Head of Business Planning: Strategy and Operations, Japan

  • Full-time
  • Job Family Group: Strategy

Company Description

As the world's leader in digital payments technology, Visa's mission is to connect the world through the most creative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's dedication to innovation drives the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and fuels the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce.

At Visa, your individuality fits right in. Working here gives you an opportunity to impact the world, invest in your career growth, and be part of an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are a global team of disruptors, trailblazers, innovators and risk-takers who are helping drive economic growth in even the most remote parts of the world, creatively moving the industry forward, and doing meaningful work that brings financial literacy and digital commerce to millions of unbanked and underserved consumers.

You're an Individual. We're the team for you. Together, let's transform the way the world pays.

Job Description

Position Summary
The Head of Business Planning for Japan is a key member of the leadership team reporting to the Country Manager and is accountable for leading the formulation, analytical review, preparation and communication of the Japan business strategy to drive efficient, sustainable business growth.  As a strategist, you will work with and support the Japan business in the development of strategy and to ensure understanding, alignment and buy-in to the regional & global corporate strategy. This role will help define partnership opportunities, identify risk mitigation strategies, and develop new solutions and product/service requirements to meet market needs.

Responsibilities

  • Set comprehensive market level goals to maximize business performance, raising productivity and performance standards across Japan
  • Evaluate business performance by analyzing and interpreting key market metrics and institute cross functional actions to optimize business outcomes
  • Ongoing monitoring and actions relating to QBRs / MYPs / AOP / Country Acceleration Plans. Ensure focus on important variances, trends, issues
  • Assist in the development and implementation of goals, policies, and procedures relating to financial management, including budgeting and forecasting
  • Facilitate financial targets/goals through effective commitment and support of functional business units
  • Work with Country Manager to establish annual budget and ensure programmatic activity adheres to the budget
  • Lead, define and govern the strategic priorities across all functional teams to deliver business differentiation and growth for Japan
  • Oversee the development of frameworks that prioritize initiatives and evaluate internal and external investment opportunities for their strategic and financial value. 
  • Serve as a change agent in the business, driving changes across the org in partnership with cross-functional partners, to create efficiencies and maximize performance and success
    - Challenges and improve legacy business frameworks and assumptions to achieve desired outcomes
    - Work cross-functionally with the leadership team to best channel resources and organizational capability
    - Provide clarity to the organization regarding the execution of strategic planning, budget planning and operating plans
  • Operations Support
    - Establish internal structure and processes required to meet objectives and manage core operations including strategic program tracking and performance evaluation
    - Work cross-functionally to determine areas of operational improvement, communicating the strategic imperative for change, identifying gaps, designing solutions, developing governance models, driving process change, training teams to implement revised approaches, scoping and tracking key milestones
    - Improve current processes and coordinate organizational procedures for optimized efficiency and productivity
    - Drive implementation of metrics-based business performance monitoring, reporting and analysis
    - Develop systems and reporting that inform financial performance and decision making
    - Monitor key metrics (e.g. Japan and Japan Leadership Scorecard) to understand if the organizational goals have been met and improvements are effective
    - Build the knowledge and understanding of operational key performance indicators throughout the organization
  • Lead the management of the major project portfolio of varied durations delivering Visa Japan strategy, partnership and growth initiatives
  • Lead and manage interchange and pricing across Japan
  • Collaborate with Sales Leaders and the Head of Sales to plan and track client incentives
  • Proactively engage with clients in strategic and planning discussions to drive client business and to enhance Visa position with client
  • Engage and assess external partnership and investment opportunities for Japan working with the regional and global Visa Ventures teams
  • Lead and develop a data driven culture seeking to expand the commercial use of Visa's data resources
  • Proactively identify potential opportunities and risks for Visa.  Oversee the collaboration with multi-geography colleagues to develop recommended actions for Visa
  • Manage and preside on Japan Investment and Pricing Committee to streamline evaluation of proposals related to client incentive deals, product enhancement, marketing investments and VAS solution investments
    - Design an operational framework where systems, people, policies and processes are accessible
    - Establish efficient processes to provide actionable monthly and quarterly reporting and ensure accountability
    - Reviews all significant proposals to ensure they meet corporate profitability and cash targets. Supports all financial negotiations for contracts and proposals and provides insightful solutions as to how to meet both the client and Japan financial goals.
    - From time-to-time, develop robust business cases in support of Product, MSA and CRM investment asks
  • Structure and solve business problems, collaborating and coordinating with a range of internal stakeholders to make recommendations on a wide range of business issues
  • Act as an internal thought leader to advise and structure projects, identify key themes, develop mitigation plans, and drive cross-functional collaboration
  • Build out unique, creative and impactful solutions by integrating insights across Visa's many expert functional resources and supporting collaborative solution development
  • Maintain global business landscape knowledge, to provide solid foundational context for critical strategic decisions and projects.
  • Contribute to building a high performance culture across the Japan business by coaching, developing and building an effective team of Strategy professionals
    - Manage long-term program milestones and strategic objectives including development of annual goals through a collaborative, staff-based process
    - Establish benchmarks and metrics to evaluate staff and organizational performance
    - Develop and track evaluation mechanisms for feedback and program assessment

Qualifications

  • Vision and passion for our business, with high energy and intelligence
  • Strong understanding of trends and themes in payments and commerce
  • Futurist outlook and passion for technology innovation
  • Understanding of Visa business and organization strongly preferred
  • 15+ years relevant industry experience with a minimum of 10+ years of experience with related management consulting or strategy consulting roles
  • Outstanding executive communication skills as a spokesperson for Visa Japan and across the industry to influence, educate and evangelize industry stakeholders with commercial outcomes
  • Strategic, analytical thinker who consistently challenges the status quo and constructively challenges the team to aim for higher ground; change agent
  • Experience or skills in facilitating the business planning processes, together with specific change management practices to promote sales process adoption
  • Demonstrated capabilities in client engagement at C-level - communication, presence, and thought leadership 
  • Proven experience in managing interfaces to technology groups and other technical teams in order to translate business needs to deliverables
  • Proven experience in managing complex, cross-functional projects across internal and external organizations
  • Ability and mindset to work collaboratively across various Visa 

Additional Information

Visa is an EEO Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.
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