Gavin Kirk

Through the combination of recent acquisitions and existing capabilities, new Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Transformation (DTX) related full-service solutions are now available from Avnet. Such services enable customers to succeed in the digital age by offering their customers enhanced products, vastly improved customer service, increase manufacturing and operational efficiency. Service offerings include Digital Transformation consultancy, Proof of Value (PoV) design and implementation, hardware design, custom embedded software, cloud-based middleware, web and mobile app development, cloud and platform integration, visualization and insights, AI/ML, manufacturing, and post deployment management. The role of the IoT business development manager is to pull together these solutions from the wider capabilities of Avnet to form a best-in-class cohesive solution to customers’ business needs. Expands on previous regional role to cover the whole of the Americas. Work closely with the services business development team to help navigate the complex solution sale as it pertains to IoT and DTX. Additional responsibility to manage the Avnet IoT partner relationship with strategic suppliers, including Microsoft and three flagship semiconductor franchised suppliers. Devise and execute strategic sales and marketing programs to leverage the strengths of each organization and significantly grow customer acquisition, revenue, and profits.

Nurture incremental revenue growth by leveraging Avnet's newer service capabilities in the Digital Transformation and Internet of Things solutions space. Targeting existing and new customers in the central USA and eastern Canada regions. Use strategic and solution selling to win end-to-end IoT / DTX related business opportunities in assigned region. Drive customer engagement at the executive / key decision maker level. Utilize blend of business and technical skills and experience and involve the appropriate subject matter experts and solution business units in the selling motion, to solve the customers business challenges. Build customer organizational consensus through multi-level stakeholder management. Strive to delight customers and maximize total revenue and profitability for Avnet. Formulate strategic and analytic approaches to business use cases and, with the right team, move opportunities through the complex solution sales cycle.

Drive the successful accelerated execution of the team's global 'Services Beyond Product' strategy. Negotiate strategic alliance contracts and strategic supplier relationships, with global flagship franchises in the semiconductor industry. Collaborate with the marketing team to devise powerful marketing campaigns to drive incremental growth. Engage in-house design and manufacturing services to exceed the strategic alliance revenue and margin growth goals during the tenure

Manage a large portfolio of digital semiconductors products. Devise and own the technology, go-to-market, and portfolio strategy. Lead the category business unit in marketing, merchandising, pricing, and product lifecycle management. Mentor and assign work to a team of associate product managers, to accelerate execution, build skills, improve category knowledge and to guide in adopting product management best practice ways of working.

At the front end of the new product development process, this role includes leading the team for - Market research and concept ideation - Business case formulation - Document market requirements - Collaboration with engineering to ensure market requirements are met or exceeded by the product design. - Iterative research is conducted throughout the phases. Methods include execution, analysis, and synthesis of findings using: - Primary research including VOC from interviews, contextual enquiry, surveys, focus groups and engaging with existing known customer testers and power users. - Secondary research, such as market studies, competitive / SWOT analysis and strategic product roadmap reviews. - Use of the outcome driven innovation methodology, factor - cluster analysis and other tools to segment and deeply understand the customer persona and market needs. Based on that work, own, deliver, and defend the market and product definition through executive reviews at key phases in the process. Author a comprehensive and actionable market requirement documents.

Responsible for the >$100M annual revenue electrical test tool product portfolio. Significantly increase revenue and profits for the business unit by devising and executing the strategic product roadmap. The role involved collaborating with product planning and industrial design to conduct primary and secondary research to gain insights into customer personas, behavior, preferences and care-abouts. Craft and present tollgate-based justification materials for approval by executive management by collaborating with the engineering and manufacturing teams. Develop marketing strategies for new product lines including product roadmap. sales strategy, sales forecast, long-term launch activities, advertising, go-to-market, product life cycle, and pricing strategies. Formulate customer segmentation models and perform market and competitor trend analysis for critical input into the business strategy. Maintain end-customer and key influencer relationships to facilitate a continuous stream of feedback for existing and future product improvements.