Senior Director, Creation Center Tokyo

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

Be the face and voice of CCT with Global Brands and Market teams. Lead the Product Design and Product Marketing team for the respective Category. Define and steer the creation strategy and creative direction for products from Creation Center Tokyo (CCT) as well as driving clear brand direction for Japanese / Korean consumers. Work directly with local marketing leaders as well as Global Merchandising and Business Unit (BU) leaders to ensure that local creation occurs within the guardrails of the global merchandising brief. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and steer the strategic objectives/actions and financial targets for CCT. 
• Monitor product financials (sell-in-/ sell-through-rates, number of articles, volumes per article) and initiate business development action for the respective Category.
• Steer and lead the creation team (Marketing, Design) to ensure proper implementation of the Brand and BU strategies.
• Execute the company strategy in Japan/Korea by delivering in a fast way local relevant product offer, leveraging the geographical proximity and local insights, allowing us to win key consumers and penetrate strategic channels and partners.
• Amplify global brand stories and complement global range ensuring local connectivity that shouldn't overlap with the global range in any moment, including during key market moments.
• Actively sharpen the adidas brand positioning for apparel category within the guardrails for local creation
• Key partners with Development team and X-function supporting teams across CCT to ensure proper implementation of the Brand Strategy.
• Establish close working relationship with Global Brands BU teams, Concept to Consumer (CtC-Merchandising) in the market to align on global creative directions and interpret them into CCT creative directions.
• Engage and align with the brand director of Japan and Korea to build strategic plans for local apparel & accessory category.

• Constantly identify business opportunities and risks; respond to them by initiate key action steps.
• Drive and monitor efficiency & cost effectiveness of CCT through synergizing across the categories and consolidating on key volume.
• Lead a complex business portfolio (Lifestyle, Performance, Golf) to drive strategic initiatives and delivering strong, sustainable results across all categories (APP, FTW, ACC)
• Drive business relevant initiatives to support key accounts, eCommerce and own retail in their mid-/long-term goals through close working relationships.
• Integrate all relevant units in the strategy planning and Concept to Consumer phases (Design, Product Marketing, Development, Brand Marketing, Sports Marketing, CtC)
• Promote organizational engagement and consumer obsessions to drive business result.
• Set objectives, and manage workloads and results to achieve goals while adopting best practices and achieving continuous process improvement Drive cross-functional processes in context.
• Actively identify and capitalize on business opportunities, driving product initiatives to ensure strong market performance.
• Act as a role model in compliance with the relevant laws and regulations as well as the adidas Fair Play Code of Conduct and other internal policies.

Key Relationships:

• Global Brands BU leaders in respective group
• Market BU teams
• Local Senior Leadership team

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities :

• Ability to develop and implement business strategy.
• Proven leadership and management abilities especially in managing a diverse team.
• Strong presentation/communication, negotiation and influencing skills, especially with senior stakeholders within a global matrix organization. 
• Broad Product and Marketing experience, with a distinct track record of success and high-level product creation knowledge.
• Strong cross-functional and stakeholder management experience across commercial functions (e.g. marketing, sales, etc.) and support functions (finance preferred), as well as different organizational levels (Global, Market, etc.).
• Strong industry knowledge, across divisions—footwear, apparel and accessories—and across all BUs. 
• Expert understanding of Japan markets’ consumers, accounts, economic environment and commercial needs.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• University (Bachelor) degree in the field of Business ideally in Marketing/Design or equivalent professional experience
• Minimum 8 years of experience in creation center/product management/marketing. 
• Minimum 5 years leadership in a matrix organization
• Sporting goods industry experience required
• Fluent in English, Business level in Japanese