking the case”. Work closely with stakeholders across various business teams, including senior leaders, to analyze key strategic questions, and report findings. A special emphasis will lie in the area of digital transformation. Ultimately, the (Senior) Manager, Corporate Strategy and Business Development will establish well-supported, specific recommendations that will enable the leadership of the function and the executive management team to make critical go/no go decisions for the business unit.
• 3. Competitive Intelligence: Act as a thought partner and analytical execution expert on the development of competitive strategies and competitive intelligence for the corporation. Deliver innovative analytical approaches to go underneath the surface of what drives competitor performance and competitive advantage in a digitally disrupted value chain.
• Quantitative Analysis: Plan and execute financial and quantitative analyses that will yield critical answers to the questions at hand. Understand the required data sets to complete the analyses and procure them accordingly. Manage the delivery of timely, zero-defect analysis, and actively propose alternative analytics solutions in this role. 
• Critical Communication Development & Business Reporting: Communicate effectively, both verbally and on paper, at senior levels within the function and across key stakeholders in various functions and regions of the organization. Contribute to the development and lead sections of major presentations for senior executives. Mastery of Google Slides and Google Sheets to create impactful, concise, and defect free slide loops. 
• Team Management: Guide, mentor and develop a team of high performing Managers and Senior Analysts. Effectively manage the day-to-day activities of cross-functional teams comprised of individuals across different brands, function groups, and geographic regions. In addition, help manage relationships with 3rd party consultants, where appropriate. 

CORE COMPETENCIES: 

• Relevant Experience: approximately four years of post-MBA experience at a top-tier management consulting, investment banking or private equity firm. 
• Education: Bachelors degree and MBA. 
• Superior problem solving and analytical skills: Strong judgment, problem- solving and analytical skills, both quantitative and qualitative, is critical. 
• Effective leadership skills: Ability to work cross-functionally at all levels of the organization with effective team management and employee development skills. Strong project management, strategic communications and/or change management skills are extremely important.  Experience working across multiple business units in a global enterprise.
• Powerful communication: Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal, including confidence and presence to engage effectively with senior executives. 
• Creative thinking: Combination of out of the box thinking and ability to question the status quo and generally accepted beliefs. Comfort with ambiguity and change. 
• Digital fluency: Experience in digital business models, and intrinsically curious to stay ‘on trend’.

PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS: 

The candidate selected for this position will be a creative, out-of-the-box thinker who is intellectually curious with a demonstrated interest in learning. This person will also need to be a self-motivated, high-energy individual who can easily function in a high demand, performance-driven environment. He/she must be accustomed to working on multiple tasks in parallel. This professional must demonstrate strong leadership skills, best demonstrated by the individual’s ability to gain credibility with team members and senior management. 

The successful candidate will: 

• Be modest in nature, recognizing the accomplishments of the team before the individual 
• Be highly motivated and possess vision and enthusiasm 
• Be comfortable acting as an individual contributor and as a team manager (Player/Coach) 
• Understand how to deliver on short time frames and be committed to meeting deadlines “no matter what” 
• Communicate in an open and honest way that quickly builds trust and respect 
• Possess an entrepreneurial spirit 
• Be comfortable on his/her feet making presentations

About us
 

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is the world's leading major home appliance company, with approximately $21 billion in annual sales, 92,000 employees and 65 manufacturing and technology research centers in 2018. The company markets Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Consul, Brastemp, Amana, Bauknecht, JennAir, Indesit and other major brand names in nearly every country throughout the world. 

Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com, or find us on Twitter at @WhirlpoolCorp.