The role of Business Director is a senior management position at Ogilvy Public Relations. The Business Director of the Corporate Practice holds responsibility and accountability for the full business function of their practice or unit as well as contributes towards decision making across the entire agency.

The Business Director of the Corporate Practice is responsible for the following core functions:

 Management functions

• Developing a strategy for the practice
• Day to day running of the practice
• Management reporting
• Member of the Management Council and participation in management activities

Financial functions

• Budgets and forecasts for the unit
• Control of monthly billings
• Management of debtors
• Management of client contracts

 Staff/HR functions

• Management of all staff functions in the unit
• Approval and management of leave, expenses and claims
• Management of appraisals and performance issues
• Management of all new hires and related documentation

 New Business Development

• Development of a new business strategy
• Ongoing identification and targeting of business opportunities
• Assisting and leading teams on new business

The Business Director of the Corporate Practice will be appraised annually according the following areas of competency:

Competency area – Professional Skills

• Has and applies specialized industry expertise to client work
• Has established media, professional, industry, consumer and other relevant contacts
• Builds effective productive account teams
• Anticipates client needs and problems and develops creative and effective solutions
• Is responsible for the overall development of programmes bases on team input
• Has strong presentation skills and the ability to apply them in a range of presentation settings
• Leverages talents of colleagues in own problem solving
• Builds and develops agency and client accounts and resources
• Continually seeks new ways to learn and improve
• Demonstrates an outstanding degree of accuracy and attention to detail in all written work\

Competency area – Account Management and Business Development

• Sets and manages client expectations
• Provides leadership in growing existing accounts and anticipates and leads in the resolution of emerging account problems
• Identifies and pursues opportunities for developing new business within and across company offices and practice areas
• Delivers strong analyses strategy and concepts to new programme development and ensures that the team contributes quality ideas and recommendations for new/expanded programmes and proposals
• Develops presentations for clients relative to programmes
• Ensures team is informed about, and involved in, projects and has knowledge of cases, products, services and the application of resources and technology to client work
• Is an effective planner of media relations strategies, large-scale events and other elements of account/project activity
• Familiar with Ogilvy products and O-village databases

Competency area – People Management and Interpersonal Skills

• Is responsible for hiring, assessment and career development activities (where appropriate with senior managers)
• Works with management to identify and address supervisory training, leadership and career development needs and opportunities within the team or practice group and helps to ensure that those needs are met
• Manages staff to maximise productivity and individual, team and financial performance
• Identifies strengths and weaknesses of direct reports and team members, providing guidance and counseling on job performance and career development as appropriate
• Manages timely performance reviews for direct reports
• Delegates effectively
• Routinely seeks and shares information with colleagues
• Assists peers in problem solving
• Develops and implements solutions when required

Competency area – Financial/Administrative

• Contributes to forecasting and projections
• Develops accurate budget and monitors them effectively
• Oversees timely development and distribution of bills and activity reports
• Follows up with clients on collections and other financial and administrative details
• Is aware and understands contractual agreements and their impact on agency procedures
• Ensures that staff complete and submit their timesheets on time
• Completes own timesheets and submits them on time

Posted on 12 Feb 12:08