It must have been cold there in my shaaa-dow. To never feel sunlight on your faaaace . . . Has that song been stuck in your head for the past year or two? Have you been playing the gifted and brilliant second-in-command for a C-level creative/brand executive who isn’t planning on retiring any time soon? Are you a passionate, entrepreneurial brand/marketing pro looking to occupy the top slot at an international powerhouse of a company? Then this gig is sure to put some wind beneath those powerful wings of yours.
Nitty Gritty
Make no mistake — this is a very senior role. You’ll sit on the firm’s operating committee and report to a member of its executive committee. From that high place, you’ll apply all that drive, focus and creativity of yours toward developing a brand proposition, establishing brand and design guidelines, and executing a long-term global brand strategy that puts clients front-and-center and that pushes the company toward its rather breathtaking set of goals around sales and market share. Within that broad set of aims, of course, shall fall a series of more specific responsibilities: developing the creative building-blocks for all corporate materials, creating an affiliate brand strategy, laying out best practices, reviewing communications for consistency and impact, measuring and reporting on brand performance, carrying out brand initiatives and awareness campaigns, and managing a creative team that delivers fresh and innovative concepts for a plethora of platforms including video, digital, social and print.
Every step of the way, you’ll be partnering and collaborating with other people and teams throughout the organization — including at the very top (The CEO happens to be really jazzed about this stuff). You’ll work with external agencies, you’ll manage the administration and operation of your own design team, you’ll interact frequently with folks in Digital, Comms, Content and Client Experience, as well as serving as an internal champion for the brand both externally (media, advisors, investors) and internally (getting employees on board and aligned with the brand’s values and goals). It’ll be all about establishing a vision, learning, creating, taking people on a journey, driving change, teaching everyone at the company how to think about branding, instilling excitement about the brand in every one of your colleagues. In a year, you’ll look back with pride and say, “Look how far we’ve come, together!”
Hired Gun Profile
Thing about you is, you’re what some would call “a senior person who doesn’t act like a senior person.” In other words, for you it’s not about prestige or a longing for career stasis; it’s about doing the work, and your key mode for doing the work is to collaborate, to get everybody involved, to think like an entrepreneur, to focus constantly on growth and evolution and innovation and teamwork, all with your own strong point of view. That’s what you’ve been up to as you’ve climbed the ranks at diverse, international Fortune 500 companies (not necessarily in financial services), taking on greater and greater responsibility. During that considerable climb, you’ve learned oodles about brand initiatives, online and offline campaigns, and the power of digital to supercharge a brand globally. You’d never refer to yourself as a “brand guru” — but other people would, given your multifaceted insight on the entire concept. You’ve developed a most impressive set of communication skills: your presentations are the envy of colleagues, and you’re a master corporate storyteller with a full suite of tools at your disposal (video, photo, web, animation). Finally, you’re completely comfortable up on that tightrope from which many another leader has fallen, the balancing act born of managing highly creative people in a squared-away corporate environment.
Inside Skinny
This opening comes at a time of markedly increased interest in — and financial support for — marketing, communication and branding at the firm. Put another way: there’s never been a better time to get on board.
Net Net
Everything you’ve done so far in your career has prepared you for this huge next step, where you’ll be rewarded handsomely for the talent, passion and fresh perspective you bring. High time you spread those wings and took flight, wouldn’t you say?
All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, creed, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.
