Work&Partners Seeking Chief Product Officer for Toppan Merrill
July 23, 2021 – New York-based Work&Partners has been enlisted to recruit a chief product officer for Toppan Merrill, a provider of financial printing and communication solutions. The individual will be a member of the company’s executive leadership team and will report to the president. “The CPO is accountable for creating an end-to-end product experience and defining the product strategy,” said Work&Partners. “In this role, the CPO will reimagine the approach to product development and establish a customer-driven and product-led mindset that is focused on enhancing the customer experience and driving value to the organization.”
The chief product officer will lead the product development function and partner with specialized teams including sales, service, marketing, and engineering to discover and introduce new products and refine and enhance existing products.
Creating Metrics
This role will define and drive the approach to product management, with a focus on creating metrics that will guide decision making all while maintaining the utmost level of security and trust, consistent with the company’s culture and brand promise, said the search firm.
The CPO will be expected to engage directly with external and internal customers, creating a presence within the industries for which Toppan Merrill serves and discovering new or adjacent industries. This includes defining processes, tracking, and evaluating industry trends, creating competitive offerings, driving product planning and development priorities, developing, and retaining documentation, participating in customer beta testing and launch activities.
This leader will head a team of product development professionals who oversee the global product portfolio within the company, said the search firm. The CPO will also be expected to evangelize a customer-driven, product-led mindset across the organization. The individual should transform user experience by ensuring product experiences drive value and are intuitive, simple and user friendly. He or she must further create product metrics for developing and building a measurement framework to inform product decision-making.
Key Requirements
The successful candidate must be a champion for a customer and product-led mindset across the organization balanced with a standard for customer-driven agile innovation, said Work&Partners.
Candidates should have more than 15 years of leadership experience in product management. Over 10 years of people leadership experiences, including leading through influence and/or other leaders is also required. Demonstrated success in taking products from discovery to execution, producing measurable business value is essential as well.
The CPO role calls for a track record of success in driving culture change and mindset shifts; a passion for learning and innovation, balanced by business needs and customer requirements/expectations; a history in navigating complex organizations and creating cross functional teams that are skilled in collaboration across all levels of the organization; and prior experience with creating and managing budgets and ROIs.
Agile Product Management
Work&Partners said that prospects should possess a knowledge and understanding of an agile product management process. Strong leadership and motivational skills, including being responsive and flexible, are required. The ability to think strategically one minute and execute tactical details the next is also a necessity. The individual must be able to effectively operate within company cultural values.
Related: Caldwell Recruits Chief Product Officer for Built In
Preferred qualifications include an MBA or other advanced degree, preferably in business or marketing; industry thought leadership in either financial services or non-durable manufacturing; and international/global business experience.
Work&Partners Retained by Toppan Merrill for CFO Search
Work&Partners has been retained to recruit a chief financial officer for Toppan Merrill. Founder and president Alan Work is leading the assignment. “We are seeking a dynamic financial leader with successful experience at the intersection of digital content, SaaS and fintech that can drive growth and transformation across their business platforms,” said Mr. Work. “This person will be a key part of the executive leadership team and will report directly to the president and work closely with the board of directors.”
Toppan Merrill, a provider of financial printing and communication solutions, is part of the Toppan Printing Co., a global printing group, headquartered in Tokyo with about $14 billion in annual sales in the U.S. Toppan Merrill has been a partner to the financial, legal and corporate communities for five decades, providing secure, innovative solutions to complex content and communications requirements.
Veteran Search Firm
Work&Partners is a retained executive search firm that recruits senior-level executives for top management and technology consulting organizations, high-tech firms and corporations on a global basis. The firm combines this core competency with a strong focus on M&A due diligence, TAS and corporate finance consulting environments. Its team of retained search consultants, researchers and support personnel that have built a network of global contacts in the financial services and Fortune 500 arena.
President Alan Work founded Work&Partners in 2002. In focusing on the development of C-level teams, Mr. Work has filled roles at the managing director, partner, vice president and president levels. His expertise spans a range of industries and includes knowledge of the management consulting, technology consulting, financial services and telecommunications sectors. He has placed candidates in the Big Four accounting firms, both public and private companies, professional services organizations, and venture-backed entities. Cognizant, FTI Consulting, Be Informed, Deloitte Consulting, eBay/PayPal, Capgemini, LiquidHub and Electronic Ink are among the clients Mr. Work has worked with since the firm’s inception.
Related: Valor Partners Recruits Chief Product Officer and Interim CEO for Greenscreens AI
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media