Head of Innovation & Digital at Old Mutual South Africa

The role is responsible for managing an operating model that develops new ideas and transforms these new ideas or business opportunities into innovative customer solutions. The role is also responsible for managing the end-to-end digital distribution channel.

Strategic Implementation

• Investigates key strategic priorities

• Supports strategy implementation in the business

• Implements the segment digital strategy; managing key dependencies including the Digital and Data teams

Business Development

• Develops a suitable response and ensures that an appropriate solution is effectively implemented.  

Stakeholder Management

• Acts as a pro-active buffer between business and IT to ensure these key stakeholder groups are pro-actively managed (eg. align priorities with actual delivery etc.).

• Ensures that robust and automated communication systems and business processes are implemented to drive activation and usage whilst also improving retention of PF customers.

• Maintains excellent external relationships with key strategic partners.  

• These include internal stakeholders and digital/innovation ecosystem partnerships  

Management Effectiveness

• Guides and directs staff to achieve operational excellence standards.

• Plans and assigns work

• Selects potential staff to sustain customer/client service delivery

• Individually accountable for other’s time, tasks and output quality.

• Manages performance

• Creates a climate for optimal performance.

Role Responsibilities:  

• Responding to the demand function of the business by working within the under-penetrated middle income markets of Personal Finance, understanding the business challenges and seeking alternative solutions within this market.

• Providing financial solutions by taking abstract concepts and ideas and translating into value add products, services or distribution capabilities.

• Providing increased value to our customers within the Personal Finance market segment by providing new and innovative solutions.

• Understanding the full end to end value chain across the business from a cost/benefit and client experience perspective so as to ensure that in the development of innovative financial solutions we identify and extract the economic value add to both the business and the client.

• Working collaboratively across Personal Finance and other segments in setting up an Innovation and Incubation value chain that facilitates:

• The exploration of new ideas and concepts.

• Proof of concept testing.

• Piloting in the real world on a limited basis.

• Implementation, growing the scale and eventual hand over to the business.

• Building and managing an “innovation” capability within Personal Finance by managing and developing the following disciplines in support of the overall Innovation and Incubation value chain:

• Strategy and research.

• Stakeholder engagement and management.

• Business development.

• Solution design.

• Financial modelling.

• Building an “incubation” capability within Personal Finance by managing and developing the following disciplines in support of the overall Innovation and Incubation value chain:

• Project management skills.

• Business and process analysis.

• Relationship Management.

• Interpretation and analysis of data.

• Setting up Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) with third parties across the end to end value chain to build an infrastructure that:

• Is agile and flexible thus enabling innovation within the Old Mutual construct in a cost effective manner.

• Is lean, efficient and effective in being able to test business constructs.

• Ensures that we can effectively manage compliance, regulatory, risk and other risks.

• Managing the digital distribution channel to achieve PF sales outcomes, cost efficiencies and customer experience.

Qualifications and experience

• Post graduate qualification -  CA, Actuary, Engineer, or MBA.

• 8 years’ industry experience.

• Minimum of 5 years’ managerial experience in more than one discipline.  

Competencies

• Collaboration (Relating)

• Customer First

• Execution

• Innovation (Perspective)

• Leading with Influence

• Personal Mastery (Learning)

           Strategic