Strategic Business Partner to CEO at Swiss Re

In this role akin to a chief of staff or executive associate, you will work with the CEO and executive team to assist in the execution of key strategic initiatives. You will report directly into the CEO. Your focus is to be is to be dynamic, impactful and drive value throughout the organisation. This is a role with unprecedented breadth and “grey”. You will be a key member of the leadership team helping shape the organisation, amplifying business objectives and the messaging of the CEO, both internally and externally.

Role Responsibilities

• Be responsible for the activities related to the South African corporate strategy development, implementation and execution under the CEOs direction. As the local business owner of this unit, you will be fully responsible for defining the strategy roadmap, embedding our corporate strategic objectives within the leadership team and wider business.
• Use your initiative and data-driven approach to deliver objective - analytical insights that support and enable strategy execution for the leadership team. You will analyse data, build dashboards, produce reports with data insights, identify patterns and trends and generate ideas.
• Obtain and evaluate information about industry and market trends, competitive threats, and possible business opportunities and share this with the leadership team on a periodic basis.
• You will define and drive agreed periodic agendas for strategic planning, leadership strategy offsites, strategy activations and strategy related communications to the leadership team and wider business.
•  Be the CEO's representative at high-level meetings, events, projects with our internal team and and externalmarket from which you wi develop and track actions, strategies and deliverables on behalf of the CEO.
• Support the leadership team regarding company culture, employee well-being and engagement. You will be responsible for assisting the CEO and leadership team to build a growth mindset culture and lead organisational culture initiatives.
• Managing board level communications by preparing and creating meeting materials,presentations, report outs, memos, minutes using a storytelling approach. Ability to create strategic messaging through data and storytelling - creating a business story behind the numbers.
• Identifying and taking on ad-hoc strategic projects defining and researching new ideas and business opportunities, providing decision making support through data gathering and analysis and presenting recommendations to stakeholders
• Tracking high priority initiatives for CEO and identifying any obstacles, pulling in other executives or team members as necessary, connecting teams that are working on similar initiatives, pulling together and managing project teams that require input from multiple areas within the company
• Responsible for compiling documents, memos, presentations, internal communications and speech writing for the CEO and leadership team.
• Working with marketing to identify and coordinate speaking opportunities in external forums (Analyst/Advisor/Investor Day meets) and media/press/interview requests.
• Consult to each business unit in a strategic capacity to improve overall business performance

Candidate Qualifications

• B.Com ( Accounting/Finance) Preferred, B.Sc ( Actuarial)
• MBA preferred
• 5+ years experience,
• Preferred work experience in a management consulting firm
• Master skills in powerpoint and excel/ Power BI etc

Candidate Attributes

• Has professional gravitas able to command buy- in from internal and external stakeholders.
• Results orientated, resourceful, and determined with outstanding follow through.
• Work independently, simultaneously managing diverse and complex assignments, while remaining organized and productive in a complex and highly matrixed environment
• Capable of synthesizing and abstracting complex information into clear messages and impactful presentations for internal/external audiences at all levels
• Technical experience, disciplined process orientation, problem solving skills, multitasking ability with attention to quality and detail
• Exceptional written and verbal communications skills
• Intrinsically motivated and persistent with a high tolerance of ambiguity
• Strong leadership skills; resourceful and trustworthy with highly sensitive information
• Conceptual thinking skills with the ability to gather, analyze and interpret industry trends, create, and drive strategies
• Discretion, executive presence, strong verbal and written communication skills. Ability to communicate appropriately at all levels of the organization.
• Advanced problem-solving, conflict resolution, active listening, and time management skills.
• Active listening skills to ensure feedback drives new initiatives and identifies areas of improvement.
• Ability to learn quickly and pick up tools, systems, and processes in a short amount of time.
• Proven, strong team player - able to work strategically and in a hands-on fashion.
• Atypically versatile - able to dive into many roles and do them well.
• Occasional need to work outside of normal business hours as required and/or travel
• Contribute to a culture that adheres to Swiss Res values of focusing on our vision, using good judgment, applying a growth mindset, and rejecting mediocrity.
• Independent self-starter who operates well in ambiguity, and does not require heavy direction to successfully achieve their day-to-day goals.
• Experience partnering well with executives, especially managing up to senior internal or external stakeholders.