Unit Lead - Business Model Development (EX5/CL6)

Job Purpose

Developing and executing product and business strategy in a world of rapid technological and social change requires a highly capable, highly knowledgeable, and highly engaged team. American Honda’s Sustainability & Business Development business unit is tasked with navigating the business and technology application path for Honda's future renewable energy, resource circulation and innovative business initiative products, services, and businesses. Our focus is to establish an ecosystem of hardware, software, and renewable energy that achieves these goals by focusing on real-world user experience. By providing solutions to users that are intuitive, generate value for users in terms of time savings, money savings, and enriching their lives we can expand and deepen our relationship with each customer. The team will focus on building and sustaining Honda's core brand values and enhancing brand image and competitiveness in the marketplace by innovating, incubating, selecting, developing, applying, and operating new businesses, features, products, and services with responsibility for their profitability, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction for Honda in North America. 

The Unit Lead will be accountable for developing, testing, and delivering new business models outside of existing revenue streams to expand Honda relationships with customers and deepen the brand bonds between Acura and Honda customers and our company. The role of this unit is to test these identify and test these business models on a small scale to evaluate whether they can be scaled up. This requires updating the unit vision and mission, maintaining department KPIs, and developing the strategic roadmap to identify new business opportunities. This unit Lead is responsible for quantifying the resources needed for the Unit and is accountable for the outcome of initiatives undertaken, and supervision of the associates and initiatives of the Unit. 

Key Accountabilities

• Business Strategy Development: Identify new potential markets and business opportunities, develop hypotheses, pursue those opportunities through POC activity in an agile framework for speed and rapid iterative learning, embracing fail early/fail often principles, and documenting learnings to contribute to future business development efforts. This environment should be fast-paced and exciting, working within a small team. The focus of this role is developing business opportunities, then handing them off to other teams for operations, dissolution, or other dispositions as they mature or are wound down.
• Development of strategic alliances: Identification and development of strategic partners for business development. This may include industry partners or other entities from other industries that can contribute to realizing a business hypothesis quickly and efficiently with minimum investment by Honda. 
• People Management: Accountable for unit personnel management – long term growth and development, including promotions, short term daily work schedule and work life balance, occasional accommodation of staff member’s personal life management issues, vacations, time off, assigning job tasks and schedules to appropriate staff, performance appraisals, relaying HR policy, management policy, etc.
• Resource Management: Accountable for assessing, requesting, and allocating labor and financial resources in order to meet the company’s goals within the group’s area of accountability. Includes developing job descriptions, recruitment, interviewing, hiring. 
• Communication: Accountable for keeping team members, management, and others in the company informed on the progress and direction of the group’s efforts. SBD has also become a hub of Honda news and information related to environmental activity throughout the company, and we have a lot of job related to sharing and informing that information throughout the company. 
• Coordination: Accountable for directing the activities of related teams towards common goals across Honda companies in North America; American Honda Motor Co., Inc. and Honda Development and Manufacturing of America, LLC
• Budget Management: Track and report unit financial metrics.

Qualifications, Experience, and Skills

Minimum Educational Qualifications:

• BA/BS required, MBA preferred but not required

Minimum Experience:

• 7-10 years at in business development, auto industry experience not required
• Experience in developing financial and business models, financial forecasts, negotiating business terms and conditions, contracts, and business administration;
• Experience in a coordination role
• Experience in business development, product development, sales & marketing preferred;
• Experience in personnel and project management, including setting objectives and performance measurement;
• Experience or interest in renewable energy generation and integration business, technology, and policy preferred but not required;
• Experience in drafting business plans and evaluating business models required, with examples of success preferred;

Other Job-Specific Skills:

• Strategy Development
• Project Management
• People Management
• Financial Management
• Policy Development
• Proficiency in communication and productivity software (Word, PowerPoint), project management software (Excel-based Bullet, MS Project, MS Teams), and flow chart software (Visio).
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Working Conditions

• Primarily office environment. Long hours and schedule flexibility is required. Frequent meetings of 1 – 2 hours duration.  Regular conference calls and video conferences.
• Frequent working outside of normal business hours, particularly late evenings for meetings with other time zones (e.g., US Eastern time, Japan, early morning for Europe).
• Preparation of proposals for executive approval are frequent and often required on short timelines. Expectations are very high.
• Travel up to 25%. Domestic and international.
• Requires the frequent and routine handling of highly confidential company long term strategies for growth and compliance