Job Description:The Strategy Team at Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) works with the Mazda leadership team and across all operational teams to help shape & drive the company’s growth through leading business planning processes. The Business Strategy Analyst is a critical thought partner to the organization in addressing complex business issues; delivering consumer insights, competitive and market analyses; and developing action plans that galvanize across MNAO.
The Business Strategy Analyst provides analysis and reporting to Mazda leadership across the organization. This includes analyzing emerging trends (both in and outside of automotive), partnership exploration. This role will be responsible for evaluating performance, benchmarking competitors, making recommendations for process improvements, assisting with those improvements, and reporting results to support Mazda’s Mid Term Plan. This role will also involve high visibility and collaboration with senior leadership, functional groups, regional teams, and other markets to develop core strategies and deploy actionable initiatives supporting Mazda’s brand and business direction.
The Business Strategy Analyst drives strategy development, identifying and generating new initiatives to capitalize on market opportunities. Collaborating cross-functionally, they shape actionable initiatives that enhance brand and business performance. Leveraging internal and external data sources, including market, competitor, and customer data, the Analyst defines key metrics for measuring progress against the strategic plan.
Major Areas of Responsibility (MAR):
Business Strategy Development & Activation Support - 30%
- Support the development of key long and mid-term strategies.
- Support implementation of key strategies at an actionable level within the organization based on the updated MTP assumptions tied with changing industry landscape and new business opportunities.
- Assist in the development and refinement of strategic plans and initiatives to achieve growth and competitive advantage in the marketplace.
- Investigate potential areas for improvement or increased efficiency and develop ROI analyses and business case simulations
Mid Term Planning (MTP) Target Quantification Support - 20%
- Support translation of key mid-term goals at digestible level and connect with operational strategies and collaborate with operational teams.
- Collaborate with various internal teams to define clear and measurable mid-term plan goals and objectives and ensure alignment with overall business strategies and operational activities.
- Conduct comprehensive analyses of internal and external factors affecting the organization, including market trends, competitor activities, regulatory changes and emerging technologies.
- Ensure alignment of organizational structures, processes with strategic objectives and facilitate change management to drive adoption and implementation of strategic initiatives.
Project Management - 20%
- Support the execution of strategic projects and initiatives by coordinating activities, tracking milestones, and ensuring timely delivery of outcomes.
- Facilitate communication among project team members and stakeholders and provide status updates.
Administrative Responsibilities - 20%
- Facilitate and provide feedback to vendor partners for in-house presentations.
- Manage email correspondence and coordinate meetings for key strategic planning activities and stakeholder meetings.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Management - 10%
- Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to monitor business performance against strategic objectives to support mid-term business plan.
- Analyze performance data, identify trends, and provide recommendations to optimize business outcomes across all Mazda departments. Provide regular updates to executive leadership.
- Conduct ad-hoc analysis as needed to address emerging issues, capitalize on opportunities, or respond to changing market conditions.
- Work with vendor partners to ensure insights are validated with market data.
- Set milestones (in collaboration with functional areas) and leads projects and processes that enable business results achievement.
Qualifications and Other Requirements:
Education (Minimum):
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, Marketing, Business Administration, or equivalent combination of education, training and/or work experience in lieu of degree, required.
Experience:
- Minimum three (3) years of business analytics experience.
- Preferred Experience:
- Experience in performance management and identifying and defining KPIs in support of an organization’s goals.
- Automotive/OEM industry experience
- Conceptual Developments and mid/long-term planning projects
Training/Certification:
- Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification highly desired
Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:
- Ability to establish effective relationships across all levels including senior leadership and executives.
- Strong analytical, statistical, and data-driven mind-set; detail-oriented work style and ability to collaborate effectively across functions and cultures.
- Capability to work both autonomously to derive insights and analytics from multiple data sources and work collaboratively to support team in forming solutions to problems
- Proficiency in linking data to validate and reinforce insights.
- Ability to prioritize work and be a self-starter, flexible thinker, and outstanding communicator, as well as comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and influencing different personalities and perspectives.
- Ability to organize and manage multiple tasks, manage multiple departments, often with competing goals, problem structuring and strategic problem-solving skills.
- Aptitude for focusing on long-term strategic planning, rather than solely on short-term gains.
- Excellent interpersonal, verbal, written, and presentation skills.
- Competent in succinctly conveying complex technical subjects in an easily understandable manner.
- Understanding of basic financial concepts including but not limited to Data Modeling, Financial Analysis, Dealer Financial Statements, Statistics, Market analysis, ROI calculations.
- Skilled in constructing and analyzing business scenarios using minimal data, making logical assumptions where necessary.
- Ability to consider and evaluate multiple perspectives and solutions before proposing an approach, moving beyond a narrow viewpoint, and ensuring a thorough investigation of potential alternatives for effective problem-solving.
- Capable of enhancing current procedures by first comprehending existing processes, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and thereby driving innovation and improvements effectively
- Proficient in all Microsoft applications with a high skill level with Excel and PowerPoint with an emphasis on executive level reporting.
- PowerBI skills highly desired.
Travel:
Required Annually
#LI-Remote
Pay Range:
$66,400.00-$96,250.00
Salary to be determined by education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.
Learn more about MNAO’s comprehensive benefits package here