Majid Al Futtaim Hiring for Manager – Strategy Job at Dubai Full Time

Majid Al Futtaim invites you to join us in our quest to create great moments for everyone, everyday! We are the leading shopping mall, residential communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, serving over 560 million visitors a year. For the past two decades, we have shaped the consumer landscape across the region, transforming the way people shop, live and play, while maintaining a strong sustainability track record and the largest mall in the world to attain LEED Gold EBOM Certification. We have over 40,000 team members in 15 international markets representing over 100 nationalities – all keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do. If you enjoy being BOLD, PASSIONATE and TOGETHER, then Majid Al Futtaim is the destination for you.

Role Purpose:

The Manager – Strategy is responsible for supporting on the development of corporate strategy in close collaboration with Majid Al Futtaim Leadership teams, by gathering support and sponsorship from the Country Managers. The role holder is also responsible for identifying and developing innovation and growth opportunities, monitoring long-term trends by producing thought leadership and competitive intelligence analysis, and ensuring that the Corporate strategy is well understood at all levels of the organization and properly cascaded across Countries.

Role Details – Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Innovation and Growth

• Monitor trends at a cross industry/country level, to be potentially applied to Majid Al Futtaim Retail
• Read and bring to the Majid Al Futtaim Retail community insights about market analysis, industry analysis and thought leadership inspiring concepts
• Understand new customer trends, technologies, innovation, startups, and any applications which can be adopted in retail even if coming from other industries
• Prepare one monthly newsletter on Growth and Innovation addressed to the REC (and possibly other functions/countries)
• Set up an innovation center within the corporate/country spaces, in collaboration with the Digital Team, to identify features and tools which can be piloted to increase productivity and profitability and improve customer experience

Competitive Intelligence

• Provide the business with actionable macro-economic and industry insights to support strategy development
• Prepare a competitive analysis dashboard, quarterly updated
• Lead internal and external events and conferences

Strategy Development, Communication and Evaluation

• Own, govern and enhance the Corporate strategy preparation end-to-end, in alignment with the Majid Al Futtaim Holding Portfolio Strategy and with the REC guidelines
• Ensure that the strategy is understood and cascaded across senior leadership, corporate functions and countries, incorporating market intelligence and working collaboratively with the Corporate Functions to integrate strategy with financial planning, human capital and operational plans
• Ensure strategy is communicated and activated across all levels of the organization e.g. through a continuous alignment to the Transformation Team, Senior Leadership presentations, Country roadshows and other communication methods. Including presentation to Retail Board as required
• In alignment and collaboration with the Transformation team, continuously evaluate company performance versus strategy and suggest corrective actions
• Facilitate the identification and solution of operational challenges impacting strategy execution, in close collaboration with the Transformation Office

Growth Opportunities

• Identify organic, in-organic and innovation-driven opportunities including ‘bold moves’, M&A and strategic partnerships to support strategic priorities
• Develop business cases to support growth opportunities aligned with the strategy or to inform new strategic directions
• Lead special programs and projects, with high level of complexity, which could potentially be ‘game changers’ within the MAF’s competitive environment

Strategy Capability Development

• Identify POC within the Corporate Functions and the Countries to make sure that the strategy development is aligned to the Functional and Country Plans
• Develop tools, skills and capabilities required for a high-performing strategy function (e.g. people, tools and processes)
• Continuously evaluate the business models in place to assure relevance to the strategic choices and directions

Coordination and Communication

• Manage cross-functional initiatives and ensure on-time delivery with high level of accuracy
• Ensure regular information exchange with all relevant stakeholders and update them on the development progress across projects
• Build relationships and maintain strong partnerships with key personnel to help achieve organisational goals
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to ensure clarity of the specifications and expectations of the Strategy & Transformation Office

Audit and Reporting

• Contribute to the development of presentations on Strategy & Transformation in key areas of the business and communicate results across the organisation
• Responsible for the preparation of business presentations and reports related to Strategy & Transformation Office for various stakeholders, on periodic and ad hoc basis as and when required
• Perform regular audit of various processes for the Strategy & Transformation Office in order to identify gaps and risks, and propose corrective actions

Definition of Success

• Clearly identified, cascaded and embedded strategy within the Organization, at all levels
• Multi-year strategy defined at corporate level, aligned with the functional and country level ones to prepare the Company to ambitious growth and innovation plans execution
• Financial, HC and Operations plans aligned with strategy
• Investments including resources and capital allocation secured to deliver the strategy
• Senior leadership engagement and buy-in to company strategy
• Achievement of strategic goals
• Successful identification and execution of strategic partnerships, innovation ecosystem and M&A transactions

Other Context (if applicable):

• Periodic travel across portfolio countries

Qualification, Experience & Skills:

Minimum Qualifications/education

• Bachelor’s Degree in a Business Administration/Management or related role
• Master’s Degree is mandatory; a similar field is preferred

Minimum experience

• 7+ years in a multi-national and large corporate environment and/ or top-tier consultancy with demonstrated skills in strategic planning
• 2-3+ years in omni-channel retail environment/industry preferred; 2-3+ years in strategic planning

Skills

• In-depth experience in one or more of the following functions: Business Development (brick & mortar expansion), Commercial (assortment, pricing, supplier negotiation etc.), Digital (e-commerce), Human Resources, Marketing, Customer Experience, Sustainability and New Businesses
• Experience in strategic partnerships and M&A due diligence, negotiation and execution
• Must be an excellent verbal and written communicator,
• Collaborative, professional maturity, sound judgment and executive presence
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional teams
• Excellent story-teller to communicate complex matter simply and achieve buy-in
• Strong business communication and presentation skills with proven experience managing executive-level communications, comfortable preparing proposals, presentations and speaking in front of groups
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to prioritize workload
• Strong English and Arabic language skills (Speaking, Reading and Writing) with exceptional business writing
• Proficient in MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)

Disclaimer: This role description reflects the general details considered necessary to describe the principal responsibilities of the role identified and shall not be construed as an exhaustive description of all the work requirements inherent to success in the role