SME Enablement Lead, Africa Transformation Office at Microsoft

Responsibilities

Strategy

• Develops and maintains an understanding of customers, competitors, partners, business models, market sizing, and industry trends in Africa.
• Develops and maintains an understanding of the market environment and trends.
• Leads market landscape analyses and reviews of companies of potential interest.
• Provides guidance to business partners to inform decision-making. Uses existing knowledge base to drive a deal thesis and business model.
• Communicates deal thesis and business model.
• Develops an understanding of Microsoft’s product portfolio, strategic priorities, competitive position, gaps, and potential opportunities.
• Drives evaluation of Microsoft ATO pillar strategic alternatives (e.g. buy, build, partner) and alternatives.
• Ensures ATO pillar roadmap, go-to-market, integration plans and related issues are considered.
• Represents ATO Strategy through exposure, presence, and influence of Microsoft stakeholders and leadership.

 Research, Analysis, & Framing

• Guides others in conducting innovative Africa wide market-based research by leveraging and interpreting information (e.g., financial statements, reports, analyses, stakeholder feedback, expert calls) around high-impact strategic questions, including researching within existing businesses and identifying new spaces for Microsoft; involves stakeholders as appropriate; leverages analyses of others to synthesize information and challenges research of others.
• Owns framing for broad research projects, ratifying with executives; assists colleagues with framing as needed.

 Problem Solving & Solutioning 

• Synthesizes broad findings into insights across a division, including implications that inform business decisions on complex issues, leveraging executive presence to influence decisions and proactively driving solutions to high-impact strategic questions and unaddressed opportunities.
• Identifies and scopes expansive ideas for company strategy, often missed by others;
• Leverages insights to develop recommendations and provide thought leadership (e.g., trend identification, implications of competitor moves) around potential future growth opportunities and strategic issues for Microsoft.
• Sells value of new efforts to business partners and/or senior leadership.
• Guides team through development of frameworks and methodologies to drive problem solving and insights.

 Communication

• Ensures communication of insights to senior business leaders (e.g., GM-level, CVP, EVP, CEO) and conveys viewpoints through written documents (e.g., memos, reports) and influence models (e.g., meetings, presentations) through minimal iterations of feedback and vetting;
• Builds end-to-end storylines and creates outlines across multiple projects for junior colleagues to leverage.
• Influences senior decision making by providing communications, challenging ideas, and adapting messages to complex nuances as needed.
• Communicates value of new efforts to business partners and/or senior leadership.

 Business Partner Relationships

• Manages key points of contact with internal teams (e.g., MEA HQ, MEA Subs, MCAPS, Finance, CELA, Marketing, Engineering, BD, LinkedIn, GitHub,…etc.);
• Manages and cultivates relationships with senior internal leaders (e.g., GM-level, CVP, EVP, CEO).
• Acts as an advisor to senior leadership as an ATO pillar domain expert within Microsoft , leveraging deep technical/product and business knowledge, market awareness, and subject matter expertise to inform strategic business decisions.
• Demonstrates influences through partners across multiple divisions.
• Provides career mentorship to colleagues outside of ATO function and is sought out by others for guidance and education.
• Ensures opportunities for junior team members to develop business partner relationships.
• Identifies compelling projects and positions the team to carry them out.

Project Leadership

• Manages multiple ATO pillar projects and teams across organizational boundaries as a project lead through goals, deliverables, feedback, resource balancing, and timing expectations;
• Proactively identifies complex roadblocks and address them.
• Initiates and drives multiple projects and topic areas including project plans, recommendations, impact, and syndication across groups.
• Leads cross-company initiatives as a lead member of virtual teams, demonstrating impact across numerous divisions.
• Identifies, evaluates, and proposes new project work/deals based on unmet needs.
• Advises others to indirectly lead projects.

Customer and Partner Focus

• Leverages internal and external relationships as a trusted advisor to advise complex (e.g., large, high impact) customers and partners on domain expertise as a sought-out resource across multiple lines of business, geographies, and cultures, as appropriate; advises partners and decision makers on the industry and company.
• Drives internal strategy and provides guidance to team in executing partnerships.
• Drives customer and partner business initiatives, and contributes to customer's strategy discussions; influences the product roadmap, prioritization, and customer and partner decision making.
• Looks across accounts to identify and address broad issues and trends.
• Drives strategic thinking among the team and fosters a culture of customer and partner focus.
• Creates business value propositions based on company, partner, and/or customer needs that drive long-term value creation.
• Drives support and action by influencing internal stakeholders and partners and promoting the value of opportunities.

Management of External Engagement & Stakeholders Management

People Leadership: deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring, upholding the Company Culture & Values

Reporting: interpret, add to, and apply reports to add value in generating and executing ATO pillar plans

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Experience working in and/or covering multiple African countries with strong track record of achievements.
• Proven experience in driving digital sales (in Cloud companies and/or Telcos), also landing successful programs & initiatives to small & medium enterprises (SMEs) with special focus on micro-SMEs.
• Strong mentoring and advisory skills related to capacity building efforts associated with economic development mechanisms (strategic planning, investments, legislation, etc.);
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Business Administration or related field AND 8+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
  • OR equivalent experience (e.g., scaling a business, incubation, driving change in a large company, entrepreneurship, management consulting).
• 2+ years experience in Strategy, Management Consulting, and/or Finance.
• 3+ years project, people, and/or change management experience.
• 5+ years people management experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years experience working in a matrixed organization, preferably in the technology industry.
• 5+ years project, people, and/or change management experience.
• 10+ years experience in a related business/ functional domain.