Business Development General Manager at Britam

Job Purpose:

The General Manager - Business Development, will be responsible for driving the Company’s business and increasing revenue through planning, directing and coordinating the sales, marketing and distribution of the Company’s product portfolio which includes Individual Life Assurance products, Pre and post retirement Pension products, Group Life and Credit Life Products. The role will also oversee product development, customer acquisition as well as identifying and developing new business opportunities with a view of expanding the company’s market share.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and implement business development strategic plan.
• Grow and defend the market share position.
• Develop and execute key growth sales strategies, tactics and action plans and expand customer base.
• Own the Product portfolio strategy to ensure quality of business through management of product mix.
• Manage the execution and implementation of the Company’s marketing plans, designs and activities to establish and maintain brand presence in the market.
• Own the Persistence / Post sales customer retention strategy. Design appropriate sales incentives to drive targeted sales remediation while ensuring retention of existing business.
• Understand product specific landscapes and trends and determine appropriate distribution channels for each product line.
• Manage the product development, sales and marketing costs to ensure profitability.
• Co-ordinate and support development and innovation of products.
• Design a competitive customer experience for all products in the portfolio.
• Ensure that all product information/ training material is consistent with the propositions of the product.
• Identify and explore new product ideas to support business growth
• Oversee related product impact analysis and make changes to comply with all regulations
• Oversee the recruitment, motivation and retention of the sales team.
• Direct, guide and manage performance and career development of portfolio managers.
• Delegated Authority: As per the approved Delegated Authority Matrix
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned from time to time

Key Performance Measures

As described in your Personal Score Card

 Knowledge, experience and qualifications required

• Bachelor’s Degree in a business related field. Master’s degree is an added advantage;
• Professional qualification in Insurance (ACII, FLMI or AIIK) or equivalent;
• 10+ years successful relevant experience, 5 of which must be in a management position (financial services sector preferred). Knowledge of the Insurance industry (desirable);
• Results orientated with the ability to set KPIs and a proven track record of meeting or exceeding targets;
• Resilient, dynamic, energetic, and enthusiastic. Must be highly driven and enjoy working with people;
• Able to work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and to foster and maintain successful working relationships;
• Digital marketing experience, preferably in a related industry;
• Ability to communicate, present and influence all levels of the organization, including executive and C-level.

Leaders of Leaders in Britam need to:

• Ensure Business Objectives are met;
• Be vision carriers; facilitate, drive and extract the vision for the business with the functional team;
• Ensure the successful implementation of the strategy;
• Ensure a sustainable business over a long-term defined vision;
• Have a global understanding of business practices and local application;
• Have a long-term view on profit, functions and processes;
• Grow stakeholder value over the long-term;
• Grow profitably across products and all business units;
• Engage in continuous brand building to become the trusted partners to customers;
• Develop innovative partnerships and distribution channels to increase market penetration;
• Appropriately allocate funds and capital to maximise shareholder value;
• Work strategically to ensure market leading position;
• Adequately manage operational risk.

Leaders of Leaders Competency Descriptions.

• Leading and Supervising - Provides the business with a clear direction based on the overall strategic intent of the organization; motivates and empowers others with a clear sense of purpose; creates a positive organizational climate that fosters learning and development; acknowledges high potential talent; sets and articulates the vision and values through own personal behavior.
• Relating and Networking - Easily establishes, as well as assists others in building meaningful relationships with customers and staff across all areas of the business, inside and outside of the organization; relates well to people at all levels; facilitates the resolutions of conflict and manages disagreements with tact and diplomacy.
• Persuading and Influencing - Gains clear agreement and commitment from others by persuading, convincing and negotiating to the benefit of the organisation; promotes the organisational strategy during conversations; makes effective use of political processes to influence and persuade others; promotes ideas on behalf of oneself, the department or the organisation; makes a strong personal impact on others; takes care to manage the organisation’s impression and brand on others.
• Formulating Strategies and Concepts - Works strategically to realise organisational goals; sets and develops organisational strategies; identifies and develops positive and compelling visions of the organisation’s future potential; takes account of a wide range of issues across, and related to the organisation; encourages others to take a strategic and long-term view in terms of the organisation’s future; communicates the organisational strategy, vision and objectives effectively across all levels of the organisation.
• Entrepreneurial and Commercial Thinking- Keeps up to date with competitor information and market trends; identifies business opportunities for the organisation; maintains awareness of developments, changes, trends and possible risks in the organisational structure and politics; demonstrates financial awareness; ensures costs are monitored and controlled and thinks in terms of profit, loss and added value.
• Adapting and Responding to change - Anticipates and effectively adapts to changing circumstances and ambiguous situations; accepts and actively drives new ideas and change initiatives; adapts interpersonal style to suit different individuals and situations; adapts organisational strategy to take industry changes into consideration.
• Presenting and Communicating Information - Speaks fluently; expresses the organisational strategy, mission, vision, objectives as well as opinions, information and key points of an argument clearly; makes presentations and undertakes public speaking with skill and confidence; represents the organisational brand effectively, responds quickly to the needs of an audience and to their reactions and feedback; projects credibility and authority.
• Creating and Innovating - Promotes organisational improvement; produces and encourages new ideas, approaches, or insights; creates the environment for innovative products or designs; produces a range of solutions to the strategic benefit of the organisation.
• Achieving Personal Work Goals and Objectives - Accepts and tackles demanding organisational and departmental goals with enthusiasm; lead by example by working hard and putting in longer hours in order to ensure successful implementation and completion of strategic projects; show self-insight in own development needs.
• Adhering to Principles and Values - Upholds and encourages ethical behaviour and organisational values; demonstrates integrity; promotes and defends equal opportunities, builds diverse teams; encourages organisational and individual responsibility towards the community and the environment; models the organisational values during every day interactions.
• Analyzing - Strategically analyses sources of information, breaking them into component parts, patterns and relationships; makes rational judgements from the available, as well as missing information; demonstrates an understanding of how one issue may be part of a much larger system.

Technical/ Functional competencies

• Customer, market and competitor understanding
• Knowledge of insurance regulatory requirements
• Knowledge of Britam products
• Selling skills
• Sales and marketing management skills