Manager, Partnerships & Ecosystems at Absa Bank Limited

Job Summary

To market and sell Financial Solutions (products, technology and services) to increase the sales across all retail channels and other potential markets. To identify and attract new business and retain the existing customer base.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Growth & Commercialization, holders primary focus is to cultivate and manage strategic partnerships and alliances with external organizations to drive mutual business growth and create value for the bank. Holder will play a critical role in driving business growth, expanding market reach, and fostering innovation through strategic partnerships and alliances. Focus will be on identifying opportunities, building relationships, and executing collaborative initiatives to create value and competitive advantage in today's interconnected business landscape.

Key Accountabilities

Strategy & Commercialization 50%

• Drive partnerships & ecosystem growth strategy including identifying and crafting market relevant, high-value ecosystem offerings with supporting Go-to-Market motion(s) and associated operating model structures to meet financial targets.
• Be accountable as a business leader for achievement of the ecosystem’s financial and strategic outcomes.
• Developing the business case in support of the ecosystem transformation (revenue case and investment case).
• Actively participate in developing the ecosystem’s commercial strategy (and its continuous iteration) that defines the short-term and long-term plans that leverage on technology and digitization capabilities for the business.
• Lead the definition and execution of the business models, products, and Go-To-Market (GTM)/Distribution strategies for the ecosystem.
• Structure the ecosystem outcomes and prioritize their execution, ensuring stakeholders are aligned and all organization resources are mobilized for the achievement of the intended value.
• Formulate and mobilize high-growth strategic partnerships that deliver innovative and transformative programs, with a particular focus on differentiated best in class solutions.
• Engage key customers and industry stakeholders e.g. Banks, Partners, Regulators and other partners to execute programs that increase growth and deepen product penetration and adoption.
• Pre and post launch design and implement optimization tests across our end-to-end customer funnel (from acquisition through lifecycle retention).
• Leverage insights from data to design targeted lifestyle retention and loyalty programs to sustain usage performance and mitigate churn.
• Scan more widely for digital innovation opportunities (beyond the status quo fields of where to look).

Stakeholder Engagement – 30%

• Managing project teams (organize work plans, manage performance and growth of analysts).
• Constantly collect market feedback and disseminate it to internal teams.
• Partner activation, reporting & governance.
• Participating in thought leadership initiatives.
• Leading sales efforts to position ecosystem strategy initiatives with our clients.
• Assure effective governance of the ecosystem’s processes.
• Research, development, implementation and review of partner on-boarding, partner management standards, rules of engagement, governance and quality assurance processes for the ecosystem based on best practice.
• Define engines/structure/procedures to support implementation of ecosystem growth through their lifetime customer journey.

Customer Management – 20%

• As the Voice of Customer SPOC for the ecosystem, lead discussions with stakeholders to understand customer jobs with a view of guiding solutioning and development prioritization.
• Raise awareness of our brand assets and creating opportunities for meaningful engagement with key stakeholders within the wider ecosystem.
• Create opportunities to engage with relevant partners in a way that generates maximum value for our stakeholders.
• Host relevant events with external audiences (talks, round tables, VIP tours), participating in conferences and speaking engagements, networking, and more.
• Analyzing a market and identifying revenue growth opportunities.
• Developing comprehensive growth and monetization strategies.
• Defining how to orchestrate the ecosystem/channel and design the required supporting programs and supporting go to market motions.
• Skilled at leading ideation with clients to define innovative market plays, run segmentation analysis, model growth projections, blueprint strategic Go-to-Market motions, design new route to market/operating models, and outline new program architectures and channel enablement capabilities.

Qualifications

• Relevant University Degree

Preferred Experience

• At least 5 years’ work experience, 3 of which should have been in a similar capacity with a proven track record and within a digital business environment.
• Maintain up to date knowledge of competitor and local market activity.
• Experience in driving the growth vision & strategy, go-to-market strategy, and sales strategy.
• In-depth understanding of the various mobile banking platforms
• In-depth understanding of Financial Technology (Fintech).

Technical Competencies

• Strong track record in developing new ventures and strategic business partnerships with demonstrable commercial impact and significant strengthening of customer acquisition and loyalty. You are highly entrepreneurial, innovative, and passionate about emerging themes and opportunities in the new economy.
• You are creative enough to envision capabilities within the ecosystem that simply weren’t possible in the past.
• Commercially minded - you are comfortable speaking the language of marketing/sales funnels, platform thinking, know your way around a business model, and have a creative and strategic mindset.
• Ability to lead and deliver results that have significant impact on the organization through diverse teams.
• Can interact with people (own team, colleagues, customers, stakeholders, and the public at large) in different social and cultural environments, showing respect and positive regard for them in a unifying and professional way consistent with the values of the organization.
• Great public speaking skills - you're confident in front of a room with over 200 people, and you can easily engage & shine in a 1-on-1.
• Creative, process-driven, proactive - while you're great at jumping in and doing things last-minute, when necessary, you have strong skills in creating processes to ensure that nothing is forgotten, and your work flows smoothly.
• Super organised and a proactive problem solver – great at managing your time and workload to ensure everything gets done, and skilled at balancing multiple priorities.
• Deep professional experience developing GTM, and ecosystem strategies related to digital transformation, cloud, mobility, and emerging technologies.
• Naturally inquisitive and successful in researching key issues. Can reflect on what needs to happen next, what might get in the way, and therefore what needs to be put in place to ensure progress. Is aware of what constitutes best practice in the Fintech sector and strives to deliver on this.
• Ability to assess the organization’s vision, goals, objectives, and strategies to identify the desired future.
• Ability to inculcate a culture of project management excellence – project leadership, accountability, high-performance teams, customer and market focus, robust solutions, alignment, discipline, speed, and quality.
• Understands financial management concepts, can use the principles to develop business cases, describe events and incorporate the same in problem solving and decision making.