Manager – Partnerships Loyalty Programme.Consumer at MTN

Mission/Core purpose of the Job

Working closely with the MTN Executive Leadership Team and the Opco CEOs, the Executive: Group 

Mission/Core purpose of the Job: To build, grow and maintain strategic partnerships and alliances for the Loyalty Programme to generate revenue opportunities through a broader portfolio offering and, in so doing, implement the Partnerships and Alliances Strategy.  To identify and own relationships with strategic partners to develop best in class ICT solutions and contribute towards the achievement of the ICT business objectives. Manager existing partners of the Loyalty Programme.

Context (Global influences, environmental / industry demands, organisational mission etc.)

• Fast moving industry with constantly changing business requirements and technologies.
• Fluid complexities of customer expectations and demands.
• Highly competitive market with new and established competitors and aggressive competitor strategy and delivery.
• Highly dynamic and fluctuating Telecommunications and ISP industry.
• Total customer experience for MTN brand.
• Constantly changing consumer and market needs.
• Market dynamics and developments.
• MTN policies, processes and procedures.
• Regulatory industry norms govern MTN and partners. 
• Highly pressurised, deadline-driven environment.
• Highly legislated / regulated environment requires compliance and adherence to Industry standards and benchmarks.
• Participative environment – highly diverse and team-focused

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

Key Deliverables

Strategy Implementation

• Lead the Strategic Alliances and Partnerships function by leveraging the MTN brand and industry standards to secure MTN as a partner of choice and subsequently as a market leader for the Loyalty Programme.
• Develop strategic partnerships by designing and implementing strategic engagement campaigns, working with both internal and external partners in order to enable operational effectiveness.
• Contribute towards the development of the Partnerships and Alliances strategy by collating market insights from internal and external sources in order to create value through strategic partnerships.
• Maintain an understanding of the overall strategy of the ICT organisation within MTN by engaging with the internal and external stakeholders in order to develop appropriate execution plans suitable for the achievement of the strategic objectives.

Strategic Partnerships and Alliances Management

• Manage the day-to-day relationships with strategic partners by liaising and working closely with internal teams and external partners to ensure alignment and understanding of deliverables.
• Develop consistent, reliable and effective communication mechanisms by designing and implementing a strategic engagement campaign, working with both internal and external partners to enable operational excellence.
• Serve as an industry subject matter expert, regularly monitor industry trends and developments including market climate, new regulations and technology trends in order to provide recommendations on business cases for initiatives proposed by business.
• Work closely with product teams to understand roadmaps and leverage the power of strategic partnerships in order to enable the successful execution joint roadmaps that provide market-leading ICT solutions.
• Monitor the performance strategic partnerships by maintain partner profiles and measuring partner performance against key metrics in order to assess opportunities concerning the partner ecosystem.
• Identify and cultivate strategic relationships with current and potential technology partners and large enterprises by embedding within the strategic partners’ ecosystems in order to understand the relative strength.
• Develop unique strategic partnerships with current and potential large enterprises by ensuring that entities within the ecosystems closely collaborate, co-develop and co-deliver in order to achieve the shared vision aligned to MTN’s strategy. 
• Manage compliance to the partnership rules of engagement by monitoring adherence to partner level thresholds, requirements and measurements to ensure compliance to contractual obligations.
• Establish a strong partnerships foundation by developing business plans with each strategic partner and tracking the successful execution of these plans in order to ensure alignment and understanding of deliverables and any potential bottlenecks.
• Generate revenue opportunities by identifying complementary partners with niche capabilities in order to improve the product portfolio.
• Provide thought leadership by regularly monitoring industry trends and developments including market landscape, new regulations and technology trends and maintaining a full understanding of relevant products and services in order to identify strategic opportunities for revenue and market growth.

Project Management

• Monitor and track project progress by coordinating the project activities and aligning external and internal stakeholders in order to enable the successful execution and timely delivery of milestones. 
• Participate in project execution by collaborating with strategic partners in the testing, evaluation and troubleshooting of all products to ensure that product deliverables are align to the overall project mandate.
• Determine, document and review requirements for projects within the scope of the value stream or impacting processes and systems.

Governance and Risk Management

• Participate in the implementation of functional policies, standard operating procedures and best practices that ensure operational efficiency, accuracy, security, integrity and compliance with relevant laws and regulations across OpCo’s
• Identify and manage partners, and ensure all contracts are managed in line with procurement policies and standards in order to drive compliance to set processes and procedures.
• Participate in the definition of parameters for partnerships Service Level Agreements (SLA) and monitor SLA performance indicators to ensure all compliance requirements that are established under contractual agreements between the organisation and vendors, are adhered to.

Revenue, Cost and Budget Management

• Contribute towards budget management within the function by identifying inefficient areas and seek ways to reduce expenditure in order to deliver on set revenue targets.
• Inventory management and control

People Leadership and Organisational Capability Building 

• Manage, coach and mentor team members within the Strategic Partnerships and Alliances function by understanding team members' aspirations and goals in order to deliver on the key objectives of both the employee and the function.
• Evaluate current capabilities within the organisation, identify gaps and prioritise development activities and authorise recruitment from outside the organisation, when and as is needed.

Job Requirements (Education, Experience and Competencies)

Education: 

• Minimum of 3-year tertiary degree
• Relevant certification / accreditation / membership with professional body as required for role 
• Fluent in language of country with basic command of English 

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in area of specialisation coupled with supervising / managing others
• Worked across diverse cultures and geographies advantageous
• Experience working in a small to medium organisation 

Competencies:

Head - Big Picture Focus (20)

• Strategy Implementers - Ensures execution of strategies through creating and implementing tactical plans for others to follow.
• Decisive Problem Solver - Has the mental agility to identify business challenges and explore effective solutions.
• Best Practice Value Creator - Encourages commercial innovation and continuous improvement for systems, processes, products and service offerings.

Heart – Emotionally Intelligent (30)

• Culture and Change Champion - Role models practices by living the MTN values and vital behaviours for others to follow.
• Guiding People Manager - Is self-aware and guides team capability development through opportunity creation for realising potential.
• Relationship Builder - Builds relationships across the business in order to influence decision-makers and build team credibility.

Hands – Results Focused (40)

• Results Achiever - Produces sustainable divisional results.
• Operationally Astute - Sets priorities, plans, organises and co-ordinates the work of others.

Other:

Authorities

• As per delegated authority

Collaboration (Formal and Informal Relationships)

Responsibility towards:   

• Key customers: MTN SA Enterprise BU Internal departments especially Direct & Indirect Sales Team, Bids Managers, External clients
• Key suppliers: External Suppliers/Partners, Segment Managers in EBU Marketing, MTN SA departments