Director, Partnership Distribution, Asia

Reporting directly to the VP, Partnership Distribution, the Director, Partnership Distribution, Asia will partner with the regional and local country leadership teams to enable the delivery of bancassurance financial and non-financial performance targets, seek and/or support new partner business development opportunities, recommend and implement strategic initiatives to accelerate partnership results, analyse financial and operational data to track performance, facilitate reporting and decision making.

Partner with the respective regional and local country leadership teams to develop a framework and drive a connected approach to deliver growth and transformation. Collaborate with regional, local executives and cross function teams to ensure delivery of strategic initiatives, financial and non-financial results, management of the in-force blocks of businesses, as well as maximising synergies across partnerships.

Strategy implementation and business transformation
•    Recommend and implement strategic initiatives to accelerate partnership results.
•    Formulate and implementing product propositions strategies, sales and marketing plan, process and platform initiatives to support partnership penetrations and channel management.
•    Enable the development and implementation of the strategic planning process to achieve our bold ambition and partner with key stakeholders to define strategic initiatives and implementation roadmap for each local country.
•    Prepare the strategy deliverables and presentations for each business unit with inputs and content from local teams; link up local country strategic initiatives with the financial plan and seek alignment across key functions in the region.
•    Monitor industry developments, trends, market intelligence, perform benchmarking analysis and peer comparison. analyse customer behavior to maintain our competitiveness in the market.
•    Support ad-hoc special projects to support partnership growth.

Performance and business management
•    Partner with markets on specific performance improvement areas by providing project management, analytical support & leadership to performance improvement SWAT teams with the outcome being plan achievement and/or exceeding plan target.
•    Coordinate with bank partners and internal departments, including Operation in streamlining processes and Risk and Compliance in ensuring adherence of relevant policies and guidelines.
•    Analyse financial and operational data to perform variance analysis with plans and forecasts on regular basis to identify trends, issues and make recommendation for improvements.
•    Coordinate monthly EM segment and BUs business review meetings to ensure financial and non-financial performance, key issues and progress of strategic initiatives are discussed and executed / resolved and manage follow up actions.
•    Drive and manage ad-hoc/special projects and/or requests.

Portfolio and in-force management
•    Partner with regional and senior country leadership teams to review and manage the in-force block of businesses actively and proactively.
•    Establish appropriate management reporting, leveraging existing processes and information to the extent possible, to provide information on the various in force financial health measures. 
•    Develop clearly defined KPIs and review process of each initiative to enhance engagement and ownership to drive performance.

Skills and Competencies
•    Strong business acumen, customer and market focus; proven strategic thinking and execution skills
•    Strong financial/data analysis with good understanding of the nuances of insurance accounting and actuarial data and analysis.
•    Proactive and operative with a sense of urgency: has initiative and drive to take ownership of tasks. Not be afraid to ask questions when in doubt and ability to drive things to completion quickly and effectively.     
•    Change management/ambiguity: ability to work in a fast-paced environment with incomplete information but continue to push tasks through based on known information, common sense and asking the right questions.
•    Detail oriented: important to pay extra attention to detail to ensure the highest quality of work is submitted to senior management for their review.
•    Research, analysis and problem-solving strong problem-solving abilities by identifying issues, taking a logical approach to finding an answer based on research and sound analysis.
•    Project management: ability to drive projects to execution by developing deliverables timelines and effectively managing stakeholders.
•    Communication: excellent speaking and writing skills are required to convey key messages in a succinct manner
•    PowerPoint, Word and Excel:  expert skills on PowerPoint with the ability to tell a story and sell a message. Can analyze large quantities of data, generate charts in Excel. 
•    Flexibility and cultural awareness:  willingness and flexibility to travel.  Culturally sensitive to work with people of diverse backgrounds in Asia.

Qualifications
•    Bachelor’s degree or above
•    At least 10 years relevant experiences in distribution / actuarial / product development / product pricing / strategy / finance in the life insurance industry.
•    Self-motivated, independent with minimal supervision and excellent interpersonal skills.
•    Execution focused with a keen problem-solving mindset.
•    Proven track record to demonstrate strong ability to connect well with peers and interact very successfully with senior business stakeholders and regional functions as required.
•    Broad Asian network and Asia experience preferred.
•    Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, an additional Asian language an advantage.

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact hr@manulife.com.