General Manager: E-Commerce at MTN

Mission/ Core purpose of the Job
The General Manager: E-Commerce is responsible for defining, managing and executing the strategy (product, operating model, acquisition, engagement, retention, experience)  for MTN Group to expend its scope of business and services within the E&M-commerce space through the development, deployment and management of disruptive and mass market E&M-commerce solutions and products.   

This role is responsible to oversee and manage the following portfolios but not limited to :  

• E-Commerce  
• Travel & Hotel bookings  
• Ticketing & Services  
• Ride hailing services  
• Mass transport & Logistics services 

As part of the leadership team, the General Manager is responsible to contribute to  Payments and Ecosystem’s overall strategic goals, to achieve profitable growth, and to continuously improve the operations performance 

Key Performance Areas: Core, essential responsibilities / outputs of the position (KPA's)

Strategy Development and Implementation  

• Provide input into the Payments & E-Commerce strategy in line with the overarching business goals, ensuring that Finco maintains and improves its leadership positioning  
• Define the overall E-Commerce strategy and business planning for the team  
• Ensure the effective execution of the strategy by means of providing direction, structure, frameworks, models, plans and roadmaps, aligned to group strategy and frameworks, implementing to OpCos  
• Drive the effective cascading of the overall business plan  
• Execute the E-Commerce strategy by driving customer awareness, engagement, experience and monetization  
• Provide input into the Payments & E-Commerce Business Plan and cascade this to OpCos  
• Drive product revenue and growth, operational excellent and customer satisfaction  

Staff & Leadership Management  

• Build and manage a high performing team by providing leadership, role clarity, training and career development   
• Build and manage a high-performance team   
• Continually develop a culture of strong collaboration and effective team working  
• Ensure open communication channels with staff and implement change management interventions where necessary  
• Provide definition of roles, responsibilities, individual goals and performance objectives for the team  
• Set KPIs and provide regular performance feedback through a well-defined and implemented performance review program  
• Develop and implement a training plan in order to build and develop skills within the team  
• Encourage knowledge transfer through the implementation of a knowledge transfer plan and drive continuous improvement philosophy through the knowledge transfer plan  
• Performance manage resources in accordance with HR policy and legislation where necessary  
• Actively participate in leadership team and develop skills of own team  
• Promote a ‘Finco centric’ and ‘partnership approach’ to develop strong relationships with other working groups and ensure adherence to Group governance  

Operational Delivery  

Functional Leadership:   

As the functional leader of the E-Commerce vertical, the General Manager is accountable to:  

• Establish, monitor and align the direction, strategy and results of the E-Commerce vertical collectively and as individual work areas  
• Oversee operations & management of E-Commerce Logistics, Category Management and Seller Segment operations   
• Lead and drive an integrated solution development and problem-solving philosophy within the function   
• Monitor true-value metrics to measure the impact and benefit of the function to Group Finco  
• Drive continuous improvement across the function    

Delivery Leadership:   

As the delivery leader of the E-Commerce vertical, the General Manager is accountable for the following work area outcomes  

• Lead the E-Commerce platform development and product management  
• Collaborate with relevant Payments & E-Commerce counterparts during all phases of the E-Commerce platform development life cycle   
• Create new strategic relationships with E-Commerce solution partners & open-source platforms  
• Expand strategic relationships with existing  -Commerce platform partners and develop new -Commerce partnerships  
• Shape the overall framework of the IT system for the e-commerce platform  
• Define, refine, build and execute the E-Commerce strategy to grow the relevant ecosystems for the e-commerce platform  
• Drive development of prototypes, designs and architecture, and support engineering teams as needed  
• Drive development and implementation Finco e-commerce business operation, product, and value proposition  
• Develop core models for ecommerce offerings and negotiate favourable commercial terms  
• Drive value for marketplace sellers, evolving the tools, capabilities, and partnering with cross functional teams to drive technical product improvements  
• Navigate product roadmaps and influence resource allocation to achieve results  
• Be a catalyst for good design, change and continuous learning  
• Identifying opportunities to increase the reach for community and partners overall  
• Ensure the end-to-end delivery from product identification to product delivery to customers via the platform.   
• Ensure active product/seller segmentation to enhance the e-commerce platform and drive personalised product suggests for customer to drive better experience and use of e-commerce platforms  
• Collaborate with Opcos to develop the E-Commerce opco toolkit for effective digital product and service implementation  

Governance   

Operational, Tactical and Strategic Meetings  

• Hold strategic meetings, ensure relevant participation and provide guidance and support in the various discussions  
• Drive enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, elicit inputs from relevant parties  
• Drive adequate risk mitigation and controls, and elicit inputs from relevant parties  
• Sign off approval on new initiatives  
• Provide relevant budget for internal projects  
• Prepare proposal on change initiatives, SLA policies and procedures  

Escalations  

• Resolve and provide guidance to escalations that have impact on critical path of service delivery  
• Resolve issues that will result in severe time, scope, productivity, and cost or resource or reputational impact  

Tactical  

• Review Payments & E-Commerce projects initiated (internal or global)  
• Review and finalise objectives, targets, and budgets for the E-Commerce Function as applicable  
• Review key risks, issues and dependencies and set mitigation actions  
• Sign-off / provide guidance on decisions regarding tactical changes  

Performance  

• Define the standards and set targets for performance across the sub-division and identify the parameters for measurement of performance  
• Responsible to drive revenue, this is one of the core revenue generators for the business  
• Monitor performance against business plans (i.e. business plan tracking) as well as alignment with MTN global strategy and industry best practices  
• Identify opportunities for improvement, and provide the necessary support to respective teams to take the corrective action needed to drive performance against business targets  
• Oversee business planning, forecasting and reforecasting  

Reporting  

• Report on a periodic basis to the Payments & E-Commerce Executive relating to progress made within the function and in accordance with the measurement metrics set by the organisation  
• Report on an ad hoc basis on specific projects, as required  

Budgets  

• Develop and manage the E-Commerce budget in line with business objectives  
• Develop and manage project initiative budgets in line with business objectives  
• Ensure that the “cost of operations” is reduced, in line with a least cost operating strategy stemming from the business drivers  
• Ensure delivery of revenue and growth targets  
• Managerial / Supervisory Responsibilities   
• Continually develop a culture of strong collaboration and effective team working  
• Provide guidance and leadership ensuring future focus and current efficiency  
• Coach and mentor direct reports to ensure staff motivation is high  
• Ensure adequate succession planning & that succession plans are achieved  

Collaboration (Formal and Informal Relationships)

Responsibility towards:    

Key Internal stakeholders:   

• Executive team  
• Business / Product verticals in Group Finco   
• Group Finco Support functions  
• Finco Opcos   
• Governance Forums  

Key External stakeholders:     

• Technological & Operational providers  
• Commercial and Strategic partners 
• Regulators 

Job Requirements (Education, Experience and Competencies) 

Education:  

• Minimum of 4-year tertiary degree in Information Technology, Business Management, Marketing, Engineering or related field  
• MBA or Masters (advantageous)  

Experience:  

• Minimum 10 years of post-qualification work experience with a Global Brand  
• A minimum of 4 years’ experience at a Senior position in service/product development and payments and e-commerce digital platform management within a FinServ/FinTech environment  
• Experience in Product Development & Management in payments and e-commerce digital platforms within Fintech, Financial Services, Banking industry   
• Proven track record of managing and execution of full life-cycle digital projects  
• Strong experience in product/project management   
• Deep understanding of eCommerce as a business, which includes strengths or experience in: marketing, sales, product marketing, brand marketing, SEM, social advertising, remarketing, reactivation, email marketing, store curation, campaign management, customer service  
• Shopper-centric design experience, such as: conversion UX, search/sort/filter UX, check-out flow design, landing page design, campaign design  
• Deep understanding of the Fintech & Digital ecosystem, players, business models and industry related best practices.  
• Understanding emerging markets advantageous  
• Worked across diverse cultures and geographies  
• Pan Africa multi-cultural experience is advantageous  
• Entrepreneurial spirit, self-driven and ability to motivate a fast-paced team  
• Attitude of Innovation, inventiveness and thought leadership  
• Abreast of global mind-set and best practice  
• Willing and flexible to travel within Africa and Middle East  
• English speaker. French, Portuguese, Zulu, Swahili, and other African languages a plus  

Competencies:  

Functional Knowledge:   

• Fintech products and services  
• Understanding of FinTech, banking, microfinance and payment businesses  
• Payment, E-Commerce and digital platforms  
• eCommerce technical knowledge (payments systems, customer service ticketing systems, chat plug-ins, transactional data models, SEO, on-site search, web analytics implementation etc  
• Partnerships   
• Product Development & Management  
• Product Solution & Value Proposition   
• Product Pricing   
• Product and Project management  
• Agile Methodologies & Frameworks  

Skills  

• Business Acumen   
• Analytics and Interpretation  
• Strategic Thinking   
• Organizational Agility   
• Digital mind-set  
• Dealing with ambiguity and complexity  
• Decision Making  
• Conflict Management  
• Negotiation   
• Financial and Numerical   
• Project Management  
• People Management  
• Executive Presentation   

Behavioural Qualities  

• Adaptable  
• Complete candour  
• Culturally aware   
• Emotional Maturity  
• Innovation   
• Integrity  
• Leadership  
• Team Player