CEO / Country Director in a Fast Growing Social Enterprise
Talentstone Energy Search - Our client is one of world's largest and fastest-growing social enterprises. The company is vertically-integrated, tech-enabled, and on our way to profitability. It expects to continue rapid expansion in Africa. In Africa, it has launched operations in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Liberia.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: CEO / Country Director
Location: Lagos, Nigeria. By nature of the role, extensive travel may be required of the incumbent within and outside the country from time to time.
Reports to: Global Chief Executive Officer
Background
- Great challenge is where there are great rewards - the opportunity to be the person who innovates across every step of multiple industrial value chains to succeed in radically altering the future of hundreds of thousands of children in the country.
- While the Country Director will have full corporate support and benefit from the lessons learned and processes developed over 9 years from the operations of the company as well as from being in operation in Nigeria for over 2 years, the Country Director should expect to work in the capacity of an entrepreneur in Lagos. This role requires fearless, dogged, entrepreneurial spirit. There will be no job harder than this, as the breadth of functions needed to operate a vertically integrated system is staggering, and the challenges of accessing and serving the bottom of the pyramid are well known.
- Our Client is seeking a Country Director to take over leadership of their Nigeria program and continue the ambitious and successful expansion in Nigeria. The Country Director will learn the full spectrum of business operations and business methods from the outgoing Country Director as well as from the extended global team.
Responsibilities
- Drive continued market expansion in Nigeria, including managing a team of 400+ staff and growing which is needed to execute in-country strategy and operations;
- Refine and create highly-structured, insightful processes, systems and recommendations with a data-driven approach alongside the in country senior leadership team, to continue expansion and to support operations at scale;
- Work with and leverage team support from the global teams and support offices across the 7 countries our client operates in to ensure in-country operations are aligned to global processes and systems;
- Refine and execute country strategy to ensure sustainable operations at scale and deliver the maximum learning impact;
- Project manage the moving parts of the day to day operations by ensuring each function is operating on time, on budget and on target; Learn every step of the lifecycle of producing an operational company;
- Lead on and be prepared to do every job in the entire company lifecycle, to some extent.
Qualification / Experience Requirements
- At least 10 - 15 years of post-undergraduate, full time work experience;
- Strong academic performance and advanced Degree from a top business or graduate school preferred;
- Strong business network with senior executives in private business, government and civil society spheres in the specified country;
- Prior full-time work experience in the specified country;
- Prior experience starting a start-up; prior experience as an early hire at a start-up who remained with the company through to profitability, acquisition, or bankruptcy;
- Passion for the company’s vision and mission. The successful individual will be a mission driven person with a knack for social impact and acceleration;
- At least one work experience that required highly independent work in an exceedingly challenging environment;
- Work experience at top corporations (developed markets i.e. Europe, USA or Asia) a plus;
- Demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship and data-driven decision-making, including the ability to flourish in dynamic, ambiguous environments;
- Work experience in a highly political industry, where ideological conflict is common, and strategy, ingenuity, negotiation and persuasion are necessary for success;
- Ability to manage a very broad scope of work; front office, back office, development, regulatory;
- Willingness and comfort working in a global matrix, willingness to learning and input from the global functional teams.
Success Factors
- Detailed doers - You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
- Creative problem-solvers - The organization is still a start-up: hands-on and scrappy.
- You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand, which may be less than you’re used to. Every dollar you spend is a dollar our customers, who live on less than $2 a day, will have to pay for.
- Smart hustlers - You have the brain power but also the pragmatism to get stuff done in a chaotic context. You are focusing on winning, and will do just about anything (with integrity of course) to get to the people and places that you need to succeed.
- Networking masterminds - You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates. You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing network of public relations contacts from prior experience in the country, preferably in the regulatory, education, or business sectors.
- Customer advocates - Our customers - these families living on less than $2 a day per person - never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their customer benefit, experience, and value.
- Life-long learners - You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
Expected Start Date:
- The successful candidate will be expected to start as soon as possible.
How To Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their updated Resumes to:
[email protected]
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For comments or queries, please call: +234 1 453 9939 to book a brief confidential discussion.