Dec 14, 2007
Robert W. Raus Jr.
35 Margaret Way ▪ Gilford, NH 03249 ▪
bobraus@metrocast.net ▪ Mobile: (603) 327-7953
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Experience delivering aggressive global sales results on high-technology hardware, software and professional services products. Exceptional talent for identifying the larger business objectives then defining and executing the marketing strategy to deliver over and above expected targets. In-depth industry knowledge, new product development, effective product management, outbound marketing programs, customer events, sales-ready marketing tools and motivating and leading strong teams.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Driving and Executing Product Strategy
Setting Business Vision
Roadmap and Lifecycle Management
Product Marketing and Marcom
Alliance Management
High Performance Team Management
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Product Group Manager, Primary Coding
MARKEM Corporation, Keene, NH 3/2007 - Present
Responsible for global product management and product marketing for 2/3 of digital printing/coding product lines including laser, thermal transfer, ink jet, and analogue systems. Establish product direction, manage the P&L and interface with all areas including sales, engineering, service, senior business management, finance, marketing and manufacturing.
▪ Develop new product direction and process changes to stop profit bleeding.
▪ Introduced aggressive product marketing and sales programs to stay competitive advances while establishing future product and service direction.
▪ Improved profitability by 12% in first 9 months.
Vice President, Worldwide Product Marketing
EFI VUTEk, Meredith NH 5/2006-1/2007
Responsible for worldwide marketing and product management of the VUTEk product line of super wide digital (inkjet) printers. Managed a team of 23 with seven direct reports to deliver forward product planning, competitive analysis, pricing, partnership management, product demonstration, applications development and testing, branding and MARCOM. Supported direct and 3rd party channel distributors in North America, Europe, Latin America, Middle East/Africa and Asia/Pacific regions. (Short tenure was due to a management regime change).
▪ Developed unique/premium product messaging of “High Definition Printing” to differentiate the product based on image quality – the most important factor.
▪ Directed the most successful product launch in the history of the company and beat revenue goals by 45%.
▪ Rebranded the entire company and product portfolio within 3 months while redefining the corporate value proposition to include leading software and printing technologies.
▪ Clearly differentiated product family from every other company in the industry and reconfirmed the value to charge premium pricing.
▪ Retained market share leadership and marketplace premium positioning that drove record revenues.
Director, Software and Professional Services Marketing
Océ North America, Inc., Boca Raton FL 6/2001-5/2006
Responsible for the entire thirty-five product software family, professional services and software partner portfolio for the North American business unit. Experienced 20% year-over-year growth. Established and managed a national team of 15 field software sales specialists and six marketing product managers. Lead international marketing planning and objectives for global software and professional services business group. Developed and implemented organizational model to facilitate better focus on product management and field sales support.
▪ Researched and evaluated total product family and competitive product lines.
▪ Removed “stigma of software complexity” in sales via new business-oriented messaging.
▪ Simplified value-proposition, positioning, promoted strengths and leveraged competitive weaknesses.
▪ Spearheaded PR campaigns with new business (not technology) -oriented messaging.
▪ Raise market awareness of software products via series of press articles, press releases, speaking events, and “The Raus Workflow Wire”, a monthly business article series at www.ondemandjournal.com. (Click here for a complete list).
▪ 54% increase in sales cycles and 20% YOY increase in software and service revenues.
▪ Chaired multi-department task force with marketing, engineering, IT, order fulfillment and logistics to integrate five separate product ordering and fulfillment systems into SAP.
▪ Team reviewed 65,000 lines of information, identified errors and areas of improvement, updated systems, developed new processes, validated accuracy and configuration rules.
▪ Developed, implemented and monitored new processes to insure changes took root.
▪ 93% reduction in sales order error rates and a drop from 55 to 24 day sales outstanding.
Vice President, Engineering and Consulting Operations
e-Publishing Corp., Waltham MA (a Broadvision Company) 7/2000-6/2001
Established and implemented a green-field software professional services consulting group to drive revenue growth from technical publishing, custom application development and XML web-based publishing. $4M in revenues and profitable operations in less than 12 months.
▪ Established technical software consulting group across seven US locations to provide custom application development and web-based publishing applications with XML, Java, Purl, SQL.
▪ Lead a profitable business-within-a-business in a nation-wide virtual team environment.
▪ Business strategy hinged on partnerships, sales generation and client management.
Program Manager/Product Manager/ Design Engineer/Manufacturing Engineer
Xerox Corporation, Rochester NY 4/1991-6/2000
Researched market, recognized need and secured funding for new program development effort. Managed marketing, engineering, test, configuration, documentation and launch functions across a highly matrix organization. Solution drove $18 million dollars of revenue at an average profit margin of 43%.
Lead Manufacturing Engineer
DuPont-Xerox Imaging, Lionville, PA. 1/1988-3/1991
EDUCATION
Master of Business Administration, St. John Fisher College, Rochester NY 1997
Bachelors of Electrical Engineering, Gannon University, Erie PA 1987