Head of Business Development at British Council Nigeria – Lagos /Abuja

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Business Development

Location: Lagos or Abuja
Role Type: Business Development, Opportunity & Pursuit
Pay Band: Pay band 7
Duration: Indefinite
Reports to: Director, Exams

Role Purpose

The purpose of this role is to develop and deliver the 2-year market led, integrated cross portfolio Business Development & Sales strategy aligned with Global/Regional Exams strategy working with other BC colleagues to leverage opportunities and create value.
This role is ultimately responsible for building and managing demand, ensuring capacity fill, delivering income/surplus targets, ensuring excellent B2B Customer Service and overseeing quality of B2C customer experience.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview

The English and Examinations Strategic Business Unit (E&E) is one of three strategic business units in the British Council (the others being Arts and Education & Society) all of which have the remit to build trust for the people of the UK by building relationships through aspects of our language and culture. E&E achieves this by enabling people across the world to access the life-changing education and work opportunities that are created by learning English or gaining valuable UK qualifications. Promoting the English language also provides a medium for communication, helping break down barriers of misunderstanding or mistrust between cultures. The British Council’s 2020 vision for English & Examinations is to be the world authority in high quality English language teaching, learning and assessment, as well as the International distributor of choice for UK professional and school qualifications.
The Examinations business makes a significant contribution to British Council financial sustainability, and as such, it is essential that the business evolves in order to maintain its position in a fast-changing operating context. There is a need to standardise and automate activities across the globe to deliver efficiencies, and there is also a requirement to develop new digital products and services to meet changing customer demands and competitive pressures. In a cost and resource-constrained environment, balancing the on-going requirements and allocation of funds will be critical, as will the integration and planning of the implementation of the different changes across a global network of 110+ countries charged with the on-going delivery of impact and income whilst changing key elements of the supporting operational platform.

Main Opportunities/Challenges for this Role

Adding value to key accounts in a competitive environment
Motivating and driving team performance
Achieving sales, income and surplus targets
Upholding a customer service culture

Main Accountabilities
Commercial planning:

As part of a wider SBU or country team, contributes to the development and delivery of customised, local business development initiatives (within a specific area of product/market/customer focus), which are capable of achieving agreed targets (e.g. on margin, income, impact and take up) and are aligned to relevant corporate and regional priorities.
Analyses and assimilates multiple commercial data sets and indicators (e.g. profitability, market dynamics, competitive potential, volumes, sales effectiveness, fundraising/partnership targets etc) to produce tailored reports on performance and trends that assist more senior management in identifying areas for new, additional or modified business development activity.

Market & customer intelligence:

Keeps updated and has extensive knowledge of the market within their area of focus, from both a supply and demand perspective.
Monitors local market-, customer- and related information and feedback relevant to their area of focus, to support the maintenance of BC’s commercial competitive edge and professional reputation. Highlights to senior management when remedial action is required and makes suggestions about possible solutions, based on previous experience and knowledge of standard business practices.
Assess market, Identify market opportunities/needs using marketing insights to develop & deliver audience led BD & Sales strategy, priorities & plan;
Lead contribution into Demand Planning, achieving high levels of sales forecasting accuracy and embed Global framework at Country/Geography level
Agree Marketing Plan and review effectiveness
Agree Customer Services requirements and review effectiveness

Winning business:

As part of a wider team, provides professional input to support the development of high quality, competitive and customer/market-focused bids, tender submissions, programme plans and sponsorship appeals, which are capable of generating specified commercial returns and cultural relations impact.
Recognises limits of own knowledge and draws appropriately on the technical/professional/functional expertise needed from other colleagues to ensure local business development initiatives are based on high quality content, accurate costing, sound commercial/contractual terms, appropriate risk mitigation measures and are aligned to corporate priorities and plans
Manage and review effectiveness of partnership (agency) model and input into physical foot print strategy

Account & stakeholder management:

Assists in the planning, establishment and maintenance of nominated account/stakeholder/partner or sponsor relationships, in accordance with the relationship strategy and objectives set out by the designated Account Manager or SBU/country priorities.
Deliver income/surplus targets, working with Operations on commercial feasibility

Brand/product knowledge & promotion:

Builds effective working relationships with a variety of SBU and regional colleagues, and a range of information-gathering techniques, to maintain a full and current understanding of product/programme/sector developments and priorities.
Contributes to the planning, monitoring, execution and evaluation of promotional, marketing, PR and outreach collateral/activities within their area of product/programme/customer/market focus.
Lead and embed excellent Business Pursuit and Account Relationship Management aligned with Global/Regional frameworks

Leadership & management:

Plans and prioritises own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and internal customer deliverables over a monthly to quarterly time horizon
May contribute to the development, delivery or commissioning of externally supplied training support to maintain and improve business development effectiveness of colleagues on a range of commerciallyrelated topics
May be formal line manager to a small, local team of more junior staff
Shares intelligence and ideas to support senior managers in identifying/ developing new business development strategies and plans.
Embed effective Team performance and new ways of working on the ground and lead empowerment/decision making at the right level

Key Relationships
Internal:

Exams Operational Teams
Country/Regional Commercial Managers
Director Exams, Country Director and Senior Leadership Team
Customer Services
Finance
Exams Regional Management Team
Other Nigeria SBUs
Country/Regional/Global Marketing
Global Exams teams

External:

B2B/B2G/B2I Customers
Exam agents and partners
Exam boards, educational institutions, professional bodies, corporations,

Person Specification

Qualifications
Minimum / essential:

Relevant work experience in a Business Development Manager role
University Degree in any subject or qualification in a relevant field

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience
Minimum / essential:

Significant experience of managing a large team
Demonstrable experience of sustaining and/or growing a product/service in line with strategic priorities for income and impact
Significant experience collecting and analyzing client/stakeholder feedback and using the data to identify business needs and obstacles; works to resolve them.
Takes a pro-active approach to identifying ways in which service can be improved, and takes these forward
Demonstrated analytical ability and commercial acumen

Desirable:

Business development experience in the E&E sector
Experience working in exams

British Council Core Skills
Communicating and influencing (level 3):

Is creative and adaptable in communications Able to use a range of non-standard and creative approaches to inform, and persuade others, extending beyond logical argument to influence decisions and actions in a way which is inclusive and engaging.

Managing projects (level 3):

Leads smaller projects Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects

Finance and resource management (level 3):

Supports budget management Monitors and controls an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning.

Commercial and business development (level 3):

Develops viable business Defines and develops products/programmes/services which deliver British Council goals on impact, income and surplus within a defined area of business that responds to market opportunities and aligns to wider corporate strategies.

Account and partnership management (level 3):

Builds account teams Identifies and deploys teams of British Council staff whose attributes match the stakeholder/ customer/partner’s needs, and adapting proposals to accommodate the needs of the other party.

British Council Behaviours Assessment Stage
Creating shared purpose (more demanding):