VidaCaixa (Oc'10 - Apr'11)
Company: VidaCaixa / CaixaBank (IBEX member)
Period: October 2010 - April 2011
Industry: Services (Insurance & Banking)
Division/Department: Marketing
Job position Product Manager
Description
I joined VidaCaixa as a Product Manager for Passive products. My former manager (the Marketing Director who recruited me for Deutsche Bank) endorsed my appointment at VidaCaixa, leveraging my experience with Investment products.
My primary responsibility was to manage the Pension Plan business at VidaCaixa, CaixaBank's subsidiary for all savings, retirement, and insurance products.
I was responsible for the entire Pension Plan business (volume, revenue, margin, etc.), and my goal was highly ambitious: to surpass the market leader (BBVA) in volume ranking.
To achieve this, I had a substantial marketing budget, larger than the one I had at Banco Sabadell.
The actions I implemented to boost the campaign for pension plans included:
- Direct Marketing: mailing to clients and SMS
- POS Advertising: window stickers, displays, brochures, ATMs, screens, etc.
- Television, Radio, and Press: a massive media deployment, with prime-time television, leading radio programs, and national press.
At La Caixa, everything was organized and planned to ensure nothing failed. However, this reduced my level of responsibility in executing the marketing actions. Although I had to validate everything as the person in charge, I missed out on many processes that I was passionate about.
For example, the online marketing aspect was managed by the e-LaCaixa subsidiary. They defined the entire online strategy, and my only authority was to validate or modify elements I felt did not align with the campaign.
Additionally, all communications required validation from LaCaixa’s Marketing Department.
In other words, there were times when three marketing departments were working on the same campaign: e-LaCaixa, VidaCaixa, and LaCaixa. Despite the high level of organization, this setup diluted my impact on the campaigns and results.
Achievements One of my achievements was surpassing the market leader (BBVA) in the pension plan volume ranking.
Learnings
The main experience I gained at VidaCaixa was teamwork. Coordination among so many people was so essential that it was crucial to involve the right people in each specific process.
Skills acquired
- Product development / Roadmap management
- Project management involving several stakeholders
- Presentations to board of directors
- Collaboration with sales department
- ATL & BTL promotional & advertising plan
- Sales analysis
- Budget & Gross Margin
- Sales Forecasting
- Pricing
Reasons for the Change
I had reached one of the largest entities in Spain—solid, solvent, and stable. It could have been a privilege for anyone, and I could have viewed this job as "the company where I would retire."
However, something didn’t align with my personality. The fact that my impact on the business and actions became diluted due to so many people’s involvement in any project was discouraging.
I have always enjoyed feeling like an important piece where I work, and I don’t like losing visibility.
For this reason, I decided to make a change.
During the job search process, I received two offers: one from Spanair (airline company) and another from Mitsubishi Electric.
Spanair offered me the opportunity to join a project with a young and dynamic team, which I really liked. During the selection process, I had the chance to meet several professionals I would be working with. There were people from the Consumer Goods sector, which attracted me because it meant that the team would be creative, competitive, and eager to invent and do new things.
On the other hand, Mitsubishi Electric gave me the chance to manage a product again. Since leaving Damm, I had always wanted to return to product management. I have always found marketing from a product perspective more appealing than from a service perspective.
For this reason, I decided to join Mitsubishi Electric.
