Vice President, Corporate Strategy

Company Description

Job Description 

The Vice President of Corporate Strategy will lead a high-profile Corporate Strategy team, reporting to the EVP of Corporate Strategy, Transformation and Business Development.  The role will support the Executive Leadership Team, a wide range of Corporate Functions, as well as key business partners on various strategic and operational initiatives that support the execution of a global, well-articulated, multi-year “Always Forward” Long-Range Plan.  This position will serve as a leading team member across a variety of project types including assessing progress of business strategies against OKR’s, execution of those strategies, solving complex internal operational issues and preparing materials and coordination for the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors. 

The role has four key accountabilities:  1) Facilitate the development and refresh of the company’s “Always Forward” Long-Range Plan, 2) Manage large cross-functional projects related to key strategic issues/priorities at the enterprise level, 3) Lead high-impact strategy initiatives in support of key ANF priorities, and 4) Provide insight into the impact of external market, competitive considerations that could impact ANF’s end-to-end business performance, global expansion, or strategic direction.
This person should be a proven leader, with excellent executive communication skills and boundless curiosity to learn and better the company. A strong understanding of business fundamentals and prior experience with an international retailer are a must. 

This job is located at our Global Home Office in Columbus, Ohio.  
 

What Will You Be Doing? 

• Lead and facilitate the development of our annual corporate strategic plan to maximize growth and profitability of the company’s total revenue base and brand/product/channel portfolio.  
• Manage our Long-Range Planning process, which entails working closely with both the Executive team and key functional leadership, ensuring we are executing against the various initiatives that will drive ANF Corp.’s long-term growth. 
• Help drive cross-functional initiatives that are tied to our Long-Range Plan and that the Company has deemed to be most critical to our future growth; this may include working with departments such as Real Estate, Regional Managing Directors, Product, Marketing, Digital Experience, Business Development, Financial Planning & Analysis, and others. 
• Lead a complex high-profile portfolio of strategy projects that provide insight and direction for key strategic levers such as market-shaping and development, expanding into new business segments, sharpening competitive advantages, territory and/or product prioritization, enterprise digital strategies, ESG strategies, market and consumer research strategies, all of which will support our growth initiatives and operational optimization across the company
• Develop and bring to bear deep expertise in market dynamics to identify key trends and appropriately assess opportunities to guide strategic direction.
• Oversee competitive market research, peer strategy analysis, leveraging resources and insights from a broad range of functional experts and data sources.
• Manage team of dedicated corporate strategy associates as well as serve as a Center of Excellence, overseeing regional strategy leads.  Create an engaging, productive, and balanced work environment where team members are encouraged and motivated to collaborate and excel.
• Prepare presentations and materials for the Executive Team, the Board of Directors, and other key stakeholders (both internal and external) 
• Aid in development of new business model opportunities to supplement our Long-Range Plan, with a specific mandate to recommend when and how we should address these opportunities. 
• Partner with our brands on identifying strategic opportunities, informed by market and competitor research, leading brand offsites and global strategy summit meetings.
• Build brand and regional strategies to help realize the ambitions of our corporate Long-Range Plan by providing market intelligence leadership, reflecting a clear perspective on the customer mindset and state of the retail market.  Support our executive leadership with strategic research and insights, developing mastery of market and competitor research to inform pivotal decisions
• Challenge the status quo and leadership team in a thought provoking way
• Partner with our customer insights and analytics teams which oversee quantitative and qualitative customer research studies, omnichannel shopping analytics, and loyalty/CRM to derive and articulate actionable business recommendations.
• From time to time, manage and provide oversight and direction to teams from external strategy consulting firms