Mission/ Core Purpose of the Job:

The GM Commercial Management form a part of a highly skilled group of commercial, sales, technical and management experts who are responsible to wholesale and leverage Bayoba’s global fixed connectivity infrastructure within Bayobab Group and further develop business towards 3rd party enterprises.

The GM Commercial Management will be responsible in providing commercial end to end leadership in the areas of global connectivity infrastructure business, that includes global connectivity, submarine cables, terrestrial fiber, data centers, Infraco commercial management, and fiber connectivity within MTN footprint. The GM commercial management will also manage and lead the Capital and commercial expenditure program of Bayobab. The role will further drive the commercial teams in Bayobab and its subsidiaries to develop wholesale relationships to strongly position the Group within the international carrier community, be responsible for the overall Bayobab’s Group demand management for new capacity and infrastructure investments, drafting of business case’s (including financial modelling) and playing an active role in consortium and other business partner management.

Key Performance Areas
The GM Commercial management will be accountable to achieve the following objectives:

Provide leadership towards the achievement of the Bayobab` s fixed Commercial philosophy, strategy, and its annual goals and objectives.

• Strategic Planning
  • Define and drive an integrated and holistic business strategy aligned to Bayobab’s Group mission and vision. 
  • Develop and ensure execution of a strategic commercial plan. 
  • Drive innovation through the channel. Continuously analyse the business with a view to bringing about improvements and enhancements
  • Identify areas where value can be added / exploited further, areas where value is being destroyed and areas where value is latent, and act accordingly.
• Demand Planning
  • Management demand planning for capacity, drive investment planning to support capacity requirements, draft business case’s and perform financial modelling to support those business cases. 
  • Ensure Bayobab objectives at CapEx committees met. 
  • Measure and assess capacity and quality targets through the process with preferred partners and supplier(s). 
  • Represent Bayobab in governance structures of cable consortiums. 
  • Drive Group investment activities in appropriate technical and commercial platforms to support global fixed infrastructure requirements. 
  • Critically assess the business opportunity around idle or excess capacity both for international connectivity and local connectivity within the fibercos and critically analyse 3rd party wholesales activities including the planning definition and performance monitoring. 
  • Implement appropriate tools to support the collection internal demand forecasts and of 3rd party sales forecast to effectively plan for connectivity capacity and expansion.
  • Analyse Bayobab usage of 3rd parties’ infrastructure and connectivity, from backhaul to satellite, defining agreement with other infrastructure providers. 
  • Ensure effective management of Bayobab investments in submarine cable consortia and the participation in key new submarine cable projects and initiatives.
  • Effective Data center demand forecast and execution executions plans.
• Bayobab Fiberco Operations.
  • Effective planning for setting up, acquiring, or partnering is Bayobab fibercos and InfroCo (Data center)
  • Ensure alignment of fiberco with Group operational model, and other strategic partners that will bring value to the overall operations. 
• Sourcing and partnerships
  • The sourcing of 3 party capacities from Non – OPCO territories for incorporation into a Bayobab Solution (i.e. sourcing terrestrial capacities from Malawi, Egypt, Europe etc.). in coordination with the relevant other business units
  • The sourcing of Alternative international capacity – sourcing of capacity outside Bayobab’s current inventory portfolio for bundling into Bayobab solutions (other cables where we are not consortia members). 
  • Driving the processes of these sourcing functions to ensure they are contracted, priced, SLA’s in place with Technical WLA’s etc.
  • Ensure Bayobab identifies and partner with the right strategic infrastructure players that will bring value, like Hypescaller DC operators, TowerCos and Digital/OTT 
• Commercialization
• Ensure the recovery of investment costs from all investments while driving appropriate market behavior. 
• Owning the commercial pricing frameworks across all areas of Bayobab. Make sure competitive market driven price books are available per with clear SLA’s
• Performing adequate market competitive research that’s for input into pricing decisions. And ensure optimized pricing to drive commercial targets. 
• Play a key role are the Pricing Committee in driving the objective of setting prices, with active engagement internal and external stakeholders. 
• Solutioning & Product Development
• Develop and implement a product management framework  
• Own, define, document, and agree, with key stakeholders, on international fixed connectivity product plan that identifies portfolio scope; service experience; customer interfaces; development requirements; and approximate incremental CAPEX/OPEX budget needs  
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of all relevant systems and impacting business processes to ensure that risks are identified and reported in a timely manner.
• Ideate the business opportunity around idle or access capacity both for international connectivity and local connectivity within the Fiberco’s and drive 3rd party wholesales activities including the planning definition and performance monitoring 
• Establish and develop appropriate relationships with counterparts in the global fixed connectivity infrastructure wholesales industry to support Bayobab’s global presence 
• Keep abreast of international best practice, technologies and industry trends and market requirements at all times
• Proactively research relevant best practice and processes, recommending translation of these in the strategic framework of the unit.
• Keep up to date with new products and services and their impact on the business.
• Support the product development process as it relates to infrastructure that resides across multiple fiberco’s

Job Requirements (Education, Experience and Competencies)

Education

• Minimum 4-year Academic Degree (BBA, Engineering / Business Management) 
• Post graduate qualification MBA/Masters (Economics, Engineering /Computer Science) preferred. 
• English, French (as advantage)

Experience 

• 10+ years relevant commercial experience in the fixed line international telecommunication industry preferably in carrier business
• 4+ management experience preferably in infrastructure wholesales business line

Competencies

• Ability to provide direction and leadership towards multiple business units with the organization
• Strong analytical skills to execute Bayobab commercial plan and high-level reports
• A working knowledge of business practices
• Knowledge of risk management (a risk taker who carefully considers risk/reward) and business development
• Knowledge of personnel policies
• Ability to identify key issues in a situation and to think creatively and strategically in facing internal and external challenges
• Effective leadership and the ability to coach, mentor and motivate a staff of business and technical professionals 
• Effective oral and written communications and public relations as well as excellent negotiation skills to be able to function across multiple business lines in a multicultural environment
• Strong computer literacy 
• Understanding the connectivity infrastructure wholesales landscape with a focus of emerging markets

Other:

• Regional and international travel
• Ability to adapt to changing requirements of business and staff members 
• Excellent Interpersonal skills