Innovation Associate (Foundry)

Job description

Background

The Foundry was set up in 2013 to support the Open Innovation activities at the time and to help connect Unilever with the external ecosystem (start-ups and partners). Creating collaborations with like-minded organisations to accelerate roadmaps and areas of focus within Unilever. To date, the Foundry has been a successful and integral part of Unilever, connecting the internal businesses with an external ecosystem of start-ups resulting in some 400 commercial relationships.  The Foundry has been able to help support the exploration of new solutions and provide much needed partnership relationships to deliver on category and divisional roadmaps.

Recently, as part of Compass, the Foundry was merged with the Consumer Digital Innovation team, both of which reside within the DRD (Digital R&D) organisation.  This merger was to create a very distinct team, with new capabilities that stretch beyond establishing collaborations with start-ups to now also being able to help the organisation define innovation strategies, test and validate solutions and partnerships and develop and define potential concepts.

During the merger of the two teams, we identified gaps in the structure, which need to be filled to ensure the full potential of the new Foundry is met.  One of these roles is an Operations and Analyst Associate based in Shanghai to support the growing activity of the Foundry in that market.  Greater China is an important market for Unilever, right across the various categories that Unilever competes in. Equally, China is also an incredible source of early stage innovation that has potential not only for the local market, but also on the global stage.

Main purpose

The Associate role fulfils two key aspects, firstly this role is designed to provide operational and executional capability to the early stage, external innovation activity that is being driven through the China hub. Secondly the role will also deliver Analyst support in the region, supporting the Foundry group to actively assess the market and source relevant start-ups to the organisation and assist the China Lead with deal constructs and the integration of start-up technology into the Unilever organisation.

For the delivery of early-stage engagement to support Unilever objectives, the Operational Associate will support the building of the local external ecosystem engagement, build and develop knowledge of the start-up landscape, turning this into a reusable database for pipeline creation and, working with the China Foundry Lead on the engagement, validation and integration process with selected start-up companies.

Therefore, the key objectives for this role are:

·  Work with the Foundry Lead and other core parts of Unilever (R&D, Digital Champions, S&T, Ecosystem team) to produce and execute relevant methodologies and content for the purpose of engaging with, validating, and forming integration paths with selected start-ups.
·  Identify and clarify specific business opportunities
·  Create reports, dashboards and visualisations to highlight market opportunities
·  Support the development of a pipeline of opportunities – engagement with the external ecosystem, development and maintenance of a localised database for pipeline management.
·  Providing constant market analysis for strategically relevant areas, in order to deliver market insights back into the organisation as input into strategies of the BU.
·  Help position the Foundry as an internal vehicle for identifying and validating collaboration opportunities with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
·  Contribute to elevating the Foundry brand and demonstrate it is a partner of choice for start-ups

Main Accountabilities

Work with the China Foundry Lead to construct content and structure for the various activities of the Foundry – tools, capabilities, processes, case studies. Establishment of a ‘playbook’ to enable a systematic implementation and standard approach to working with start-ups in China. Coordination of the sourcing and portfolio management process. Work with the China Foundry Lead to ensure that the collaboration process is implemented consistently. Continual market analysis and reporting as part of a bi-directional insight driven engagement with the Unilever businesses. Develop and maintain reporting tools Communicate and validate requirements with relevant stakeholders External partner liaison (start-up community) to ensure the Foundry has a voice with key partners.

Key Interfaces

·  Digital R&D and respective teams
·  Divisional R&D and Marketing teams
·  Foundry Partners – Pitch, S&T, Digital Ventures, Uncovery etc
·  External ecosystem

Travel Requirement

Approx. 10% travel required in standard circumstances.

Key Skills

·  Proficient level of innovation and business acumen
·  Good understanding and experience with the principles of innovation, business models, start-up collaboration, concept development and prototyping.
·  Strong interpersonal skills, can build strong & trustworthy relationships with people from across different functions.
·  Experienced in Lean and Agile methodologies and environments a plus
·  Able to work in fast-moving, iterative environments
·  Strong digital acumen – has experience with digital business models, digital services and digital innovation tools
·  Strong analytical and critical thinking – market research and analysis, business operations
·  Proficient in business case creation
·  Evidence of strong project management skills
·  Superior presentation skills

Relevant Experience

·  A Bachelor’s degree (Business related preferred), and MBA is desirable
·  Minimum of 2-3 years experience in a technology-based environment, ideally an accelerator of incubator business, corporate innovation platform or center, in a strategy/operations based role

·  Experienced in innovation cycles (ideation through to MVP)
·  Has worked with portfolio management tools is a plus (ie. TRXCN, Affinity) has ability to customise and implement
·  Understands ecosystem engagement and has some experience engaging – innovation and start-up ecosystem
·  Global team experience – working across multiple geographies and cultures
·  Operational excellence – ideally experienced in implementing external and internal facing innovation.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.