Chief Operating Officer at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited

Role Purpose

• Develop, implement and support the efficient day-to-day administrative and operational functioning of the sales, service and distribution (SSD) environment to drive sustainable growth.

Internal Process

• Contribute to the development of the business’ strategic policies and plans to deliver on business outcomes.
• Develop, in conjunction with other senior SSD leaders’ operations plan that aligns to and supports the business’ strategy, goals and objectives.
• Ensure alignment of sales focus across the business
• Deliver on service level agreements applicable to clients and internal and external stakeholders to ensure client expectations are managed.
• Monitor, assess and report on progress with strategy implementation across SSD
• Optimise and monitor performance of third-party lead sources to ensure efficiencies and financial benefits
• Recommend, oversee implementation and review strategic plans to achieve the SSD financial and social objectives.
• Drive and monitor process and system improvements, liaising with project and software development teams on system improvements.
• Critically evaluate development options for prioritisation.
• Provide quality reports and presentations within agreed timeframe
• Develop, in conjunction with other SSD leaders, and implement people capacity plans in line with delivery and performance objectives, on budget and in partnership with specialised areas.
• Develop, recommend and implement updated and new operations policies to continuously improve customer satisfaction and impact.
• Recommend and positively influence, direct and implement changes to optimise organisational processes, systems, policies and procedures.
• Develop, implement and monitor service level agreements and delivery thereof aligned to operations strategy.
• Drive and monitor process improvement and regularly report on progress.
• Ensure that an effective risk management framework is operationalised.
• Implement corporate governance, compliance, integrity and ethics policies in multiple practice areas to identify and manage risk exposure liability.
• Fulfil leadership role as member of the SSD Manco, through maintaining an understanding of issues affecting overall business effectiveness and collaborating towards setting strategic direction.

Client

• Build and maintain relationships with clients and stakeholders that promote cross delivery practice solutions.
• Contribute to sustaining a competitive edge through external networking and benchmarking and representation on related forums.
• Engage with key internal and external stakeholders to identify changing client needs and make recommendations to align offerings with client needs.
• Liaise with the client experience team to embed a client service excellence culture which builds enduring relationships and allows team to provide exceptional client service.
• Manage the introduction of new channels for client interaction in order to improve client services against service expectations.

People

• Be a member of and make positive contributions to Professional Bodies and Stakeholder Groups. Create a positive work climate and culture to energise employees, give meaning to work, minimise work disruption and maximise employee productivity.
• Develop, implement and manage a People Capability plan that ensures that the function has the human resources and skills required to deliver on the strategy for the short-, medium- and long-term.
• Demonstrate exemplary leadership behaviour, through personal involvement, commitment and dedication in support of organisational values.
• Drive a culture that guides and directs best practice, fostering an environment of continuous learning, improvement and cohesiveness.
• Enable a learning and growth culture whereby information regarding successes, issues, trends and ideas are actively shared between team members.
• Identify employee growth in conjunction with other senior SSD leaders and development needs and schedule interventions to enable ongoing development, training and personal growth.
• Ensure that employees are effectively recognised and rewarded in line with organisational practice and governance set by the REM committee.
• Encourage innovation, change agility and collaboration within the team.

Finance & Reporting

• Implement and compile budgets to minimise expenditure in alignment with tactical delivery plans.
• Control the budget for area, including the authorisation of expenditures and implementation of financial regulations.
• Create and maintain a library of critical business and financial reports to facilitate tracking against business objectives and provide insights for financial and sales optimisation.
• Manage high risk and problematic financial issues in area of accountability and contribute to the development of policy.
• Implement and manage financial risk methodologies, techniques and systems and use to monitor and report on financial activities.
• Implement and provide feedback on the effectiveness of financial policy, practice and procedures: preventing illegal, unethical or improper conduct.
• Implement risk management, governance and compliance policies in own practice area, to identify and manage governance and risk exposure liability.
• Investigate reported wilful acts of non-compliance to organisation policy and practice and report on findings.

Experience and Qualifications

• Relevant Business Degree - Essential
• Post-graduate qualification in Finance or Business Management- Essential
• MBA / CA (SA) - Desirable
• 10+ years’ experience in the financial services industry (essential)
• 5 - 8 years’ experience at operational management level (essential)
• Insurance industry experience (desirable)

We're looking for someone with

• Knowledge of people management, risk management, budget and resource development, and strategic planning.
• Working knowledge of data analysis and performance/operational metrics.
• Understanding of the investment, health, insurance and financial services industry and legislative requirements
• Fundamental understanding of the financial advisory industry, the regulatory framework, the advisor and business model trends in the SA operating environment
• Understanding of the information technology discipline and landscape
• Understanding of corporate governance principles and practices
• Problem-solving skills
• People management skills
• Negotiation and Influencing skills
• Business acumen
• Strategy translation and implementation
• Business and process optimisation
• Business improvement
• Emotional intelligence
• Communication skills
• Presentation skills
• Decision making skills
• Leadership skills