Consulting Lead at IDC

IDC is seeking to hire a Consulting Head for Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) to be based out of Johannesburg, South Africa, to lead its Consulting practice in the region. The position will have joint reporting to IDC's SSA Business Head, as well as Consulting Head for Middle East, Turkey & Africa (META) region.  

Responsibilities of this Position: 

• Project Management - Be the overall Project Management lead for various Consulting projects related to Telecom services, IT Services, SW, Devices and Infrastructure hardware projects or Government IT sector development either in individual capacity or guide a team leading the engagement. 
• Team Management - Manage a team of regional analysts and assign projects, be responsible for their coordination, development and deliverables and be overall in charge of the overall Consulting delivery from a project management, client relationship management, commercial with a view to ensure solid client feedback and future project opportunities. Review and sign-off of the output of the research team including client presentations, reports, whitepapers, custom project deliverables, etc. 
• Practice Development - Develop best practices in consulting delivery frameworks and processes in line with the local market requirements but aligned to SSA and global guidelines for IDC. 
• Sales Support and Business Development - Create new consulting opportunities in SSA and support the Sales team in pursuing, developing and closing consulting engagements. Work closely with the Sales team to position and promote consulting solutions. Identifying market opportunities, new client prospects and effectively working with sales to help win new custom opportunities.  
• Thought Leadership - Speak / present at client workshops and technology conferences as a thought leader on key technology market trends and developments.   
• Executive Client Servicing - Influence key stakeholders across Telco and other IT vendors during project delivery as well as during business development stage. Cultivate and manage executive-level relationships with customers, prospects, and other key industry players. It is also critical to build and maintain collaborative relationships with IDC's analyst community, executive management, consultants, marketing, and sales professionals. 

Typical technology coverage of projects: 

• Telecommunication services, digital portfolio creation, competitive intelligence, global telco best practices 
• IT Vendor market across IT services and software, devices and infrastructure hardware 
• Digital Technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence/ Cognitive, Blockchain, Cloud, Datacenter technologies 
• Government National ICT plans and policies towards ICT sector development and growth covering aspects like skills, smart cities, developmental programs etc.

Qualifications

Desired Skills for this Position: 

• University degree from a well-recognized university. MBA strongly preferred 
• Experience of working with either Telecommunication vendors, IT Vendors, Management Consulting firms, Government Digital Agencies 
• Last 5 years' experience should be in a client facing role 
• Manage multiple project deliveries at any point in time 
• A strong understanding of the ICT Industry 
• Strategic, transformation, business advisory and transformation background  
• Excellent written and spoken English 
• Good MS Office Skills (especially Excel & PPT) 
• Ability to create frameworks, undertake analysis, conduct interviews and conduct oneself professionally in a client facing environment 
• The ability to manage internal and external expectations 
• Excellent presentation skills and confidence in client engagement models 
• Ability to discuss at executive level transformation and business strategy 
• An aptitude for business analysis, quantitative analysis and strategic insights  
• Should be strong in people management, team management client negotiations 
• Should be a go-getter with the right attitude to complete projects  
• Requires problem solving acumen and a never-say-die attitude 
• Should be comfortable in dealing with ambiguous situations and leading without the necessary chain of control 
• At this point this is an individual contributor role with scope of building a team based on business growth 
• Be completely flexible to travel for client engagements to any part of META as per project requirements