Regional New Business & Business Systems Development Director (Social Research & Evaluation Sector)

Job Description

Kantar Public has a Development Practice dedicated to program evaluation, impact assessment & behavioral change within the Development Sector. Kantar Public brings value to development organizations through the design and execution of high quality research and evaluation alongside our work in communications for development.

Within the African region, our Development Practice has multi country local teams located in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa.

To support our CEO for Kantar Public in Africa, we are looking for a New Business & Systems Development Director to develop new business within our Development Clients, to implement business systems for effective and efficient functioning across Africa, West, East and Central Africa (WECA) in particular, and to support the Regional CEO in effective executing of strategy. The position is based in Nairobi.

In order to be successful this person will need to be recognized as a trusted advisor by our Development clients, demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills, as well as strong commercial acumen, be highly organized and be able to work independently in a flexible, fast-paced work environment.

In this exciting new position, you will have the opportunity to work closely with our African local teams located in Nairobi, Lagos, Accra, Abidjan & Johannesburg, as well as with our team in Washington DC.

At Kantar Public we pride ourselves on the team and their ability to work collaboratively on new business, client delivery and thought leadership.

KEY OUTCOMES

New Business Development (50 %)

• Identify, track in advance and strategically target new business opportunities
• Write cutting-edge, innovative and persuasive proposal and lead proposal teams
• Review account, project and business profitability to identify & seek opportunities to maximize financial performance for future projects
• Build Kantar Public’s presence in the development environment in Africa
• Manage a bidding system for decision making and response to incoming RfPs
• Hold an expert view and understanding of the Kantar Public Offer. Understand our offer and know how to differentiate ourselves against competitors.

System Implementation (30 %)

• Drive strict adherence to systems across Africa
• Ensure the systems, processes and accountabilities are in place to allow for effective and efficient functioning across Africa, WECA in particular
• Improve efficiency and effectiveness in responding to proposals
• Ensure systems are in place for fast sharing of information on proposals pipeline to facilitate prioritization, follow up, planning.
• Develop a sharing and learning work culture

Business Leadership (20%)

• Contribute to the strategic growth of Kantar Public brand as part of the Leadership Team and as support to the leadership
• Implement special projects for leadership
• Ensure business plans are achieved and communicated effectively
• Play a critical role in supporting key initiatives for the Development Practice
• Foster cross-functional & cross-brand collaboration, internal partnerships
• Help drive a pan-African mindset and work culture

CAPABILITIES

Essential Experience

• Proven track record in business development and bid & proposal management within the Development Sector
• Proven track record of delivering to client requirements – to the highest quality and agreed time schedules
• Proven track record of setting up systems and working practices in a cross-country context

Skills

• Commercial acumen, very strong business development & proposal writing skills
• Excellent understanding of the Development context in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Ability to expand our development client network and to develop consortium partnerships
• Extremely strong and disciplined organizational and administrative background
• Well versed in managing initiatives and projects, and driving through actions personally and via third parties
• Exceptional people skills, highly persuasive, strong presentation and interpersonal communication skills. Able to respond in complex and highly specialized conversations
• Excellent written and spoken English and ability to proof read and write proposals.
• Good understanding of use of off the shelf, Microsoft tools, for knowledge management, team management, task management and communications

JOIN US

Does this sound like you? Please contact Isabelle.barroso@kantar.com to discuss your future career with Kantar Public.

About the Organization

Kantar Public delivers insight and strategy to provide better outcomes for citizens and public sector organisations around the world. Kantar Public works with 40+ governments, the public sector, non-governmental organizations, institutions & corporations to deliver value to our clients through more effective public policy, public service delivery and communications to the public. Our work is very diverse and spans every sector of government, from public health to education, agriculture, energy & utilities, food & nutrition, international development & social investment, public services & local government.

Join us and you’ll be part of 30,000 colleagues and 12 world leading research, data and insight brands at Kantar. At the heart of WPP, our unique consumer insight inspires clients to flourish in an extraordinary world. More information on Kantar Public is available at www.kantar.com/public and our regional blog, www.publicempiricus.com.