Senior Institutional Trust Product Manager – Pension Fund / Investment Manager / Asset Servicing Background
Northern Trust Corporation is a leading provider of investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking solutions for corporations, institutions and affluent individuals worldwide. Northern Trust, a multibank holding company based in Chicago, has a growing network of 83 offices in 18 U.S. states and has international offices in 16 locations in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
THE ROLE - Sr Institutional Trust Product Manager (045874)
The Product Manager is the senior business person responsible for the full life cycle of a product. They coordinate product activities with various functional areas across the organizations such as Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Service and Financial Management. Product Management is tasked with focusing energies on five key disciplines:
- Planning: Strategic and Tactical Product Planning Development
- Marketing: Promotional Communications, Sales Tools and Training
- Sales and Distribution Channel Support
- Financial and Profitability Management
- Regulatory and Risk Management
The product manager is ultimately responsible for the positioning and performance of a product and will coordinate all activities necessary to ensure the achievement of strategic revenue, profit, and market share objectives.
Product Managers ensure a disciplined approach to business management helping to set the organizations priorities, product offerings, pricing strategies and promotion plans that are consistent with key objectives. Aspects of the Product Managers responsibilities include the following:
- Develop strategies to retain key clients
- Define emerging product and revenue opportunities to expand market share
- Ensure the Corporations long-term success by positioning it’s products and services in the market
- Document and communicate the challenges of the competitive environment to senior management
- Manage any changes required to meet government/regulatory compliance
Successful product managers are action oriented, customer centered, work effectively in teams, posses strong written and verbal communication skills and have a thorough knowledge of the long-range and operational planning techniques.
MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES
Product management’s primary role is to manage the entire life-cycle of a product and all of the issues that impact the delivery of a capability or service. Product management works with all parts of an organization to ensure the reliability, performance, quality, and robustness of its products. Product management executes against a product plan that accomplishes the strategic goals determined by senior management. Listed below are the responsibilities of Product Management.
Planning and Developing the Australiasia product strategy which includes the following:
- Define an overall strategy for products and guide the selection of development projects
- Define target markets, customers, competitive strengths, and competition strategy (e.g., competing head-on or find a market niche)
- Position planned products relative to the competitive environment and identify what will differentiate or distinguish these products in the marketplace
- Rationalize competing development projects and establish priorities for development projects
- Provide a high-level schedule of various development projects
- Estimate development resources and balance project resource requirements with a budget in the overall business plan.
- Conduct feasibility analysis for new product development and obtain management approval.
- Leads the development of strategic product plans and business cases that tie market research to company vision
Develops and executes strategies and solutions that address the immediate needs of clients:
- Evaluate product line extensions and determine an initial assessment of market opportunities
- Conduct annual product assessments to assure products are in line with strategic initiatives
- Manage relationships with third parties and make recommendations of partner deliverables
- Be involved in all aspects of assigned products and define how products’ success will be measured
- Communicate the features and functions of assigned products, and be devoted to serving the needs of our clients
- Coordinate the collection, reporting and analysis of competitor information including product features, benefits and pricing
- Understand the unique nature of our business and be opportunistic in the market
- Identify revenue opportunities and develop products that make an impact on the bottom line
- Act resourcefully and creatively to ensure new products get to market quickly
- Communicate status, objectives, and thinking behind decisions, and make sure that the team is moving in a common direction
- Take responsibility for improving product quality
Implement Marketing, Promotional Communications, Sales Tools and Training:
The Product Manager works with Strategic Marketing to develop all internal and external communication and positioning around the product. They are responsible for creating sales tools and ensuring appropriate training is provided for the products supported. These responsibilities include the following:
- Provide expertise and market knowledge for all external product communications to be inclusive of all delivery channels
- Conduct all internal and external product rollouts and sales training
- Update sales and distribution channel support about the competitive environment and changes in Government regulation
- Organize cross-departmental communication to ensure a consistent view of the market and organizational priorities
Assist in Sales and Distribution Channel Support:
The Product Manager is responsible for driving sales and distribution support for their product. Although the Product Manager does not have sales responsibility they are responsible for ensuring that their products are being sold by supporting the following functions:
- Perform market analysis and segmentation to ensure competitive advantage
- Conduct on site customer calls as part of the sales and market research process
- Work with Relationship Management, Marketing, Systems and Operations to respond to client requests for customized services
- Develop standard responses to client proposals and work to answer requests for unique service needs
- Developing client strategies to expand existing relationships and identify key markets and companies for prospecting new business
Monitor Financial and Profitability Management
The financial performance of a product is the responsibility of the Product Manager. They ensure coordination with operations and financial management to monitor capital expenses, revenue and expenses. Product Managers shape the financial contribution of their product in the following way:
- Sets pricing strategy for the product line
- Works closely with Management to ensure product success in the market, as measured by revenue, profit, and market share objectives
- Coordinate activity-based costing to understand the key expense drivers of the product
- Recommend and approve pricing to maximize the revenue and profit contribution of the product
- Coordinate the collection and analysis of competitor pricing
- Complete a monthly Income Statement and track improvements or declines in profitability. Works with Operations to gain profit improvements.
- Identify clients where there are market reason to increase or decrease pricing
- Initiate annual pricing review
Ensure Regulatory and Risk Management
Product Management is responsible for coordinating the resolution of issues of government compliance and attempts to minimize the systemic risks of offering a product. The Product Manager works closely with Operations, Risk and Compliance and Systems to identify all mitigating risk measures and ensures their implementation. Product Managers coordinate the following:
- Coordinate product risk review (with Product Development) as part of the new product development process
- Monitor changes in the regulatory environment and take the necessary steps to ensure compliance
- Identify all areas of risk including financial, reputation, regulatory and financial and make recommendations to minimize these
KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
- Experience in product and project management is required to coordinate the strategies, planning and development of institutional asset servicing products.
- Negotiation and client servicing skills are necessary to consult with client discussions.
- Planning, organizational, and leadership skills are necessary to oversee the cross-region project development efforts to ensure they coincide in achieving strategic goals and market requirements.
EXPERIENCE
- Minimum 7 years of product management sales or related experience in the financial industry
Our culture is a key reason our employees enjoy working at Northern Trust. We have strong principles, a diverse organization, a prestigious history, and a commitment to solid and steady growth. We embrace industry-leading ideas and value our people. We are approachable, friendly, and exceptionally committed our clients and employees.
To learn more about our philosophy and where Northern Trust could take your career, please visit careers.northerntrust.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.