Business Development Leader -SAEM - (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Major Accountabilities:

This individual is the 'Go To' person for Acceptance across Southern Africa Emerging Markets (Namibia, Botswana, Malawi,. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola, Mozambique, DRC), ensuring alignment between individual markets 'go-to-market' approaches and the overall Middle East Africa Division and APMEA Acceptance strategies, taking into account the region's longer term strategic initiatives.

Critically this role will work with the SAEM Market Manager to identify a strategy and implement actions to move company from sub scale or inconsistent acceptance footprint in target SAEM markets, to parity with others over the next 3 years.

Establish new partner / vendor/ enabler / joint venture integration with capabilities to sustain company's competitive advantage and tracking performance against key objectives. This individual will have responsibility for establishing and maintaining strong business relationships with both acquirers and merchants across the territory.

Fundamental to accelerating the development of the Africa business, is a backbone of strong acceptance in partnership with key Acquirers and merchants. The individual will be responsible for developing a dedicated Acquirer/merchant plan, along the lines of the current “issuer” business development model, however focused exclusively on Acceptance Development across this territory

A good understanding of  P&L and how to maximize revenue through an effective acceptance strategy is expected, balanced with a realistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities in SAEM markets.

The individual will support in the development of Africa Interchange strategies, in collaboration with all regional and local cross functional teams.

The individual has to be able to understand and embrace new forms of acceptance technology, including but not limited to mobile acceptance, and how best to leverage this technology with key acquiring banks, and acquiring partners across the territory

Key responsibilities

• Market Development Strategy for SAEM
• Acceptance Development Strategy for SAEM
• Merchant business development for SAEM
• ATM and POS Development in Nascent Markets for SAEM

Accountabilities:

Move target SAEM markets to acceptance parity
• Work with the SAEM Market Manager to identify a strategy to move company from sub scale or inconsistent acceptance footprint in target SAEM markets, to parity with other over the next 3 years.
• Identify a set of initiatives in order to deliver on the strategy
• Prioritize initiatives taking into account financial viability and time to market on projects.
• Project manage initiatives – from concept through to implementation.
• Work with and/or compete with local switches to grow acceptance
• Understand local regulatory environment
• Actively contribute to the individual market Commerce Development efforts
• Train and up-skill Customer/partner staff in an informal and more ad hoc setting
• Conduct visits every quarter to key markets (as determined by strategy but likely to be 3-5 markets), less frequent visits to lower priority markets.  

Build SAEM Acquirer relationships
• Own all SAEM Acquiring relationships, in support of the Market Manager or other Business Development managers.  This excludes South African based Accounts with presence in SAEM (e.g. Standard Bank, Absa, FNB) which will be managed by their respective owner in close liaison with the SA Acceptance Lead or Global Accounts with a presence SAEM which will be managed by their Global Account owner in close liaison with the SA Acceptance Lead unless agreed otherwise
• Analyze business opportunities to increase volume and share.  Implement both short and long term strategies and tactics to increase profitability.
• Implement Market Development solutions that improve revenue generation and enhance mutual profitability
• Leverage all company assets and product management resources to deliver exceptional merchant/acquirer value.
• Actively contribute to the each SAEM’s Market Development efforts

Build SAEM Merchant relationships
• Identify key merchant relationships across SAEM territory; in addition this role may have responsibility for Tier 2 Merchant relationships in South Africa (e.g. Fuel, Car rental agencies)
• Business development of all SAEM Merchant relationships except South African based Merchants with presence in SAEM (e.g. Checkers Shoprite) which will be managed by their respective owner in close liaison with the SAEM Acceptance Lead
• Analyze business opportunities to increase volume and share. Implement both short and long term strategies and tactics to increase profitability.
• Implement Market Development solutions that improve revenue generation and enhance mutual profitability
• Leverage all company's assets and product management resources to deliver exceptional merchant value.

Continually improve Acceptance value proposition to market
• Interpret and assess available MIS to identify opportunities for innovation

Education
Bachelors degree

Key Competencies sought:

• Business acumen
• Knowledge leadership
• Finance and planning
• Solution drive
• Results orientation
• Self starter – individual drive with team layer abilities
• Tenacity
• Out of the box thinking

Experience Required:

• 8+ years business experience with 5+ years experience in the financial services and /or payments
• Business development and marketing experience
• Strong project management, problem solving, analytical and organizational experience
• Experience in merchant acquiring, retailing and / or corporate transactional banking will be advantageous
• On the ground or at least remote experience in one or more SADC (South Africa Development Community) markets would be a strong plus
• Experience in managing multiple stakeholders in a multicultural environment across multiple geographic locations
• Good writing and presentation skills, extensive experience in communicating in international environment
• Good negotiation and influencing skills
• Organization and time management skills; ability to multi-task
• Exceptional business judgment and strategic planning skills
• Ability to engage effectively at all levels of a Customer organization and to work both “hands on“(on site visits, getting into the detail) and “hands of” (leveraging service providers, other customer and partner staff, other  staff) as required to ensure delivery of objectives, projects etc
• Business Case development, including financial analytics
• Budget preparation and management
• Ability to work collaboratively
• Solid solution development skills and effective working both independently and in a team environment

Personal Qualities:

• Influence; Assertive, Initiative
• Autonomy, Independence, Accountable and Responsibly
• Quantitative, qualitative and analytical insight
• Commitment, Passion and Energy