Head: Corporate Affairs Brand at Absa South Africa

Job Summary

• The purpose of this role is to champion the corporate brand at a strategic level throughout the organisation – driving strong stakeholder engagement with leadership and key functional discipline heads, to ensure that the Group-wide shared brand (Absa) is effectively embedded, protected and used as a lever of growth.  This role will drive thought leadership, direction, strategy and implementation guardrails for the corporate brand - through strategy, corporate execution, equipping, governance frameworks, and measurement

Job Description

Accountability:  Champion the corporate brand across the organisation

• Drive the strategic brand agenda through evidence-based insight and strategic thinking within the senior stakeholder community – acting as the go-to person for anything relating to brand within the organisation
• Deliver relevant and compelling brand strategy and execution on behalf of the Group – and ensure business areas are equipped to align and leverage the brand in support of growth
• Champion the internal brand, through effective engagement with relevant stakeholders (e.g. Reputation Risk, Culture, Ethics, EVP, Learning, Compliance, Talent acquisition / retention etc.) to ensure that the brand is embedded in the “smell of the place”

Accountability:  Stakeholder relationship management

• Maintain strong relationships with business unit leadership teams, marketing and communications heads, and the Group Leadership team / CEO in order to influence and shape the narrative on brand throughout the organisation
• Represent the Corporate Brand on executive forums – including Corporate Affairs leadership team, AGL Exco, Board SEC etc. – with the requisite reporting, measurement and strategy inputs according to the forum needs
• Represent the Group on relevant industry bodies, to influence and shape the landscape of brand and marketing practice on the African continent

Accountability:  Team leadership

• Build and grow the quality and strategic ability of the corporate brand team
• Contribute towards the quality and strategic ability of the broader Corporate Affairs function
• Champion best in class brand, marketing and communications delivery across the marketing and communications community

Accountability:  Thought leadership

• Drive thought leadership among the brand specialists within the team – challenging, motivating and inspiring through expert knowledge sharing
• Cultivate a strong culture of learning and investigation within the team – to keep the team at the cutting edge of insight and sub-discipline emergent and best practice
• Inspire and engage stakeholders with relevant thought leadership content, to enable them to leverage the brand for business growth

Accountability: Control measures

• Understand the applicable to my role through reading the Code of Conduct and other training allocated to me. Where responsible for risks and controls ensure that these are appropriate and fit for purpose.
• All mandatory training completed to deadline and understood within given timescales.
• Where applicable, all key risks identified, tracked, logged and managed as per the Risk Framework procedures
• Where applicable, all key controls to have identified owners, with audit trail of regular review and maintenance together with supporting records.   
• Where applicable, all risk events (incidents) or control failures to be escalated, investigated, reported and fixed at root cause to prevent reoccurrence

Minimum requirements

• Marketing and or Brand qualification, minimum 5 years senior brand leadership experience in a multinational organisation. 
• Must have experience in managing a contemporary brand .

Preferred Experience

• They need to have experience in managing contemporary monolithic brand in a highly decentralised business structure, with the commensurate complexity and stakeholder management required for success.

Knowledge and Skills 

• Corporate brand management (all aspects, not just marketing or design / visual identity – must include comprehensive brand strategy knowledge)
• Strong stakeholder management and engagement skills
•  Expert negotiator
• Visionary leader profile

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Marketing (Required)