GroupM | Finance & Commercial Manager
Overview of job
In this role, you will oversee agency commercial and financials’ needs, handle daily business issues, manage company associations, and recognize business opportunities. The role requires constant communicating and negotiating with internal, external clients or business associates. In addition, you will continuously work to strategically expand, preserve or improve the company’s procedures, standards or policies while sticking to business edicts and regulatory guidelines.
In this role, you will oversee agency commercial and financials’ needs, handle daily business issues, manage company associations, and recognize business opportunities. The role requires constant communicating and negotiating with internal, external clients or business associates. In addition, you will continuously work to strategically expand, preserve or improve the company’s procedures, standards or policies while sticking to business edicts and regulatory guidelines.
Reporting of the role
This role reports to the GroupM Singapore CFO
3 best things about the job:
- Opportunity to work for World Best Agencies under one roof
- Multi facets roles, advisor, trusted partner, leader, listener, executor, etc
- Fast pace, demanding, fun loving and satisfying work environment.
Measures of success –
In three months:
In three months:
- Be conversant with Agencies/GroupM’s Legal / Finance Structure
- Support budgeting exercise in partnership with stakeholders.
- Oversee day-to-day finance/commercial activities of Agencies /GroupM Services
- Good understanding of all necessary control, compliances and key stakeholders contracts
In six months:
- Lead the quarterly forecasting processes and generate monthly financial and management reports.
- Design and implement improved business processes
- Partner with Agencies management teams to model growth scenarios
In 12 months:
- Responsible for Division P&L, Balance sheet, Annual Budget/Quarterly/Monthly Forecast
- Joined owner with Agencies/GroupM, CEO/MD of overall financial and operational performance
Responsibilities of the role:
Act as a Business Partner to One or Multiple Agencies
- As an advisor to CEO/MD, Business Leaders, Management team and Client Leads.
- Ensure sustainable and profitable growth of agency/ies
- Ensure the overall financial health – Revenue, Cost, Profitability etc
- Build out a strong financial and operational processes for agencies and GroupM
- Tracking agency/ies P&L delivery, Client Profitability
- Fee negotiation
- Own new and existing clients’ contract terms and commercial negotiation
- Own financial budgeting and reporting procedures and deadlines
- Ensure compliance of client and vendors contract and Revenue Recognition policies and guidelines
- Work closely with management team to deliver year on year growth targets
- Assist in pitches, RFP, RFI, RFQ, determine scope of work etc
- Drive optimal clients’ profitability
- Assist in business development opportunities (both new, organic and new Trading models)
- Lead, plan, execute and integrate any new business initiatives
- Lead, plan and execute Annual Budgeting, advise, monitor and manage Quarterly and Monthly forecasting
- Build out strong financial and operational processes, responsible for operational efficiency across business, integration with media, finance, IT and human resource.
- Work closely with Agency’s management team to deliver on yearly growth targets
- Setting up processes for tracking metrics used to measure agency/ies business strategy and aligning to overall Agency/GroupM strategy and vision.
- Being an interface between agency/ies and finance shared services
- Ad Hoc special project and new business initiatives
Provide financial support to GroupM Services
- Consolidate, monitor, review and analysis Trading Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly budgets/reforecast
- Ensure sustainable and profitable growth
- Work closely with GroupM CFO/FD, Group Trading, GroupM Services and Agency Head of Trading in the implementation of all Trading deals
- Work with Trading Team to ensure that deal risk is appropriately managed to safeguard proprietary media interests and that this does not lead to material losses
- Ensure that agency/ies aligned and achieved yearly trading targets.
Governance, Compliance, Risk & Reporting
- Monitor contract, internal, SOX, ICFR compliance and commercial terms
- Ensure all contacts, client, vendors, etc, are approved, signed and filed
- Risk and corporate governance management
- Ensure Compliance and develop initiatives to maximise yields
- Working with internal and external auditors, ensuring SOX compliance
- Ensure that all management reports submitted within deadline
- Monthly, quarterly and yearly reporting to be carried out with high accuracy and timeliness and developing processes to ensure quality reporting
- Variances to be fully explained and analysed with action plan
- Central point of contract for agency’s global and regional
What you will need:
- Graduate Calibre with 7 to 10 years of experience with strong finance and commercial background
- Self-driven, forward looking, results-oriented with a positive outlook and a clear focus
- Ability to lead, plan and manage change
- Ability to generate respect and trust from staff and external constituencies
- Ability to build strong relationships with all stakeholders in agencies and GroupM
- Ability to foster relationship with local agencies’ Managing Directors/CEO to ensure their support and buy in to the development of your core areas of focus
- Diligent and able to ‘roll up his sleeves’ when the need arises
- Mature and highly credible individual with strong business and financial acumen
- Commercially savvy, Strategic thinking
- Client service skills and the ability to build relationship
- People/Team building skills
- Resilience and comfortable working in matrix reporting environment
- Proactive, self-starter with strong commercial acumen
- Leadership qualities – ability to lead and deliver results in a highly motivated, demanding environment
- Proactive, Sharp, action orientated and able to sell ideas convincingly
- Experience in Media / Advertising industry will be an added advantage
- Experience of working in successful fast paced business is preferable
- Comprehensive understanding of key elements of route performance (both commercial and operational)
More About Our Company
We are a media services company that accelerates growth for our clients. Our company values of energy, empathy, and impact bind together our diverse global family of 10,000 people from every culture and with every specialist skill you can imagine. You can check out some of our people’s stories on LinkedIn or Instagram or hear about the company in their own words here. We are part of GroupM, the world’s leading media investment company, and WPP, the world’s largest advertising holding group.
At our company and GroupM, we are Open, Optimistic, and Extraordinary.
- Open: We cultivate trust by taking ownership and accountability, and we empathetically and intelligently balance people and client experience in everything we do.
- Optimistic: We mobilize the enterprise, driving our vision forward, and we champion growth and career development so we can all thrive.
- Extraordinary: We harness our shared capabilities to inspire transformational creativity and lead collectively to deliver a seamless client and colleague experience.
GroupM is responsible for more than $60 billion in annual media investment, as measured by the independent research bureau COMvergence. Through its global agencies, data solutions, and innovative practices, GroupM leverages a unique combination of global scale, expertise, and innovation to generate sustained value for clients wherever they do business. Discover more at www.groupm.com.
More About GroupM Singapore
GroupM Singapore operates in one of the most dynamic and exciting environments in the world. Although it is a small domestic market, there is a vibrant media industry that is undergoing rapid evolution as digital technology reshapes the way marketing supports advertisers’ needs. Being at the crossroads of Asia means that aside from the local clients and media owners, we also have a high proportion of multinational clients, renowned brands, and media owners. This makes GroupM Singapore the number one organization to join and develop your career in media investment. GroupM is an equal opportunity employer. We view everyone as an individual, and we understand that inclusion is more than just diversity – it’s about belonging. We celebrate the fact that everyone is unique, and that’s what makes us so good at what we do. We pride ourselves on being a company that embraces difference and truly represents the global clients we work with.