Executive Strategic Advisor at Living Goods

Do you want your work to matter? Do you want to use your skills to make a difference, not just a living? Do you want to improve millions of lives, including your own?

The Opportunity 

At Living Goods we have experienced a significant period of growth over the last three years. To continue on this trajectory, we’re searching for a highly qualified Strategic Advisor to work closely with our Executive Team. The successful candidate will be a strategic advisor to the Chief Executive Officer, supporting short, medium and multi-year strategic planning, and will have an impact on Living Good’s productivity, streamlining strategic initiatives, trouble shooting and facilitation of strategy execution. The Executive Strategic Advisor shall;

• On behalf of the CEO, oversee strategic business initiatives from development through successful execution in collaboration with Global Leadership and Management teams, ensuring a connected rhythm of strategy, planning and review processes followed by all units (functions and countries).
• Provide ongoing support to the CEO on general organisation tactical execution issues so as to enable her to focus on more strategic challenges and better optimize use of time.
• Act as analyst and decision-framer on one hand, and project manager, change agent, and coach on the other so as to ensure the CEOs’ involvement in project or decision-making processes takes place at key times, where her input and authority are most needed.
• Monitoring and reporting specific initiatives/projects to the executive office ensuring consistency with Living Goods strategy, commitments and goals. He/she will have proven experience in a business/program management role, with a special focus on executive-level advising and interdepartmental collaboration to enable leadership success.  

 Your Charge

• Lead the strategic planning process for the organisation – resulting in robust strategic plans that are approved and communicated to key stakeholders and staff effectively.
• Oversee strategic organisation initiatives from development through successful execution under the guidance of the CEO and Executive team. 
• Participate as a key support role to the Global Executive Team (GET) to help drive strategic planning and other initiatives, monitoring issues and keeping track until resolved.
• Support the CEO ensuring full preparation for meetings/steering committees ensuring input from all internal staff members are prepared to a high standard and reviewed in a timely manner to ensure the meetings are as productive as possible.
• Monitor information flow: Sometimes acting as a gatekeeper, ensuring CEO’s involvement in a project or decision-making process at the right moment.
• Create and review dashboards for key performance indicators for the whole organisation.
• Assist and communicate with executives in decision-making, program management, and initiative implementation.
• Improve current processes and coordinate organizational procedures for optimized efficiency and productivity.
• Lead, track and report on major organisation-wide change initiatives where required and as per the LG Delegation of Authority Matrix.
• Conduct research prepare analytical reports and assist the CEO in developing reports, presentations, speeches and publications.
• Develop plans for managing crisis and works with the Global Executive Team to address the specifics of an emergency.
• Plan and at times facilitate the Global Executive Team retreats and other special events.

• Build and develop relationships with employees for increased efficiency and effective responsiveness into existing operations, and help to define new operational strategies, working with CEO and executives on special strategic projects.
• Responsible for leading & coordinating all administrative tasks within the CEO’s office and ensures the efficient running of the CEO’s office including coordinating the duties and responsibilities of the Executive Administrative Assistant and any other essential support staff in the CEO’s office.
• Adaptability & ability to prioritize the numerous changes and demands. Given the highly confidential nature of the role, it requires the ability to generate and instil trust within the organization while maintaining exceptional levels of confidentiality.

 Education & Experience

• Master’s degree in Business Administration or similar field.
• Over 10 years’ experience in a similar organisation in a business, executive, program management role.
• Experience with data analysis.
• Experience with budget management.
• Consulting experience with a focus on operations management.
• Proven success in a project coordination role.
• Nimble business mind with a focus on developing creative solutions.
• Strong project reporting skills, with a focus on interdepartmental communication

Skills and attributes

• Proven creative thinker with strong business acumen.
• Proven experience organizing and directing multiple teams and departments.
• Analysis;
• Strong ability to Analyse, Synthesize and to Relate trends, behaviours and a wide range of internal and external data and variables.
• Confidence in using statistics and financial information jointly with intuition and judgment.
• The ability to approach and analyse situations from different perspectives, assessing impact on each part of the chain.
• Excellent communicator in written and verbal form.
• Extremely versatile, dedicated to efficient productivity.
• Experience planning and leading strategic initiatives.
• Ability to operationalize strategy into action for the organisation as whole.
• Understands programme and project management.
• Working knowledge of the health sector.
• Strong leadership skills, executive disposition, and demonstrate high levels of integrity.
• Impeccable time management and multi-tasking skills.
• Proven problem solver who can make clear-headed decision while under pressure.
• Detail oriented.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a knack for collaboration across varying teams.
• Self-motivated and self sufficient.
• Energetic leader with excellent communication skills a positive attitude and a go-getter drive.
• Research ability. You have experience conducting powerful secondary research.
• Humility. We are looking for passionate leaders with good humour, patience, and a humble approach to service.

Compensation

A competitive salary and benefits package commensurate with experience including health insurance and annual performance bonus pay opportunity.  This is an opportunity to be your best while making lives better for those in need.