SME Enablement Lead, Africa Transformation Office at Microsoft

We are excited to be hiring for the newly established Microsoft Africa Transformation Office (ATO), a key strategic & transformational team dedicated to Africa. We are looking for highly motivated and talented team members to bring our strategy to life. Africa is one of the best places on the planet to bring our mission to life. It is home to 1.3B people and 54 countries. The talent in Africa reflects a tremendously rich and diverse potential that can truly impact the world over the next few decades.

Our aspiration is to transform Africa to a Cloud-first, Digital-first continent enabling a thriving digital economy across Africa while reinventing Microsoft's digital assets and capabilities to serve the young continent's transformational needs. With that in mind was the establishment of new team; the Africa Transformation Office (ATO), which will be established and chartered with the following: 

• Build strategic, unconventional partnerships with key governments, institutions and enterprises to enable and accelerate digital economy across the African continent.
• Develop digital marketing engines to enable and accelerate Startups and SMBs.
• Plan and land infrastructure enablers and game changers in the continent.
• Enable Africa as a Foreign Direct Investment destination supported by expanding our technologies for MNCs across key industries.
• Manage the 4Afrika initiative and further integrate it to key company programs and engines to amplify its impact.
• Foster digital skilling and job creation to maximize the economic opportunity for the African youth and workforce.

As the Leader of the Africa SMEs Enablement pillar, you will have the mission to empower millions of African SMEs and to positively impact employment and wealth creation. You will scale via coalitions with Gov’t, Telcos, FSIs, Partners, and financial bodies, digital engines (Marketplace) and availing platforms for global reach. You will lead availing the required technical and business SMEs skilling and mentoring engines to underserved communities, and female SME founders. You will be focusing on African big bets industries FSI, Agri, Health, Edu and Energy. Finally you will be leading the partnerships and projects that will avail access to the relevant SME’s products/SKUs/bundles/connectivity and end points enabling their transformation and economic growth while growing the Microsoft cloud business in the Continent.

Responsibilities

Strategy

• Develops and maintains an understanding of customers, competitors, partners, business models, market sizing, and industry trends in Africa.
• Develops and maintains an understanding of the market environment and trends.
• Leads market landscape analyses and reviews of companies of potential interest.
• Provides guidance to business partners to inform decision-making. Uses existing knowledge base to drive a deal thesis and business model.
• Communicates deal thesis and business model.
• Develops an understanding of Microsoft’s product portfolio, strategic priorities, competitive position, gaps, and potential opportunities.
• Drives evaluation of Microsoft ATO pillar strategic alternatives (e.g. buy, build, partner) and alternatives.
• Ensures ATO pillar roadmap, go-to-market, integration plans and related issues are considered.
• Represents ATO Strategy through exposure, presence, and influence of Microsoft stakeholders and leadership.

 Research, Analysis, & Framing

• Guides others in conducting innovative Africa wide market-based research by leveraging and interpreting information (e.g., financial statements, reports, analyses, stakeholder feedback, expert calls) around high-impact strategic questions, including researching within existing businesses and identifying new spaces for Microsoft; involves stakeholders as appropriate; leverages analyses of others to synthesize information and challenges research of others.
• Owns framing for broad research projects, ratifying with executives; assists colleagues with framing as needed.

 Problem Solving & Solutioning 

• Synthesizes broad findings into insights across a division, including implications that inform business decisions on complex issues, leveraging executive presence to influence decisions and proactively driving solutions to high-impact strategic questions and unaddressed opportunities.
• Identifies and scopes expansive ideas for company strategy, often missed by others;
• Leverages insights to develop recommendations and provide thought leadership (e.g., trend identification, implications of competitor moves) around potential future growth opportunities and strategic issues for Microsoft.
• Sells value of new efforts to business partners and/or senior leadership.
• Guides team through development of frameworks and methodologies to drive problem solving and insights.

 Communication

• Ensures communication of insights to senior business leaders (e.g., GM-level, CVP, EVP, CEO) and conveys viewpoints through written documents (e.g., memos, reports) and influence models (e.g., meetings, presentations) through minimal iterations of feedback and vetting;
• Builds end-to-end storylines and creates outlines across multiple projects for junior colleagues to leverage.
• Influences senior decision making by providing communications, challenging ideas, and adapting messages to complex nuances as needed.
• Communicates value of new efforts to business partners and/or senior leadership.

 Business Partner Relationships

• Manages key points of contact with internal teams (e.g., MEA HQ, MEA Subs, MCAPS, Finance, CELA, Marketing, Engineering, BD, LinkedIn, GitHub,…etc.);
• Manages and cultivates relationships with senior internal leaders (e.g., GM-level, CVP, EVP, CEO).
• Acts as an advisor to senior leadership as an ATO pillar domain expert within Microsoft , leveraging deep technical/product and business knowledge, market awareness, and subject matter expertise to inform strategic business decisions.
• Demonstrates influences through partners across multiple divisions.
• Provides career mentorship to colleagues outside of ATO function and is sought out by others for guidance and education.
• Ensures opportunities for junior team members to develop business partner relationships.
• Identifies compelling projects and positions the team to carry them out.

Project Leadership

• Manages multiple ATO pillar projects and teams across organizational boundaries as a project lead through goals, deliverables, feedback, resource balancing, and timing expectations;
• Proactively identifies complex roadblocks and address them.
• Initiates and drives multiple projects and topic areas including project plans, recommendations, impact, and syndication across groups.
• Leads cross-company initiatives as a lead member of virtual teams, demonstrating impact across numerous divisions.
• Identifies, evaluates, and proposes new project work/deals based on unmet needs.
• Advises others to indirectly lead projects.

Customer and Partner Focus

• Leverages internal and external relationships as a trusted advisor to advise complex (e.g., large, high impact) customers and partners on domain expertise as a sought-out resource across multiple lines of business, geographies, and cultures, as appropriate; advises partners and decision makers on the industry and company.
• Drives internal strategy and provides guidance to team in executing partnerships.
• Drives customer and partner business initiatives, and contributes to customer's strategy discussions; influences the product roadmap, prioritization, and customer and partner decision making.
• Looks across accounts to identify and address broad issues and trends.
• Drives strategic thinking among the team and fosters a culture of customer and partner focus.
• Creates business value propositions based on company, partner, and/or customer needs that drive long-term value creation.
• Drives support and action by influencing internal stakeholders and partners and promoting the value of opportunities.

Management of External Engagement & Stakeholders Management

1. People Leadership: deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring, upholding the Company Culture & Values
2. Reporting: interpret, add to, and apply reports to add value in generating and executing ATO pillar plans

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Experience working in and/or covering multiple African countries with strong track record of achievements.
• Proven experience in driving digital sales (in Cloud companies and/or Telcos), also landing successful programs & initiatives to small & medium enterprises (SMEs) with special focus on micro-SMEs.
• Strong mentoring and advisory skills related to capacity building efforts associated with economic development mechanisms (strategic planning, investments, legislation, etc.);
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Business Administration or related field AND 8+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
  • OR equivalent experience (e.g., scaling a business, incubation, driving change in a large company, entrepreneurship, management consulting).
• 2+ years experience in Strategy, Management Consulting, and/or Finance.
• 3+ years project, people, and/or change management experience.
• 5+ years people management experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years experience working in a matrixed organization, preferably in the technology industry.
• 5+ years project, people, and/or change management experience.
• 10+ years experience in a related business/ functional domain.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.