Executive Bancassurance at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Responsible for the development and execution of the bancassurance channel strategy within Absa Insurance Company (AIC) assuming full responsibility and accountability for driving growth, profit and loss management and business operations for the Homeowners Comprehensive (HoC) and Commercial lines business. 
• In addition, the role will oversee the Technical Underwriting and Reinsurance portfolios of the business.  
• This role creates strategic relationships and partners with banking ecosystem to drive growth and sales whilst ensuring the delivery of high-quality insurance products and services to the customers. 
• The accountable executive will work closely with the Retail Bank and Short-term Insurance Exco team to align bancassurance strategies with overall business objectives.

Job Description

Accountability area 1: Strategy Development & Execution  

• Responsible for the Bancassurance portfolio strategy and execution through effective partnering with the relevant stakeholders, both internal and external in alignment with the BU and Cluster objectives.
• Develop plans to penetrate and expand the targeted segments and market opportunities.
• Drive profitable growth through fostering closer alignment with the bank and open market.
• Identify and implement relevant strategic, tactical, and other support interventions to meet objectives.
• Identify appropriate products for distribution and give input into product development.
• Understand the customer and partner needs to develop and drive the customer and partner propositions across the relevant segments and Regions.
• Manage the key inter-relationships / dependencies between the overall sales planning, execution functions residing within business and enablement functions to ensure alignment between functional areas and overall AIC  and to ensure that the overall business strategy, together with the key measurements are delivered and realised.
• Driving communication for growth and profitability agenda and key themes across the business at different Management layers / audiences at the various Exco, Manco, meetings and at the various Forums to ensure alignment across the AIC community.
• Establish value-based strategy for all leads and sales opportunities within Absa Insurance Company  across all portfolios.
• Provide business insights based on trends, competitor offerings and global best practices as it relates to Absa Insurance Company  .
• Contribute as a key ExCo member to the overall agenda internally and with external stakeholders, ensuring that the AIC agenda is appropriately managed and reported to all requisite stakeholders, particularly the Absa Insurance Company ExCo.

Accountability 2: Stakeholder Management 

• Identify and cultivate strategic partnerships that enhance distribution network.
• Actively promote and manage the collaborative engagement of internal and external stakeholders, including regulators, suppliers, clients, service providers, business partners and other Absa entities
• Pro-actively drive up the integration into the different areas of the bank to achieve sustainable profitable growth.
• Build and develop relationships across the Absa Group with various stakeholders with the intention of improving collaboration to maximize business growth.
• Accountable to lead and drive up the visibility and clearly communicate the STI value proposition to Cluster, Group, Colleagues and Customers.
• Foster collaboration with Bank stakeholders to jointly identify partnership opportunities to benefit the wider franchise and drive- up growth. 

Accountability 3: Client-Driven Innovation and Growth

• Stay abreast of industry trends and role players and ensure that AIC is well-positioned to provide competitive and industry-leading products and services.
• Provide input into the overall AIC experience.
• Strategically influence the development of products and services that meet or exceed customer needs and expectations, creating stakeholder value.
• Build and maintain trusting relationships with key customers, clients, partners, and stakeholders.
• Identify technology solutions to streamline sales processes and leverage technology solutions to enhance efficiencies.

Accountability 4:  Data Monetisation

• Consider the explicit use of data and its inherent value to explore opportunities, plan and guide all decisions for execution.
• Use data to obtain a quantifiable economic benefit for the area of accountability, leveraging internal or indirect capacity to make measurable business performance improvements and inform decisions accordingly.

Accountability 5: People Management

• Create an innovative, high-performance culture.
• Set up clear plans to grow talent by supporting them to make the transition to Exco succession bench.
• Ensure effective implementation of group standards for formal Performance Development.
• Working with the People Lead and other executives, develop a learning and development strategy that will address the current and future business needs.
• Ensure there is a clear plan to support the enterprise and BU transformation objectives and ensure this is implemented. 
• With the support from the People Lead, establish a clear plan to attract and retain diverse talent to support business ‘s current and future needs.  
• Working with the People Lead and your senior management team, ensure that the key insights from the EOS are understood in detail and clear remedial plans are implemented. 

Accountability area 6: Risk Management, Governance and Control 

• Maintain a BU Risk Dashboard and ensure adequate controls are in place for the BU to remains at acceptable risk appetite.
• Enforce a culture of proactive compliance and risk management at all levels within the BU.
• Work with the Risk & Governance team  to determine action plans to effectively reduce and manage risk related to audit findings, Compliance and Risk issues.
• Actively drive the closure of actions and review the issue assurance testing conducted on all closed items.
• Actively monitor the timely completion of Group Compliance assessment and training within the BU
• Ensure compliance with all the applicable banking and insurance regulatory laws, standards, and best practices.
• Implement appropriate systems and controls in accordance with approved risk appetite  and consistent with internal policies and procedures, both from a Banking and Insurance regulations perspective
• Address any identified inadequacies or gaps in the control environment and timeously escalate same through the Absa governance structures, were material and justifiable.

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Business, Commerce and Management Studies