Senior Manager - Commercial Credit Finance at MTN

Responsibilities
Strategic Input

• Contribute to, challenge and implement the long-term strategy for the commercial credit risk function and ensure alignment of all activities undertaken in the unit to the strategy of Finance and MTN SA
• Define the commercial credit and collections strategies in alignment with the organisation’s objectives and requirements 
• Provide input into the business plan to ensure delivery to customers and markets and to ensure competitiveness on all elements
• Contribute towards long-term forecasts and predictions (2-5 years), analysing trends and highlight areas of the business that may be developed further
• Provide input into reviewing organisational activities and assist in recommending corrective actions if necessary
• Pre-empt challenges at the strategy and portfolio level and develop solutions to address. 
• Implement policies and procedures that will foster the company's potential to meet its sales and risk management goals.
• Set and drive strategic goals and KPI’s that are aligned to MTN strategy and ensure these are operationalised. 
• Accountable for the execution of short- and long-term strategic project requirements to drive the overall collections transformation/enhancement roadmap.
• Monitor implementation of project roadmap and performance of collections against overall strategic project milestones, KPI’s and targets and ensure appropriate responses are implemented to mitigate deviations.

Operational Planning

• Translate the commercial credit risk strategies into action plans and drive the execution thereof
• Set operational targets and objectives and align them to the business strategy, considering the long term (1-2 years) implications of actions on the viability of the business from a broader perspective
• Consider the impact of solutions on other areas of the business, as well as the interdependency of units
• Drive best practice, continuous improvement and innovation at process and procedure level within the commercial credit risk department and channel alignment
• Construct, implement/fine-tune methods, systems and primary controls to enhance effectiveness and meet organisational goals
• Consider local conditions, as well as competitor activity to create competitive advantage
• Manage resources (people, finances and products), taking local conditions into consideration
• Utilizing customer data to build risk segmentation and mitigation strategies
• Drive optimisation of resource utilisation, seamless and common processes and systems enablement

Operations and Service Enhancement

• Maintain accountability for the end-to-end financial risk of credit risk within MTN SA
• Define, implement and fine-tune methods, systems and primary controls to enhance effectiveness and meet organisational goals
• Ensure that all features and functionality of credit administration meet with both customer and operational needs
• Ensure that systems are put in place to monitor and track all performance and key performance area standards of the unit
• Implement and drive quality standard frameworks and ensure that high levels of quality service are maintained and that all areas of credit risk operate as close to global best practice as possible
• Participate in project manage and tenders where appropriate
• Act as main custodian of commercial credit risk contract negotiations
• Ensure continuous improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of support services
• Manage internal risk control

Credit Management and Risk Assessment

• Define and implement optimal collection processes to optimise collections and minimise bad debt of trade partners
• Define and implement effective collection tools and automation to reduce costs
• Ensure that collection targets are defined and attained
• Define policies that facilitate risk control and encompass legislative and regulatory requirements
• Conduct monthly reconciliation of the debtors’ book and financial reporting thereof
• Ensure that SLA’s are compiled to for all strategic partners
• Ensure that defined terms are implemented and managed for all commercial agreements with customers and trade partners
• Define, implement and manage para legal processes for the legal area of the unit, liaising with commercial legal department as required
• Ensure the effective management of the insurer
• Ensure that financial controls are in place and measured regularly and reported on
• Calibrate all processes and systems to reduce potential risk exposure
• Ensure timely write off of bad debt and the appropriate reporting thereof
• Define and deploy appropriate systems to facilitate credit assessment process for trade partners (informal, retail, branded and other trade partners)
• Ensure alignment to sales channels and integration of channel propositions 
• Define and drive the implementation of credit policies that are regularly calibrated and aligned to risk trends
• Manage and monitor credit risk within the area
• Define processes to facilitate commercial relationships and SLA’s with all channels and trade partners
• Define and implement fraud detection and management processes and systems to reduce risk
• Analyse industry trends in risk assessment

Customer Experience Management

• Build and maintain solid relationships with all stakeholders
• Adopt a proactive approach to prevent problems from arising in the future
• Align service delivery to changing needs and ensure effective customer and stakeholder management
• Drive continuous improvement as an important element of service delivery
• Ensure customer needs and requirements are satisfied through appropriate systems/processes/procedures being in place and ensuring that they deliver on customer specific strategies
• Identify trends/patterns pertaining to customer requests and needs and filter this information through to the business to continually improve all aspects of service delivery 
• Initiate change to continually improve all aspects of service delivery
• Maintain a thorough knowledge of commercial terms of agreements with dealers and franchisees and manage and grow the commercial relationship
• Manage, monitor and control customer-related system efficiencies, and the measurement thereof
• Oversee the establishment of SLA’s with customers and manage the output. Report on delivery and sustainability

Reporting

• Acts as main conduit to the Head: Collections regarding the performance of the credit risk function of commercial credit
• Report monthly on the debtors book, credit risk assessment and financial controls
• Report on results for the area to the business and to key stakeholders, including the customer-related system efficiencies, the measurement thereof and the impact of poor service on revenues and customer churn
• Report periodically on activities, budget compliance and other aspects of the business as appropriate
• Provide monthly reports on the performance of the debtors’ book/collections, portfolio credit risk and operational risk (including compliance) at an operational level and strategic level to key stakeholders including relevant executives, governance forums.
• Provide quarterly report on progress of projects and initiatives identified as part of the collections strategic roadmap
• Facilitate strong partnerships with external bureau and data providers to enrich MTN data and reporting capability at operational and strategic levels

Budget Management

• Identify opportunities to generate additional revenue and cost optimisation
• Monitor costs and determine initiatives to optimise resources. Ensure cost effectiveness by maximising cost/benefit ratios 
• Execute financial transactions and financial management within the boundaries of company guidelines and policies

Project Management

• Develop program and define the program scope to achieve a given set of strategic objectives. This will require the translation of high-level strategy planning into an actionable set of program deliverables and projects
• Secure the high-level budget and resourcing plan 
• Lead the project management office and resources to ensure timely prioritisation, execution, and delivery of key projects and initiatives

Human Resource Management

• Oversee acquisition of critical talent to develop best in class commercial credit department. Maintain adequate resourcing levels in the department’s structure to meet all goals and objectives aligned with the credit strategy
• Ensure all staff have clearly defined metrics to evaluate success and continuous, measurable improvement and that these are properly monitored
• Manage, train, up-skill, motivate, retain, and recruiting of staff
• Provide ongoing training of the team members
• Compile monthly departmental performance reports

Supervisory / Leadership / Managerial Complexity: Refers to the responsibilities for directing, guiding, motivating and influencing others. 

• Recruit, develop and retain people with the required skills, qualifications and potential 
• Define departmental KPAs and KPIs
• Performance management and identification of training needs 
• Contribute toward a customer centric culture
• Contribute toward a culture of innovation and agility
• Build talent by identifying and developing new leaders for the respective environment 
• Employee relations and collaborative teamwork to effectively manage relationships between team members
• Manage Employment Equity and diversity 
• Coaching and guidance of subordinates 
• Build professionalism, loyalty and commitment to the organisation 
• Communicate actively and effectively to resolve any potential conflicts that may arise 
• Living the MTN Brand – influence employees’ behaviour  

Required Skills & Capabilities e.g. teaching, report writing or specific skills/abilities such as computing or the ability to work without supervision

• Advanced Excel capability
• Expert analytical and financial modelling skills
• A strong need to comply and align with new financial standards, financial reporting standards, accounting principles and best practices
• Communicate actively and effectively resolving any potential conflicts that may arise
• Able to build and enforce a customer centric approach 
• Coach, guide and motivate subordinates
• Record of building capabilities within large organizations (e.g., CoE, Training Academy and governance bodies)
• Excellent leadership skills in building, developing, and managing a strong team
• Ability to delegate to achieve right level of involvement on day-to-day decisions
• Good problem-solving skills (i.e. problem definition and structuring, analysis definition, insight generation and recommendation generation)
• Knowledge of the regulatory and legislative requirements
• Self insight and flexibility to adapt to different situations
• Manage boundaries that separate units in order to optimise workflow
• Good written and oral communication

Qualifications
Education:

• Minimum 4 year tertiary qualification in Finance, CTA or B Compt Honours 
• SAICA registered Articles /CA (SA)/MBA will be advantageous

Experience:

• At least 8 years of experience in a credit risk management function, in a managerial capacity, with exposure to national and international trends and strategy
• At least 3-5 years of leadership experience in similar positions, in fast-moving industries
• Appropriate level of competence in financial, communication, commercial and operational areas, preferably in a similar environment
• Systems – Oracle ERP, Hyperion, Data Warehousing, SAS