17 Oct
Match-Up (PTY
Bryanston
The Strategic Operations Manager for Sales & Distribution will provide dedicated support to the Managing Director of Sales & Distribution by optimizing performance across the sales units and providing high-level strategic insights. This role is responsible for building robust financial models, creating management information dashboards, and ensuring consistent, valuable reporting across all distribution units. The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker with strong analytical capabilities, able to provide actionable insights to drive growth and improve the Value of New Business (VNB).
1. Reporting and Analytics
- Define all key metrics for each S&D; unit
- Create and maintain consistent and valuable reports for all sales units,
focusing on actionable insights
- Develop management information dashboards to monitor performance and support decision-making
- Analysing data, with due consideration for the influence of missing information, outliers, plus confounding and extraneous variables.
- Reporting on insights obtained, which might be utilized to inform business strategies.
- Consulting on areas of uncertainty to promote optimal use of ideas derived from data.
- Creating and updating data sets that evolve in tandem with our business's needs.
2. Financial Modelling & Forecasting
- Build various financial models for client pitches and profitability analysis
- Create financial budgets and sales targets for each sales unit
- Perform monthly forecasting of sales numbers and provide variance analysis
- Conduct competitor and consumer market research to uncover ratios and trends ultimately used to inform the forecast
- Present findings in such a way that it ties takeaways to clear recommendations and operational decisions
- Identify new business opportunities, such as undervalued securities or untapped revenue streams
- Work with a team of financial analysts or other financial modelling analysts for decision-making and forecasting
3. Business Optimization
- Analyse data and recommend strategies to lower acquisition costs and improve profitability in different market segments
- Work closely with the Business Information technical team to develop Power BI reports and other analytical tools
- Provide high-level insight into maximizing VNB across channels
- Support, collaborate, and partner with business process owners and stakeholders in a manner that facilitates shared understanding and “buy-in”
- Define scope, key outcomes,
and objectives of the work as well as key performance improvements
- Ensure consideration is given to preferred approaches, technological capabilities/limitations/possibilities,
- impact to other functions and teams, and business risks and/or rules that apply to process steps
- Conduct the analysis required to identify and communicate the root causes of problems and/or areas of
- opportunity, as well as the range of solutions and improvements available
- Facilitate stakeholders through reviews of the process, analysis, and potential solutions ensuring they have the information necessary for informed decision making
- Support business process owners in the implementation of future-state designs, as required or assigned
4. Operational Support & Stakeholder Engagement
- Play a central S&D; Operations role, coordinating with the Legal department on contracting and compliance
- Work with the Finance team on translating unit-level income statements into actionable insights
- Collaborate with the Commission department to ensure accurate and timely commission payments
- Sign off on all month-end financial results, ensuring data accuracy and completeness
- Liaise closely with a range of internal and external stakeholders, obtaining knowledge and information to shape and inform engagement and communication strategies that foster positive relationships and build shared objectives, identifying and developing strategies to mitigate potential risk for contentious or high-profile issues
- Provide strategic advice to communications products so as they meet the needs of stakeholders, are timely and align to broader objectives
- Develop tools, resources and support programs to build stakeholder engagement confidence and capability skills across the business
- Design and implement the monitoring and evaluation of engagement and communication activities to ensure operational requirements are met
- Monitor the political environment and external developments to identify emerging issues and assess reputational risks, liaising with senior managers to develop engagement programs and associated action plans to inform community and stakeholder perspectives
- Manage strong stakeholder systems and knowledge networks, including stakeholder database and tracking information
5. Strategic Planning & Support
- Assist the MD in strategic planning for S&D; by providing financial, operational, and strategic insights
- Conduct extensive research and analysis to identify potential growth opportunities, market trends, and
- competitive landscapes
- Develop strategic plans and initiatives to drive business growth, improve operational efficiency, and deliver on key objectives
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align strategies and ensure effective execution of initiatives
- Conduct regular performance evaluations and monitor the progress of strategic initiatives, making necessary adjustments as needed
- Provide guidance and support to team members in implementing strategic plans and achieving their respective goals
- Stay updated on industry trends and best practices to provide insights and recommendations to senior leadership
- Proactively identify risks and challenges that may impact the achievement of strategic objectives an propose mitigation strategies
- Prepare and present reports, presentations, and recommendations to senior leadership and key stakeholders
Education and experience requirements
- Bachelor's degree in finance, Business Administration, Economics, or related field
- 5+ years of experience in financial analysis, business operations, or strategic planning
- Proven track record in creating complex financial models and translating data into business insights
- Experience working with Sales and Distribution functions, preferably in the financial services or insurance sectors
- Advanced proficiency in data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI) and Excel
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Consistency and accuracy of management reports across S&D; units
- Achievement of VNB targets for each unit
- Reduced acquisition costs through effective strategy recommendations
- Timeliness and effectiveness of monthly forecasts and budget analyses
Key skills:
- Digital skills
- Positive future thinking skills
- Strong governance skills
- Strategic decision-making skills
- Analytical skills
- Business acumen
Key leadership skills:
- Relationship building
- Agility and adaptability
- Innovation and creativity
- Employee motivation
- Conflict management
- Negotiation
Personal abilities:
- Empathetic, friendly, professional, and accountable
- Assertive yet compassionate
- Ability to perform well under pressure
- Mature, confident, and resilient
- Excellent listening and communication skills
Knowledge & Attributes:
- Excellent time management, organization, and self-motivation skills
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to effectively interact with individuals across a variety of business units and levels within the organization
- Strong working proficiency in Microsoft suite of products (Visio, Excel, Word, PPT, Teams, SharePoint)
- Ability to create visual models such as work-flow diagrams/process maps etc.
- Ability to facilitate working sessions and perform independent research/testing to derive work steps and create detailed documentation, using both low-tech and high-tech approaches
- Ability to ask good probing questions, listen to answers, absorb and make meaning of context and content
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify root causes to presenting issues and then recommend options/approaches to address same
- Ability to analyse and organize data and present findings in a format that support business decision making
- Stakeholder relationship management
- Ability to manage ambiguity and embrace new information and learning as it surfaces
- Able to work on multiple initiatives at the same time and manage to commitments and deadlines
▶️ Manager Distribution Bryanston
🖊️ Match-Up (PTY
📍 Bryanston