Asia Head of Client Strategy – Partnerships and Proposals – The Economist Group

The Economist Group : The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications, with a growing global circulation and a reputation for incisive analysis and opinion on every aspect of world events.

Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage an influential global audience.

We partner with corporations, foundations, NGOs and governments across big themes including sustainability, health and the changing shape of globalisation to catalyse change and enable progress.

With the power of The Economist Group behind it, Economist Impact crafts bespoke partnerships using a potent portfolio of capabilities including:

• policy research and insights
• branded content
• media & advertising
• design thinking and data visualisation
• global and bespoke events

PPD (Proposal and Partnership Development) is the central team within Economist Impact Partnerships that spearheads client presentations and partnership proposals.

They lead the partnership / proposal development and ideation process across Economist Impact and own the final output for sales to deliver to the client.

The global team consists of a number of category leads who are responsible for one of the following sector groupings and may also be responsible for an issue area – Globalisation, Healthcare,

Sustainability:

• Tech & Consulting
• Finance & Automotive
• Luxury and Travel, CPG
• Healthcare / Pharma
• Government / NGOs / Foundations

The PPD team is expanding into Asia, and we are looking to recruit a Asia Head of Client Strategy – partnership and proposals, who will have overall responsibility for the development of large scale, complex integrated programmes and impact partnerships for key clients. These programmes draw on a wide variety of resources and capabilities within Economist Impact, including media, events, research and PR etc.

The Asia head of PPD will work closely with the global category leads, as well as the sales team and the creative/innovation and practice experts to ensure creation of client-centric, market-leading proposals In this role you are ultimately responsible for bringing our proposition (the rigour of a think tank matched with the creativity of a media brand) to life in engaging, meaningful proposals and have a responsibility for all pre-sale output quality, conversion rates and revenues.  As the business expands the Asia Head of Client Strategy will be charged with growing and managing the PPD team in Asia.

Accountabilities

How you would contribute:

In relation to the development of complex integrated programmes and impact partnerships proposals:

• Act as a respected partner and creative engine for sales and other proposal contributor
• Be the main point of contact for sales, owning the development process and writing the resultingproposals
• Own successful proposal delivery and client confirmation, facilitate the seamless handover to the activation team
• Lead brainstorms, co-ordinate strategic and creative discussions and inputs, and ultimately own the packaging and narrative for client proposals and presentations
• Work with sales and activation / delivery teams to deliver compelling fee proposals – taking into account branded content values and costs, media exposure, reach and impressions,  creative execution and other fees
• Build programme cost estimates and manage cost analysis process (with finance) to delivery revenue and profitability goals
• Track and manage all proposal responses and outputs to improve win rates and allow for repackaging (but avoid duplication) of ideas and concepts

Team development and management:  

• Over time, recruit a team of PPD category specialists which complement the global structure, and run and optimise this new pre-sales team and approach – elevating and enabling all of our proposal and partnership work
• Manage the team – overseeing resource allocation and prioritisation, proposal quality control, team proactivity and responsiveness
• Be at the forefront in understanding marketing, culture and media trends and sharing insights with the broader internal team
• Experience, skills and professional attributes

The ideal skills for the role are:

• Strong written and oral communicator and a natural and persuasive collaborator
• Understanding of creative, content, communication and  media techniques to help solve business objectives Strategic and commercial clout
• Ability to navigate and prioritise competing demands
• Understanding of marketing, research, thought leadership and policy driven business objectives
• Experience in developing thought leadership focussed partnership proposals, as well as marketing budget facing ones
• Capacity planning and resource management experience
• Restless desire for optimisation and improvement of outputs with a client-centric mindset

The Economist Group values diversity. We are committed to equal opportunities and creating an inclusive environment for all our employees. We welcome applicants regardless of ethnic origin, national origin, gender, gender identity, race, colour, religious beliefs, disability, sexual orientation , age or marital status.