Manager: Strategy & Transformation at Vodafone Global Enterprise

Role Purpose/Business Unit:

• Vodacom is embarking on an exciting journey to redefine its business and reinvent the face of telecoms in South Africa. This journey will include the development of new revenue streams, business models and digital innovations, including IoT, Digital Media, ICT, Financial Services, and digital/ICT applications across various industry verticals. Vodacom’s Group Strategy team is a high-performance team that is leading this journey by providing insight, thought leadership and strategic direction to the Group.
• The Group Strategy and Innovation team is looking for an experienced strategist to help accelerate our ambitious transformation as Strategy Manager in the Group Strategy team. The Transformation Office within Group Strategy will deliver transformation and change for Vodacom through the development of strategic initiatives and establishment of implementation monitoring capability within Group and across our 8 operating companies.

The objective of the transformation unit is to provide dedicated, project-based support that combines strategy development with implementation support, and involves:

• Driving common understanding of a problem
• Solving the problem through structured and aligned initiatives
• Assigning ownership to initiatives
• Standing up cross-functional teams to deliver initiatives
• Driving accountability through structured and rigorous governance under-pinned by KPIs
• Creating a single source of truth to measure delivery
• Driving change management, building cross-functional incentives and capability building
• The manager will work closely with the Managing Executive in driving the Transformation Agenda.

Key attributes of the role:

• Transformation Strategy Development: Lead the development of transformation strategies as required by the business within Group and across our 8 markets. This will include issue diagnostics, initiatives design and recommendations, communication and acquiring necessary key stakeholder buy in and development of the implementation roadmap
• Establishment of Execution Excellence Capability: Support markets in establishing capability to drive and monitor the execution of key strategic projects.
• Group Wide Major Strategic Projects Oversight: Create visibility on the execution of major strategic projects across the organisation to ensure diligent and disciplined execution as per ambitions stated in our Strategy
• The role requires the incumbent to effectively deliver multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring consistent high-quality results and effective stakeholder engagement. The incumbent is expected to have significant and interactions with EXCO and senior leaders within Vodacom and is required to have exceptional communication skills.
• The manager must be an influential thought leader, who is able to effectively work in and lead teams to drive high-performance and effort, and lead by living the values in the Spirit of Vodacom.

Your responsibilities will include:

Impact to the business

• Deliver strategic projects within Vodacom Group
• Formulate business issues into robust and quantified decision frameworks to identify options with preferred solutions
• Identify and analyse business trends and understand significance and business implications
• Identify and develop the supporting business case underpinning strategic opportunities
• Provide information and analysis to support key strategic decisions and long term planning implementation

Customers, Suppliers & Third Parties

• Work with suppliers to effectively deliver results (including advisors, lawyers and financial institutions)

Teamwork

• Coordinate multi-functional teams (Commercial, Technology, Finance etc.)
• Execute and drive projects towards clear conclusion, results and recommendations
• Work effectively within the organization to build consensus and ideas

Innovation and Change

• Maintain personal motivation and drive to take ideas from conception to implementation
• Drive new thinking and innovative thinking in the business
• Take personal risks to ensure issues addressed properly and fully
• Be willing to make important decisions under pressure, sometimes without full information being available

Communication

• Communicate effectively at all levels, from staff to CEO level
• Conduct a systemic evaluation and presentation of business opportunities that highlights key risks/opportunities
• Structure ideas, recommendations and written arguments into compelling storylines that facilitate effective decision-making

Leadership

• Bring best-practice management and thought leadership to influence teams’ output
• Collaborate with multi-functional teams on best practice & alignment with Vodafone strategy requirements

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Degree in a financial/numerate discipline – e.g., Commerce, Science, Engineering
• Postgraduate qualification (e.g., Masters, MBA, CA(SA)) beneficial
• Emerging strategy leader with strong strategy or business development experience at management level
• Min 5 years experience in a corporate strategy function in an established corporate

AND / OR

• Min 3 years experience in management consulting at a leading consulting/advisory firm

Technical / Professional Expertise

• Understanding of Strategy process and best practice – including strategy development, implementation and communication
• Understand market structures, competition dynamics and consumer behaviours
• Working knowledge of the market, players and trends in Telecoms industry
• Background in Management Consulting, or relevant experience in a senior corporate strategy role

Competency / Performance Drivers

• Strong analytical skills
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills (presentations, report writing, etc.)
• Research ability (‘curious & questioning mind’)
• Strong project management
• Effective teamwork
• Excellent influencing & negotiation skills