Head of Sustainability Strategy at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• The role is responsible for supporting the Absa Group Chief Executive (CE) and Exco in conceptualising, formulating, communicating, executing and sustaining the strategic corporate initiatives that further the vision and mission of the business, including development of metrics and reporting capabilities that measure effective implementation of strategy across the Group.    The role is also responsible for developing and managing the Group’s reputation as a Pan African Bank with global reach that is committed to, and investing in, African growth. This role achieves this through strategic brand management, including related internal and external activities.   This leader is a key member of the Group CE’s office, with responsibility for influencing and collaborating with members of the Executive Committee and the broader network of leaders across the business in ensuring a clear, cohesive group strategy is communicated, implemented and measured for effectiveness; and that the desired corporate reputation is achieved.

Job Description

Accountability: Strategy Formulation, Translation and Reporting

• Lead development of the Absa Group Strategy and objectives through the identification of strategic issues and opportunities that position the Group for profitability, growth and sustainability.
• Through research capabilities and effective partnering with Businesses and Corporate Functions determine customer-centric market insights, strategies, propositions and enablers for growth.
• Facilitate clear strategic choices about the portfolio of initiatives that will drive the growth and transformation of the business and enable disciplined execution of these strategic initiatives.
• Develop and embed a data driven approach to analysing and driving performance and growth against chosen business strategies.  Implement an overall EXCO dashboard of measures and metrics; and drive effective cascading of KPIs / KPAs from Exco performance contracts through all levels of the organisation.
• Maintain a robust measurement, listening and insights platform to feed the Executive team with near-real time data insights on business strategy performance, and industry, markets, regulatory and competitor developments and trends.

Accountability: Reputation and Stakeholder Management

• Define and implement an Absa Reputation Management Strategy that enables the organisation to achieve its strategic objectives.
• Conduct ongoing and targeted engagement with key stakeholders in order to understand the market environment and trends, build relations and to position the Absa Group favourably to achieve a positive business-enabling reputation for the organisation.
• Ensure effective interaction with executive management in the group by liaising with the Chief Executive, Exco members as well as the Board of Directors.  Provide support in strategy formulation for different projects and initiatives.
• Establish collaborative and trusting relationships with the business's key internal leaders and stakeholders in order to ensure that there is a free flow of ideas and information across the business leading to suitable strategy formulation and overall business performance enhancement.
• Participate in external forums to establish and maintain networks and partnerships in the financial industry, across the continent and globally to keep abreast of industry developments, and actively shape industry developments to enable achievement of organisational objectives.
• Build a strategic Absa / Industry/ Global network of thought leaders, relationships and partnerships to enable achievement of business objectives.

Accountability: People Management 

• Provide clear direction on strategic goals, translating and prioritising them into effective budget and resource allocation, business and performance objectives and measures.
• Lead the people agenda across the function with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion, performance management, talent and succession management, skills retention and colleague development.
• Build a high-performance team culture underpinned by strong employee engagement.
• Review and sense check succession plans in place for mission critical roles and ensure that Group transformation objectives have been incorporated.
• Grow business leaders in the function and across the broader organisation through mentoring activities to build a pipeline of future senior leaders across the Group.

Accountability: Risk Management

• Establish and maintain a Strategy and Reputation Management Risk Dashboard and Profile and set the acceptable risk appetite with input from Group Risk.
• Take accountability for the assigned principal risks in terms of the Enterprise Risk Management Framework and ensure that adequate controls are in place.
• Clearly articulate and embed a risk culture that ensures resilience across the Strategy and Reputation Management function.

Education

• Master's Degree: Operations Management