About this opportunity
We are looking for a strong leader to drive the development of the MMEA(Market Area Middle East and Africa) Strategy team and Development of the strategy function. The outcomes driven by the Strategy function serve as critical input to the analysis, decision making and execution of strategic priorities in the market area and to drive sales of Ericsson’s existing and emerging business portfolio, including Private and Dedicated Networks. The role reports to the Head of Strategy and Commercial Management, MMEA and works very closely with the market area leadership team and multiple internal stakeholders, external customers, partners and industry players. The role will be located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but the responsibility will cover all Market Area and specifically for Industry 4.0 it will target several specific markets.
What you will do:
Enterprise sales and partnering
Strategic Consultancy
Strategic Analytics and insights
MA Strategic Programs definition and orchestration
Enterprise sales and partnering:
The responsibility covers leading a team of enterprise sales and partnering market makers experts with the goal buil dup the sales funnel through direct interaction with targeted enterprises within industries such as Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Airports, Ports and Mining. Successful leads will be matchmade with Ericsson’s CSP (Communication Service Providers) customers. On the other hand the responsibility is to identify and nurture partners in the region for wider reach and spread of our portfolio.
Prime industry engagements to generate “pull effect” from enterprises for Ericsson and CSPs: Proactively build and secure enterprise opportunities in multiple verticals/industries.
Develop and drive strategy of channel partner business model.
Identify, engage and onboard potential channel partners.
Accurately forecast and manage new and ongoing sales opportunities through your direct enterprise engagements and the channels.
Manage transitions of leads and opportunities from sales to delivery to operations
Develop use case models to drive business development
Support our Key Accounts to successfully close opportunities based on the Ericsson portfolio.
Cross collaborate with other Market Area Domains to ensure an End to End Enterprise approach
Apply Challenger and consultative selling skills with a great commercial skillset
Strategic Consultancy:
Be able to work with and influence people across entire organizations and beyond; that’s the heart of the job.
Experience and the social and political capital to cross boundaries quickly and effectively to bring fresh growth perspectives into the Key stakeholders and ensure that the members of the leadership team come to agreement on strategy decisions
Bring focus and discipline to the decision process, to challenge thinking and discuss the subjects no one else wants to touch so that these issues no longer serve as barriers to agreement and action in the strategic choises and strategy execution
Must be good listeners as well as good translators
Must be adept at exerting influence on other stakeholders who might be skeptical.
Have deep knowledge in Ericsson technology and in nurturing strong human relationships, because technology is critical to virtually every aspect of strategy and become the go-to person on all strategy matters so to focus and speed up decision making.
Preemptively take the lead to identify and structure strategic questions that MA Unit heads don’t have the time to deal with.
Mind the time horizons: drive insights on how to extend and defend the core business in the short term (25% of time on horizon one), build emerging businesses in the medium term (40% on horizon two), and creating viable options for the long term (35% horizon three).
Strategic Analytics and insights:
Capable to analyze the underlying causes of the stalled growth/growth blockers, identify attractive new markets/opportunities, and develop aggressive entry point/winning strategies to broaden the competitive positioning in the market
Strong analytical and strategy-related skills and competencies (business development, competitive analysis, game theory expertise, and the like).
Half the job involves learning analyzing insights and feedback why decisions aren’t being made in accordance with strategy and quickly determining whether to stay the course
Leading and enable the gathering and evaluation of market intelligence
MA Strategic Programs definition and orchestration:
Be able to resolve the strategy—that is, clarify it for him/herself, for every MA/business unit and function, ensuring that all employees understand the details of the strategic plan and how their work connects to MA/corporate goals.
Must drive immediate change.
Support in formulating Key Account and Customer Unit strategy in alignment with MMEA strategy and creation of a framework
Must drive decision making that sustains organizational change.
Adopt a new perspective: make sure decisions align with strategy through all levels of the organization, as Head of Strategy in MMEA must be comfortable working at 50,000 meters, 5000 meters, 50 meters, and on down
Must be able “to tell [the strategy story] in a way people can understand and buy in to”
Balance strategy formulation and execution by creating and orchestrating virtual strategy community to drive cross domain strategic topics.
Developing, monitoring, and maintaining a long range strategic plan and growth strategy for the MA, accounting for market dynamics, portfolio theory, regulatory environment, competitive dynamics, and macroeconomics.
Contributing in orchestrating the MA strategic planning process
Orchestrate the implementation of MMEA strategy so that all employees understand the MA-wide strategic plan and how it carries out the company’s overall goals
You will bring
At least 8 years of proven experience of strategy development experience from the ICT industry
Experience of leading and building high performance teams is essential
Relevant industry and products knowledge
Strong business and customer understanding
Strong analytical capability and ability to translate data into strategic insights
Demonstrated ability of operationalizing strategic goals and gaining stakeholder buy in and support
Business development experience, evaluating growth opportunities, business planning and execution
Extensive Experience in Enterprise/B2B sales for ICT solutions including HW, SW and Services
Extensive Experience in Channel management / B2B sales
Experience in creating new routes to market through partnerships, joint-ventures, new startups
Experience from Mobile Networks Sales, preferably with focus on Core/Cloud NW
Strategic view – quickly identifies patterns among problems; able to identify and present scenarios
Relevant organizational understanding and managerial network
Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills– your reputation precedes you
Superior organizational, presentation and communication skills
Be confident, passionate and have an opinion you’re able to defend with facts, experience and data
Intellectually curious, have integrity and willingness to be accountable
Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Business Administration or equivalent; MBA desired.