Business Readiness Manager (12-months)

Job Purpose:

Vivo Energy (VE) distributes and markets Shell and Engen branded fuels and lubricants to retail and commercial customers in Africa.  We currently operate in 28 countries (Operating Units – OUs) across North, West, East and Southern Africa where we have a network of over 4,500 service stations and growing.  We also export lubricants to other African countries. 

We are looking for a Business Readiness Manager to drive the delivery of VE’s projects by supporting the Ous with the activities needed to deliver the project.  Our projects cover multiple markets across Africa.  The projects sit under a programme of initiatives improving the end-to-end customer experience across payments, loyalty, fleet and site automation.

This project is in build phase and the Business Readiness Manager will need to engage with the Central and OUs to aid the business readiness activities needed, focusing on successful delivery and deployment of priority projects, building new assets and a toolkit that can be utilised by all.

The role requires a Business Readiness Manager with experience of delivering significant change across multiple countries. Experience in a Retail Fuels environment or a multi-site retail operation, is preferred but not essential.  The role assumes overall accountability for managing the change, driving delivery and actions, identifying process change, coordinating training and comms, internal stakeholders. 

The suppliers and Vivo core-project teams are mature and experienced.  Involved individuals are self-motivated and competent, however there will be multiple demands on their time so prioritization and regular interaction will be required.  Some travel will be involved based on the demands of the project.  A collaborative style and an ability to manage stress individually and within this virtual team are important qualities. 

This is a contract role, preference to be based in Cape Town.  Initial term is 12 months.

Requirements

Principal Accountabilities:

Strategic requirements

• Take personal ownership and accountability for the efficient delivery of the business readiness activities and change management activities through a collaborative change impact assessment
• Develop and deliver comprehensive change plans for OUs based on the impacted workstreams from the CIA and identify resources required to support each workstream
• Work closely with the Project Manager to ensure activities are to plan, flagging where timelines are affected and remedial activities to address
• Ensure remedial action is taken as quickly as possible if any unexpected situations occur that will result in substantial changes in approach
• Create a standard business readiness methodology to support ongoing product development including templates, toolkits, upskilling and best practise sharing

Key Challenges:

• Flexibility in working as the role is broad in terms of requirements and successful candidate must be hands-on
• Ensure all parties work closely together to deliver the required initiative outcomes
• Co-ordination across multiple Ous, with differing languages and time zones
• Change impacts significant numbers of customers both internal and external

Job Knowledge, Skills & Experiences:

The role is suited to a person that has previous experience in managing large projects across multiple geographies and cultures, not limited to change management. Ideally the change manager will be skilled in the delivery of customer facing solutions ensuring all the stage gates of projects are met and delivered to a high quality. 

Strong focus on DELIVERY:

• Understanding and experience business readiness activities, preferably in the retail petroleum industry
• Experience in working with organisations across multiple geographies and languages and understanding the intricacies of project delivery across multiple cultures
• Ability to run scoping workshops to ensure the impacts are well understood and subsequent activities planned
• Excellent communication skills
• Strong conceptual, analytical, problem-solving, troubleshooting and resolution skills
• Proven ability to work with limited supervision whilst exhibiting strong time management skills and delivering with a sense of urgency and attention to detail
• Ability to demonstrate supportive relationships with peers, customers and third parties
• Ability to manage and extract maximum value from disparate teams
• Able to identify, assess and articulate risks to senior management with mitigation strategies
• Proven ability working in a complex and ever-changing environment
• Excellent decision-making skills

JOB SPECIFICATIONS

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from a recognised University preferred
• Industry accreditation preferred

Functional Skills

• Strong change management skill
• Strong business readiness skill
• Strong project management skill
• Commercial Acumen
• Ability to identify practical solutions to complex problems
• Ability to work in Multi-Cultural Teams across multiple locations and time zones
• Self-motivated with great organising skills

Key Competencies

• Attention to detail and quality
• Stakeholder Management
• Team Leadership

Relevant Experience

• Business Readiness experience in large commercial organisations