Business Manager

Job Description

Job Requisition ID: 15946

Additional Locations:

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITY

The Business Manager will support the Finance Business Partner team in maximizing value creation, providing financial and strategic insight and analysis, managing all aspects of financial planning and reporting, implementing an effective P&L control environment and delivery of a return on capital investment.

He or she is expected to provide a perspective that blends both product knowledge and strategy with the business/financial side of the organization and to partner with the P&L owners and their respective teams to drive clear accountability and success in achieving key financial goals. This is accomplished by providing business perspective (analytical, financial, and strategic support) to key stakeholders throughout the organization to ensure we align product strategy and increasing “through-the cycle” free cash flow, billings growth that exceeds market growth, value creation (ROIC exceeding cost of capital *invested capital) and overall total shareholder return. The Business Managers perform a wide variety of strategic finance and financial control functions to ensure we are meeting the organization’s expectations.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Financial Planning & Reporting

• Plan, coordinate and deliver timely integrated Core product level revenue Monthly Operating Review data, monthly reporting, performance tracker, quarterly forecasts, annual budget, & long-range plans; provide insight into Line of Business (LOB) discipline level revenue/margin performance to General Manager, Finance Business Partner (FBP), and Product Management & Strategy teams and others as needed
  • Coordinate with Sr Director, Finance, and Finance Business Partner on the transfer of key revenue/cost intelligence in order to pull together final materials for GM/FBP presentation and approval
• Ongoing review of key revenue metrics such as pipeline, win/loss, monthly revenue reports, and other data to identify trending and potential impacts on current budget/forecast. Relay that information as appropriate to FBP and Prod Mgt team(s) to identify both positive and negative trends and assist as needed to implement/track mitigation strategies or expansion of offerings
• Build and implement effective reporting for core solutions LOB key revenue drivers at the discipline and/or program level as needed
• Work closely with Prod Mgt and pricing teams on any custom bundling, coupon codes or other pricing changes/promotions to ensure these decisions meet minimum financial/profitability hurdles. Create and distribute reporting around the various promotions to track effectiveness.
• Work with Prod Mgt and pricing team on annual pricing reviews and new program roll outs during the year.
• Assist in SA/OT market size forecasting by gathering product intelligence, pricing data, historical revenues, course implementation, and any other key product related metrics as needed

Product Management

• Business cases - Work closely with Prod Management to provide all financial data and metrics (revenue, mkt sizing, pricing, wauc, royalty, etc.) necessary for the creation and approval of business plans. Post-mortem revenue tracking against Bus Case
• Ad Hoc requests from PM&s and other stakeholders for discipline/program financial related data
• Monthly Dashboards & Other reporting - Create and distribute Monthly Dashboard files to Prod Mgt and other HMH stakeholders, as well as detailed supplementary files (revenue database, win/loss, performance tracker, pipeline, etc.) that provides discipline/program level insight to assist in managing the various LOBs
• Partnerships - Assist Prod Mgt with strategic business guidance & financial/economic data to support existing partnerships and potential new partnership agreements
• Other – Reseller discount analysis, LOE analysis (permissions), OS/OP analysis in conjunction with GSC
• Educate PM&S team on the various financial data our team produces to ensure they understand the financial information they receive and have the knowledge to use that data to aid in any strategic decision-making process

Strategic Business Advisor

• Along with FBP team, support and respond to Sr leadership, GM, PM&S, and other HMH teams around product-related queries as related to financial performance or other business/strategic metrics such as pricing, offerings, markets opportunities/performance and partnerships
• Participate in PM&S/HMH strategic initiatives/transformational changes as needed to provide sound financial/business input and/or perspective to any discipline/product related decisions
• Liaison to PM&S team for all financial related queries and assist in coordination with other teams as needed around business/financial issues.
• Build relationships with Revenue Ops, FP&A, GSC, other LOBs, and the Sales team to improve the flow of information and build an integrated, collaborative financial environment to allow all groups to work more productively and efficiently and more in sync.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

Required:

• Strong financial modeling and analytical skills.
• Strong Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint skills.
• Ability to work with and influence cross-functional teams; leading projects effectively, and dealing with internal team members at all levels of the organization, as well as external partners at times
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills
• Ability to communicate financial/analytical information to groups both with and without a financial background or understanding
• The ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and prioritize/escalate issues appropriately.
• Comfortable working in an evolving business model, finding new analytics to examine the business, aligning work to company strategy.
• Strong ability and experience in implementing policies, controls and procedures
• Must possess a ‘get it done’ attitude, maintain objectivity, challenge in a constructive manner

Preferred:

• Experience working with SAP and MicroStrategy
• Familiarity with financial modeling for subscriptions, iterative product releases, and agile development.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Required

• Bachelor’s Degree – preferably in finance/mathematics or business-related field
• Proven analytical experience
• 5 years related work experience in finance/operations.

Preferred

• Prior K-12 industry experience
• MBA

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing)
• The person in this position need to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls and online meetings

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ABOUT US:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company dedicated to changing people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. As a leading provider of pre-K–12 education content, services, and cutting-edge technology solutions across a variety of media, HMH enables learning in a changing landscape. HMH is uniquely positioned to create engaging and effective educational content and experiences from early childhood to beyond the classroom. HMH serves more than 50 million students in over 150 countries worldwide, while its award-winning children's books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world.
For more information, visit http://careers.hmhco.com

PLEASE NOTE:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an equal employment opportunity employer and participates in E-Verify. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.