Head of Consulting

JOB TITLE: Head of Consulting - RISE Sport | Culture | Entertainment [SCE]

LOCATION: Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

REMUNERATION: Competitive package of salary, bonus, and growth incentives including Medical Health Insurance

BACKGROUND

RISE Sport | Culture | Entertainment [SCE] is an independent sponsorship and commercial services consultancy. We work with clients to maximise business and brand returns on their sponsorships and investments, by providing a range of services tailored to achieve commercial objectives.

We help both public and private sector clients to transform the commercial value of their assets or investments, by combining strategic consultancy with implementation to deliver long-term impact and lasting value.

Our expertise lies in creating, implementing and activating commercial opportunities for clients in Sport, Entertainment and Culture. Any infrastructure project, public asset, or sport, entertainment or cultural property can create valuable marketing assets as they deliver large audience numbers across a wide range of touch points.However, very few asset owners know their true commercial worth.

Our insight-led approach helps both sponsors and rights owners to uncover and develop commercial opportunities and create a platform to promote, market or directly commercialise their products and services to those audiences. The commercial models we create apply the expertise and knowledge gained from first-hand experience and insight working on large-scale public and private projects.

Agency Services: sponsorship consulting, sponsorship sales, sponsorship activation, content creation, digital, and corporate hospitality.

Clients: GCC public and private SCE rights holders, brand sponsors, media agencies

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Working closely with the SCE Partner, the role of Head of Consulting within RISE SCE requires someone who is passionate about sponsorship, its role in the rights holder event lifecycle and a good working knowledge of sport, culture, and entertainment industries across the GCC region.

The Head of Consulting will collaborate with a team of Account Directors (ADs) and Senior Consultants (SCs) and those that report to them, to support and lead the numerous consulting accounts across the business.

The role will best suit someone who can lead, build and deliver strategic consulting recommendations to rights holder and brand clients.They will need to hold extensive knowledge of the sponsorship lifecycle, the main value drivers of sponsorship and have expertise in client leadership, broad consulting, integrated marketing, and team management. Someone with proven abilities in providing strategic recommendations to clients and leading a team to achieve targeted revenue objectives.

The Head of Consulting will serve as the leader and driving force of the consulting unit of the SCE team, be responsible for a number of pieces of client business, accountable for the unit's overall profitability and leader of the team's recruitment, development and performance.

The roles has three main areas of focus :

PEOPLE: Build partnerships and foster collaborative relationships among clients, employees, partners & board members.

CLIENTS: Facilitate strong business relationships with new and existing clients, whilst striving to align with the company's operational and financial objectives.

BUSINESS ACUMEN: Enabled as a business leader, the Director - Consulting & Advisory is responsible for building and managing a diverse team while operating in a multifaceted organisation effectively.

Typical responsibilities within these focus areas include,

PEOPLE:

Embody and reflect RISE's performance-based culture and commit themselves and their team to the highest standards for all agency work.

Work effectively with cross-functional teams to deliver planning, consulting and executional excellence.

Apply a genuine eagerness to mentor, grow, and develop a diverse and talented team.

Manage and train the SCs and other consulting team members with responsibility for goal setting, feedback, and constructive guidance.

Work closely with engagement teams to ensure account work is projected accurately and effectively and efficiently planned and staffed with all deliverables prioritised accordingly.

Serve as a subject matter expert on market and related industry trends, sponsorship landscape, and competitive activities and proactively communicate insights and experiences with colleagues and clients.

Guide brainstorming and idea generation sessions with cross-functional teams.

Oversee the hiring, development, and training of a consulting team, adapting the team's focus based on the needs of RISE and its clients.

CLIENTS:

Demonstrate an understanding and a passion for his/her clients' industry, business, brand, and consumer target(s)

Establish him/herself as a trusted strategic business partner to the client and demonstrate leadership in meetings and client interaction

Lead client relationships in the key verticals and with select properties

Ability to identify needs that the client may not recognize and ensure that approaches and solutions are linked to objectives and future needs.

Consistently manage client expectations, ensure delivery of the highest quality service, and solicit and act on client feedback.

Ensure goals for client account growth, retention, and satisfaction are met with consistency and best-in-class conceptualization, planning, and execution.

Employ a methodical approach to maintaining and developing strong relationships with clients, partners, properties, and throughout the industry to undercover and commercialise insights and new business opportunities.

Leverage relationships with rights sales team to support efforts between RISE and rights holders, supporting negotiation discussions on behalf of clients when necessary.

Deliverables include consumer insights, landscape analysis, business planning considerations, perspective on portfolio and property evaluations, multi-channel messaging and activation strategies, asset valuation and negotiation, etc

BUSINESS ACUMEN:

Lead the company's Sponsorship Consulting service offering, providing strategic advisory to rights holders on their sponsorship programming.

Develop, refine, and advance the sponsorship consulting offering to best leverage marketplace intelligence, best practices, and creative innovation.

Own accountability of the service offering P&L across strategic planning, reporting and analysis, and resource planning (in collaboration with senior leadership).

Manage profitability by collaborating with key stakeholders to develop and negotiate statements of work and ensure the work is delivered on budget.

Lead strategic development of new business pitches from RFP response to closing accounts, including contract negotiations.

Maintain strong presentation, verbal and written skills as well as proven ability to develop well-positioned and thoughtful documents and presentations.

Oversee various initiatives across RISE's sports, entertainment, and cultural client portfolio, applying focus on sponsorship strategy, rights evaluation and execution, as well as sponsorship measurement and evaluation.

Oversee team-leading vendor relationships, including contracts, negotiations and oversight of the deliverables and quality of work.

Lead RISE IP development and thought leadership initiatives that generate business impact.

Act as the authority on program and partner review debriefings and analyse and evaluate individual programs and partnerships.

Oversee team providing asset valuations and points-of-view for current partnerships and new partnership opportunities with RISE's Consulting team.

Collaborate with internal accounts team to lead the continuous improvement of client deliverables with brand, consumer, and in-market learnings.

Ensure accuracy of scope and comprehensive budget management, including development and management of program budgets to achieve client needs.

Ensure consulting projects remain on-budget, along with clear, timely and accurate financial reporting (internally and to the client).

Maintain responsibility for client billings and ensure timely payments of invoices and against agreed billing schedules

REQUIREMENTS:

The successful candidate will be a true self-starter with an entrepreneurial mindset and strong critical thinking skills with proven success in leading multi-disciplinary teams and demonstrated ability to deliver exceptional work within budget parameters.

Bachelor's degree required, Master's degree in a plus

Minimum fifteen (15) years' experience in a consulting role at an agency, brand, media company, sports or entertainment property, or related organisation

Strong experience, knowledge, and understanding in/of sponsorship, inclusive of sports, entertainment, and culture, ideally with previous agency experience

Demonstrable expertise in select focal areas with a senior-level network of professional contacts.

Ability to lead clients and manage account teams in the midst of multiple programs/projects concurrently in a fast-paced and high-intensity work environment

Firm grasp on reporting, analysis and budgeting

Exceptional relationship and influencing skills along with highly developed presentation and delivery skills.

Proven effectiveness in leading, managing and mentoring junior team members.

Application of superior prioritisation and time-management skills

Proactive, team player with a strong work ethic and the ability to work independently.

Exemplary written and oral communication skills with proficiency in PowerPoint, Word, Excel

Possess a good working knowledge of the Middle East