Chief Operating Officer (COO) - Affinity Marketing Company

COMPANY

 

Our client develops and manages merchant-funded rewards programs for leading financial institutions that provide significant cash back and/or other rewards when consumers shop at specific national, local and online retailers, using an enrolled credit or debit card.  Those rewards are funded by the participating retailers.  In addition, our client provides enhanced editorial content and web-based shopping tools designed to expand the notion of debit/credit card rewards programs beyond earning cash back, points or miles – to include enhanced shopping experiences.

 

THE POSITION – CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

 

Our client is seeking a Chief Operating Officer, a talented operating executive to manage their transition from a mid-size company to a company with significantly larger scale. 



 

The Chief Operating Officer will have strong management skills, an understanding of what it takes to scale a company, and the ability to define/implement the project management systems and processes across the various functions that are necessary to sustain continued growth – without materially sacrificing the Company’s nimbleness and flexibility.

 

The company has defined a new marketing ‘system’ – helping card issuers provide relevant value to their customers when they shop at specific retailers, and permitting retailers to acquire new customers and increase wallet share among their existing customers.  As such, the company is continuing to innovate as it develops ways to enhance consumers’ shopping experiences and re-define the rewards landscape – and the COO will share and execute on that vision.  The company’s COO will ensure, first and foremost, that the company’s systems and operational infrastructure can support outstanding execution of current programs as the company continues to expand – as well as ongoing product enhancements to ensure the company’s leading position among its competitors.

 

In addition, the COO will have a financial background, helping to manage relationships with outside investors as it readies itself for a liquidity event over the next few years – in addition to analyzing historical results, developing P&L forecasts, and implementing financial controls. 

 

Our client's continued growth prospects are significant.  They are looking for an experienced operating executive with 8+ years of experience managing operations and finance for mid-size companies.  This individual will have:a proven ability to lead and manage othersstrong analytic capabilities and experience working with bank card transaction data. 

Above, all this person will be hands on, fully accountable for delivering agreed-upon performance metrics, a strong team player and a person of unquestionable integrity.

 

The ResponsibilitiesManagement of all company operations, day-to-day and long term, including computer operations/data entry, product development, project management/client services, end user customer service, marketing operations, finance/administration, database management/ reporting, website development, IT infrastructure managementOverseeing complex projects involving multiple internal stakeholders reporting to the COO, as well as laterally across the sales/business development/strategy teams – with a significant amount of ‘getting in the trenches’ expectedDevelopment/documentation of procedures manuals for all key company processes, including operational process/data flow charts, within and across functionsDevelopment of operational specs for all key company projects, ensuring alignment across both bank and retailer functions, with conflict resolution as required.Process reviews to ensure optimal efficiency of all key functionsResource assessments/allocations to ensure sufficient technical and operational resources to meet client requirements.  Technical resource review to include ongoing assessment of hardware and software capacity requirements to ensure client requirements are met.Coordination/management of key deliverables/milestones across clients, with clear delivery dates, accountability/identified ‘owners’, dependencies, performance against target delivery dates – using standard project management tool(s), e.g., Microsoft Project.  Weekly operations reviews to track progress of key client deliverables/milestonesManagement of monthly performance reviews of key metrics across functions, to be presented and evaluated by each team monthly, including client satisfaction metrics.  Building Six Sigma or related processes for continuous improvement of critical operational metrics across key functionsSLA identification/incident reporting, including sizing of incident severity, required resolution date and accountability/identified ‘owner’ for eachManagement of longer-term development projects across the company, including short-term requests and longer-term development projectsReporting/analysis, including business intelligence (BI) for internal (management) requirements, as well as client/merchant-facing requirements – includes normalization of data in multiple formats from various sources (banks, retailers, other third parties)Prioritization of projects, based on input from CEO; bank, retailer, consumer strategy teams; financial analysis of revenue and costs; and assessment of impact on client satisfaction

 

THE PERSON

 

The Chief Operating Officer will be a highly organized and directed leader who demands results from his/her organization and respects the contribution of his or her team members.  He or she will be hands-on, will wear multiple hats, and will be ‘in the trenches’ much of the time, leading his/her teams by example.  This executive will be primarily responsible for developing/leading an organization that will execute the company’s operations efficiently – they will be at their core a problem solver, and will build trusted and valued relationships with internal team members at the company.  The right candidate will have demonstrated an ability to lead complex teams, balancing the need for operational efficiency with nimbleness and innovation, and prioritizing project requests to get the most out of available resources. 

 

This individual will have the ability to represent the company from an operational perspective in meetings with bank/retailer clients and prospective clients, and be able to think strategically and ‘out of the box’.  He/she will understand marketing and the use of data to target various customer segments.  It is essential that this person have strong financial and analytic skills to prioritize project requests and assess resource requirements, and experience working with bankcard and end user transaction data. 

 

The Chief Operating Officer will be a solutions-oriented leader with excellent communication and management skills.  

 

Our executive has had responsibility for setting operational strategy in a competitive business.  In order to achieve success, this person will understand operational best practices in the industry, and inspire internal stakeholders to aspire for operational excellence in executing the company’s programs. 







Core Competencies

 

The following are the core competencies by which the candidates will be assessed:

 

Operations:

· Has scaled/grown complex operational environments with multiple high/low level functions

· Demonstrated leadership of operational teams in a highly competitive industry

· Managed multiple cross-functional projects that required prioritization, conflict resolution, problem solving

· Experience allocating limited hardware, software and personnel resources

· Developed and managed processes and tracking systems



 

Industry Knowledge:Extensive project management skillsDevelopment of procedures manuals/operational specs/experience managing processesSix Sigma or related processes for continuous improvement of key operational metrics across functionsUnderstanding of database marketing: customer acquisition, retention, data mining, and statistical analysis

Leadership:Part of a senior team of a fast paced and growing company with limited resourcesHired, developed, and led highly motivated and productive teamsExcellent communication skills, both internal and with clients/prospective clientsInstills a sense of accountability as core company and personal value/highly metric drivenDemonstrated ability to balance need for ongoing innovation/development with efficiencyInspirational leader with uncompromised values who has made a consistently positive contribution throughout his/her careerRigorous attention to detail



Technical:Familiarity with open source programming languages, such as PHP, Linux and Postgres.Understanding/experience with bankcard transaction and end user data (requirement)Demonstrated ability to analyze data, identify trends, and make recommendations using data, including strong facility with ExcelPut together operational process/data flows.