VP, Finance Business Partner at Microsoft

Our Purpose

We work to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. We cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation and delivers better business results.

Job Title

VP, Finance Business Partner

Role: VP – Finance Business Partner

Geographical Coverage: Sub Sahara Africa markets

Reporting line: Regional Chief Finance Officer EEMEA (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Team: 3 Finance staff

Overview

• Responsible for a broad range of finance related responsibilities and acts as a finance generalist for SSA Division (Sub-Sahara Africa)
• The Finance Business Partner team assumes full responsibility for planning, operating performance, and management reporting for the Division. We also partner with the business for development of Strategy and play an integral role in execution and tracking of strategy execution plans.
• Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Regional CFO EEMEA, the primary responsibility of this role will be performing a broad spectrum of financial processes and strategic initiatives for SSA Division.

Key Relationships

• Region: Division President, Country General Managers, Sales force/teams; Customer Operations; Commerce Development; Product management, RHQ Finance.
• Global: Global Finance – Billing Services.
• External: Outsourced Service Providers, Suppliers, Regulators and Customers.

Responsibilities

• Plays a leading role in partnering with business units, regions, business partners and/or corporate to manage major aspects of financial reporting (e.g.. budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, target setting);
• Communicates the key drivers behind the budget and forecast, linking the financial performance to strategy; develops quarterly operating reviews and CEO decks and communicates results to leadership;
• Contributes to the development, assessment and implementation of the Sales Incentive Plans [SIP]; sets plan objectives and calculates individual results;
• Advises group/business unit leadership on external factors that affect business performances, leveraging subject matter expertise [SME] of budgeting, long range planning [LRP] and forecasting of overall business segments and divisions;
• Embodies the Leading Beyond Finance [LBF] initiative by playing a leading role in partnering with business units, regions, business partners and/or corporate to develop strategies and identify revenue opportunities;
• Works cross-functionally with business partners to ensure alignment with targets, performs variance analysis to deliver and articulate arguments and answers in an effective manner
• Often called upon to represent MasterCard at external key events, contributing to expert panels and sharing best practices;
• Drives the process improvement initiatives related to budgeting, forecasting, systems and other key areas. Proactively improves upon efficiencies and streamlines the overarching process
• Responsible for strategizing to improve Enterprise Risk Management [ERM] policies and fostering a strong control environment to mitigate risks;
• Supervises one or more teams, conducts goal setting and performance appraisal processes, coaches and develops employees as an organizational resource.

Innovation

• Applies a good strategic understanding of the multi-dimensional business dynamics of the African markets and competitive forces at play in driving creative responses and formulating mitigating strategies and new business models;
• Support continuous reviews of existing processes to assess operational efficiency and development and implementation of process improvements to ensure that processes meet the present and anticipated needs of internal customers, members, and other stakeholders

Knowledge

• Specialist knowledge in Financial Reporting- Chartered Accountant or CPA;
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills with the ability to capture the essence of key insights across the market opportunities;
• Broad based commercial awareness to manage risk versus return trade-offs;
• Deep understanding of all the components impacting MasterCard’s business in the Sub-Sahara Division (current and emerging product lines, services, and programs) to be able to conceptualize innovative incentive deal structures. Some of these dimensions are:
• market/consumer trends
• commercial distribution channels
• regulatory frameworks
• overlay of proposal with existing incentive deals
• legal structuring taking into account legal entities
• tax implications
• member reporting and performance tracking
• customer priorities and cardholder rewards proposition
• financial quantification of deal including cost to the organization to administer deal
• longer term impacts on customer mentality
• impacts on the billing services, Worldwide cardholder services rewards administration support

Communication, Impact, and Influence

• Influences and negotiates with the respective market business unit heads who may have divergent objectives in relation to their respective business P&L. This involves challenging their assumptions to direct and shape their account management strategies or business plans to deliver on revenue targets, to implement disciplined approaches etc on forecasting of revenue targets;
• Supports the resolution of customer service issues where required and address directly the concerns raised by customers – e.g. billing, waiver requests and business case targets;
• Ensures that Finance is closely integrated with, and positively supports the business providing managers at all levels with the necessary information to maximize revenue, profitability and efficiency; works with the mgmt. team in the development and implementation of short and medium term strategic and tactical plans and provide the financial inputs required.

Characteristics

• High intellect with good commercial aptitude and a creative approach to problem solving;
• Good influencing skills, she/he must be able to communicate and present to the management team, she/he must also be persuasive with a considerate but firm touch;
• Assertive, adaptable and resilient team leader able to work with different personalities;
• Good work ethic, hands-on, meticulous, but also be able to step back and see the bigger strategic picture;
• Ambitious, highly driven and motivated. An agent of change;
• The maturity to challenge ideas and balance opportunities and threats.

Experience/Education

• Relevant qualification in business, accounting and/or a related discipline;
• Broad understanding of all the different areas of finance;
• Results oriented and performance driven with a focus on excellence;
• Good understanding of reporting, forecasting and budgeting techniques;
• Strong strategic thinking and business understanding;
• Strong communication, negotiation and influencing skills;
• Strong relationship management and networking skills;
• Experience working in cross functional teams;
• 10-12 years financial experience, qualified CPA, Chartered Accountant or equivalent.