In a nutshell

Yonder is a ground-breaking consultancy bringing a blend of insight, strategy and imagination to clients across sectors and geographies. Our diverse expert team uses commercial acumen and creative thinking to transform performance in the areas that matter most. We are on the hunt for a multitalented strategy Director who shares our values and wants to help us make a big impact on our clients’ businesses, and the markets and communities they serve.

You’re someone who must have an appetite for understanding how businesses run and have a proven ability to use brand to make an impact on their performance. With an acute eye and natural flair for finding opportunities, you are flexible, rigorous and resourceful and adept at establishing valuable long-term relationships.

Your skills & experience

You would have extensive business experience, either client or consultancy side. You have a solid working knowledge of large-scale rollout of strategy programmes, which lead to business transformation or turnaround.

You are fluent in research disciplines, either coming from a research background yourself or adept at integrating research into strategy programmes. You have a strong working knowledge of and experience in brand strategy and associated frameworks. You are used to building strong client relationships, generating revenue and developing business, whilst delivering great work. As well as being a great storyteller, your financial fluency and strong commercial acumen makes you a force to reckon with. Your clients will trust you and you will have the respect of your peers. But you want more.

The role

You will play a key part in leading client accounts and building value for Yonder. Your specialism will be in strategy, but you will have an interest in everything else that we do and offer from market research and insight to data analytics and design. You will be given responsibility from day one, working with the team to set the strategic vision on a project, as well as scoping and selling in new projects (i.e. challenging the brief, setting objectives, defining activities, deliverables, fees and timings). You will have an innovative outlook, finding ways to experiment, develop and test new product offerings, tools and approaches and you will use distilled insights to guide development of original ideas and points of view. You are persuasive and bold, creating compelling narrative arguments to sell in recommendations and you will have a creative flair, working with the Creative team to generate fresh ideas and ensure the creative work supports the strategy and agreed objectives. You will play a key role in kick-off meetings, review sessions and presentations and will aspire to consistently achieve client satisfaction through encouraging yourself and others to produce outstanding work.

Essential skills
Overview:

• Extensive business experience, either on the client or consultancy side
• Genuine passion for brands and branding
• Strong working knowledge of brand strategy programmes
• Track record in leading successful business development, both new and organic
• Versatility to work in management of hybrid roles e.g., copywriting, design direction, insight
• Financial fluency and strong commercial acumen – proven ability to run the commercial side of projects
• Fluent English speaker with persuasive communication skills (oral and written)
• A knack for building and leading valuable long-term client relationships.

Outstanding client work

• Being financially accountable for the clients you lead, and new business generation
• Working with colleagues to set the strategic vision on a project.
• Scoping and selling in new projects. This covers: challenging the brief, setting objectives, defining activities, deliverables, fees and timings.
• Looking for ways to experiment, develop and test new product offerings, tools or approaches in a given client context.
• Using distilled insights to guide development of original ideas and points of view.
• Creating a compelling narrative argument to sell in recommendations.
• Partnering design colleagues to generate fresh ideas, establish the creative direction and ensure creative work supports the strategy and agreed objectives.
• Leading kick-off meetings, review sessions and presentations.
• Ensuring client satisfaction by encouraging yourself and others to produce work of outstanding quality.

Building Client Value

• Leading pitching, proposal-writing and converting new business opportunities. Helping to win and manage projects from conception through to completion.
• Building and maintaining networks, helping to grow Yonder’s client base.
• Responsible for developing, building and leading significant and financially substantial client accounts, operating at the most senior level.
• Growing the client relationship by acting as the trusted go-to person, ensuring all work meets or exceeds expectations and is delivered on time and on budget.
• Demonstrating a genuine interest in and a detailed understanding of the businesses you work with, the way they function and what their challenges are. Being a trusted and strategic adviser and ensuring our responses to their briefs are always relevant.
• Developing additional IP and case studies to reinforce our leading reputation.
• Understanding and able to articulate the full Yonder offer, being rewarded for growing the number of services that we can sell to our clients, while always having the client’s interest at heart. Never seeking to sell solutions that will not help solve a client’s challenge.
• Leading the creation of C-suite level presentations. Being a confident presenter in front of clients up to and including Board level.

Building Yonder

• Being a positive and upbeat team leader who proactively builds Yonder’s culture and values.
• Being a senior leader within Yonder and acting as a champion for our offer and approach internally and externally.
• Bringing a strategic and creative mindset to every project, whilst operating as a specialist in one of the Yonder disciplines. Interpreting research, knowing the best techniques to use to get to the heart of a subject and draw genuine insights that become the foundation of our work to answer client questions.
• Leading multi-disciplinary project teams – some of these are ongoing over a long period and involve largely the same people but others are more short term and are assembled to meet a particular client challenge – drawing on the most appropriate skills across Yonder. 
• Exchanging know how – experience, knowledge, best practice, expertise and skills – with others on a regular basis and capturing for future re-use where possible.
• Making a significant contribution to the development and management of strategists in the consulting team
• Mentoring and oversee team development.
• Assisting with recruitment and performance appraisals for other team members.

What Yonder can offer you

Yonder has a real buzz as we continue to grow. We reward people who help to drive that growth and the company supports and encourages new ideas which will add value. We offer a competitive salary, 30 days holiday (plus your birthday day off!), a 5% employer pension contribution, life assurance and other benefits like flexible working and 4pm finishes on Fridays etc. More detail around our benefits can be found in the Yonder Benefits Booklet.