Operator Account Manager at Nokia Nigeria Research Center

Nokia Nigeria Research Center (NRC) is chartered with exploring new frontiers for mobility, solving scientific challenges to transform the converging Internet and communications industries. Our teams are strategically located worldwide to collaborate with leading universities and research institutes in the mode of Open Innovation. NRC has been exploring and developing mobile technologies for over 25 years. We have a variety of personal and technical backgrounds, but we are all researching topics related to the future of mobility in the merging physical and digital worlds.

On African continent NRC is present at selected regional hubs and NRC focuses on understanding the unique needs of the African mobile phone user and creates concepts and visions to fulfill these needs. NRC is working e.g. with University of Nairobi (Kenya) and University of Cape Town (South Africa) to solve the unique African language, cultural, educational and infrastructure challenges that can all be improved through mobile technologies.

Job Title: Operator Account Manager

Ref No: 000000112864
Job Location: Lagos

Description
Account Management (multi-level) in Operator Airtel and Glo. Strategy, CVPs, Securing Operator Co-Marketing, Coordinate Nokia execution on GTM for the Operator account.

Operator Account Manager

Roles & Responsibilities

Scope

• Primary Account Management responsibility for an Operator Account/s for the WA Market.
• Where an Operator has OPCO presence in multiple WA market, the Operator Account Manager will assume an Area role and Area responsibility for this account.
• Reporting line and accountability will be to the Nokia Nigeria General Manager, however there are further accountabilities and dotted line reporting responsibilities to support the various Local Office GM’s in executing on local OPCO activities and projects.
• Secondary Channel Responsibility for all initiating, planning, and following up on the execution of B2B initiatives through the assigned Operator Account/s.
• Alternate Secondary Responsibility (where current Operator B2B activity is limited) will be to drive the development, implementation and execution of the Nokia B2B strategy within the Area, including the management of 3rd party B2B vendors towards achieving desired results.
• The role scope will cover multiple specified Operators until such time that the level of activity and joint collaboration with any one Operator as well as business impact dictates that a Single-Operator focus be employed.

Planning

• Build Operator Core Account Plan (6 months Forward looking) as per the guidance Template given by Region (for consistency purposes) – 6 monthly
• Align and agree with Operator the product and marketing roadmap for the next coming 6 months, clearly spelling out joint commitments to making this a success
• Align and agree the Operator’s resourcing, timelines, marketing spend commitments and deployment roadmap, setting out joint obligations between Nokia and the Operator. (see Marketing cross functional wow ito agreeing marketing budget upfront).
• Agree the broad based KPI expectations by quarter to set the scene and expectations of both Nokia and the Operator. Pull together all the required supporting information such as market size, market share, competitive landscape, portfolio offerings, existing and required growth rates in coming to an agreed determination of the joint KPI’s and objectives.
• Clearly spell out the support that Nokia and the Operator will need to bring to the table in order to make the plan materialize effectively in order to deliver against the RBP targets.

Tactical Planning - monthly
Ensure that a monthly meeting is held in person between the Operator Account Manager and the Operator Management Team to review progress against KPI’s as well as plan activities for the following 4-6 weeks in terms of making progress towards executing joint plans as well as specific projects agreed upon.

GTM Planning - weekly
Ensure that Operator plans are updated weekly for any new information/changes into the GTM deck being presented. Operator Account Manager is to ensure that the three way alignment is secured between the Marketing Team, Nokia Management Team, as well as Operator Management Team through this information management and dissemination.

Operative Reviews

• Attendance and participation at each Monday Sales Meeting will be required where opportunities to raise pertinent operative issues over the last week or coming week should be aired. It is required that the Operator Account Manager make his/her own minutes/record of actions required and agreed upon, and follows up for completion of these tasks within the week, if possible. - weekly
• Produce a monthly report showing progress against the Core Account Plan as well as against the quarterly targets, including KPI’s and strategic project updates. - monthly
• Plan, organize and orchestrate a conference call with the Operator on a weekly basis, with clear minutes of meetings taken and communicated within 48 hours, detailing concrete actions, deadlines, and responsibilities. Where necessary, invite functional attendees to this call as and when the need arises. - weekly
• Plan, organize and orchestrate a semi-cross functional face to face meeting with the Operator on a quarterly basis, with clear minutes of meeting taken and communicated within 48 hours, detailing concrete actions, deadlines, and responsibilities. This meeting should be a mid-term or full term review of the status of the current Operator Core Account Plan, as well as include operative cross functional elements for discussion and review. - quarterly
• Delivery against Projects, Marketing Launches, and Joint KPI’s.Joint KPI’s.
• Take full responsibility for the Operator account in terms of delivering against the Projects, Marketing Launches, and joint KPI’s in line with timings agreed.

Other Key Deliverables

• Responsible for orienting and selling the Nokia Solutions Offerings to the Operator, as well as the rollout of these offerings to end consumers through cross functional team management.
• Ensuring Product Roadmap and NPI sessions are conducted between relevant Nokia and Operator staff and/or management at least quarterly.
• Engage in relationship building within the Operator business to ensure buy-in of strategies and action plans at a multi-level basis, from their Executive team to their Management team, to the Functional Support teams.
• Engage internally with Nokia on a cross-functional basis, as well as on a multi-level basis from the Executive, Management, as well as Functional support teams in ensuring buy-in and execution of strategies.
• Ability to influence the Operator as well as Internal teams towards building joint propositions for Nokia and the Operator, such as:
• building Nokia specific Dataplans
• Operator Landing Pages on our devices
• Operator billing integration
• Operator App development
• Joint Developer engagement and roadshows,
• As well as the execution of the above to maturity.

Field Work

• Operator Account Manager is to spend a minimum of 1 day per week in the field
• Visiting Solution Point outlets, DTR Outlets, Independent Retail, as well as Operator Channel Retail
• Gaining a better understanding of the issues in trade, as well as how these issues affect Nokia/Operator deployment.
• Proactively identify opportunities for excellence or improvement
• It is expected that at least one visit per month is to a non-Lagos destination to ensure that effectiveness of communication and deployment outside of Lagos.

Operator Account Manager to email to the General Manager max 5-10 bullet points of these visits weekly.
Cross functional engagement
Business Ops and Retail

• The Operator Account Manager will engage directly with Business Ops to fulfill specific reporting needs he/she may have which would enable him/her to better fulfill the required job tasks at hand with a standardized template.
• The Operator Account Manager will closely collaborate with the Retail team in ensuring that aligned POSM elements are deployed in line with agreed promotional activities in Nokia Retail & Operator own stores. Where the execution is not as per the agreed plan, this is to be escalated to the appropriate manager or Executive.

Marketing

• Operator Account Managers are responsible for understanding the portfolio roadmap for the next coming 6 months, products, design and features, consumer positioning and competitive landscape. It is required that the Operator Account Manager engages the General Manager and Marketing Portfolio Head to understand Roadmap.
• The Operator Account Manager undertakes to support GTM executions to fully integrate and leverage operator capabilities to help achieve business goals. The Operator Account Manager needs to ensure that the appropriate information is shared with the Operator to collaboratively carry the them along with Nokia
• The Operator Account Manager needs to be fully conversant with the RBP Marketing Spend Plan and Priorities and contribute as they are being developed.
• The Operator Account Manager will be expected to ensure that sufficient stock is available for distribution at the Operator stores ahead of Operator/Nokia Marketing Launches.

Finance

• The Operator Account Manager will be expected facilitate negotiations with:
• Distributors and Operators in terms of a Reverse Bundling deals
• Securing collaborations with Operators to fulfill payment on Nokia Life Tools Service & Operator Billing

Care

• Operator Account Managers should have in-depth knowledge of the Nokia 12 month Warranty Terms and Conditions.
• Operator Account Managers to ensure that all epidemic product faults/failures experienced within the operator channel are reported immediately to the Care team and/or escalated to Head of Care for immediate resolution.
• Any customization or bulk software upgrades should be planned together with the Head of Care, to ensure correct processes and timelines expectations are agreed.
• Operator Account Manager to ensure Care support training, escalations etc is administered to operator teams.

Management & Problem Solving

• Operator Account Manager will monitor account weekly and be intimately involved in the Operator’s business in terms of solving or resolving operator problems or issues. This will include but not be limited to reverse bundle fulfillments, activations and data attachment rates, billing claims resolution.
• Operator Account Manager will actively engage with the Nokia Field Force and/or Operator Field Executives in managing and responding to market forces against planned activities.
• The Operator Account Manager will take responsibility to ensure that Operator reporting is in place according to the appropriate formats, frequency and timing, and that these reports are made available to the right audiences internally within Nokia.

Qualifications

• Account Mgmnt experience preferable.
• Good Interpersonal Skills, and Managerial skills.
• Must be able to work independently as well as part of a team - ability to take initiative.
• Strong communication skills.

Mode of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should
Click here to apply online


Application Deadline: 3rd October, 2013