Strategic Project Leadership: UK
The MillerBrands UK team had identified a new product opportunity for Peroni lager, a unique new beer flavoured with Italian Chinotto citrus fruit, designed to be a pre-dinner aperitif. However, with a brewery in Rome required to produce it in a new size bottle, and the need to source rare fruit ingredients, it was a complex task to develop it into a commercially viable product and launch it successfully in the UK market in time for the key summer season.
We set up and managed a stage-gate process to harness a diverse range of people who were needed to ensure success – marketing, sales and finance personnel, design, communications and research agencies in the UK, along with product development, brewing and procurement personnel in Italy – and built in the necessary engagement with senior stakeholders in the UK and Italy, as well as regional and global functions. By ensuring everyone was clear at all times on the tasks and deliverables for which they were responsible, managing the process smoothly and efficiently, and organising course-corrections where necessary, the new product made a successful debut in market right on schedule.
