Background

The Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC)-Ethiopia is a quasi-governmental institution, a joint initiative of the Ethiopian Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Ethiopia.  The Center operates under the auspices of the Federal Urban Job Creations and Food Security Agency (FeUJC&FSA), part of the Ministry of Urban Development and Construction.  The Center aims to foster the emergence of a robust and competitive private sector with focus on micro and small-scale enterprises. EDC is headquartered in Addis Ababa and regional coordination offices in Oromia (Bishoftu), Amhara (Bahir Dar), SNNPRS (Hawassa), and Tigray (Mekelle). The Center is looking for a competent Business Development and Innovation Services Manager who can strategically lead the business development and innovation services unit of the Center by developing and executing effective business development and innovation programs.

Scope of work: Under the direct supervision of the Chief Executive Officer of the Center and in partnership with other program managers, the Business Development and Innovation Manager is responsible to craft, implement, and drive the business development and innovation activities of the center. He/she is expected to establish strong and effective business development and innovation services strategies and tactics and ensure their proper implementations.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

The specific duties of the Business Development and Innovation Service (BDIS) Manager include the following but not limited to:

• Develop and implement an effective business development and innovation services strategy.
• Coordinate all business development and innovation services activities.
• Establish and control activity and financial plans on quarterly and yearly bases for Business Development and Innovation Department.
• Establish and maintain a database of local consultants /business advisory service providers.
• Supervise and monitor local consultants engaged to provide business advisory and development services.
• Coordinate negotiations with financial institutions to ensure opportunities for credit sourcing for MSEs.
• Build partnership with different organizations and mobilize resources to achieve EDC’s mission.
• Explore, create and expand market linkage for EDC clients working directly with relevant stakeholders and professionally.
• Work with the monitoring and evaluation specialist to collect data, track results, and document success stories and lessons learned on BDS clients.
• Help enhance and upgrade the capacity of BDS providers engaged by EDC to deliver top notch services to clients.
• Work closely with the Training Manger in order to design training courses and programmes necessary to meet business development needs of clients.
• Review and approve monthly reports submitted by the BDS Advisors for clients under their jurisdiction.
• Act as liaison between public and Private sectors in application and implementation of business development programs.
• Collaborate closely with other program managers to drive results.
• Supervise the work of Business Counselors and Outreach Coordinators to ensure that clients are getting quality business advisory service, training and other services.
• Coordinate technology business incubation initiatives of the Center. Some of these activities include deal flow generation, screening of proposals, research, patent landscaping, working with entrepreneurs for their proposals, resenting proposals to the next level for selecting incubates, connecting promising innovators to investors, etc.
• Lead formation of new business and provide incubation facilities to enable commercialization of the business: To induct new entrepreneurs; create Incubation plans and implement them, assist in writing business plans, keep track of the Incubation process; help the incubates prepare proposals for getting funding, etc.
• In partnership with Marketing and Communication Manager, plan various workshops/events for the Incubator and execute the same with the help of team members.
• Develop the mentor network for the Incubator and work with them to make the Incubated venture successful.
• Organize a network of EDC client to exchange information, for networking purposes, and to become each other’s resource persons/ clients.
• Undertake any other duties assigned by the CEO and  other tasks as the job role may demand from time to time

Management Arrangement

The Business Development and Innovation Services Manager will work under the direct supervision of the Chief Executive Officer and operates in close collaboration with other project personnel.

Duty Stations: Headquarters, Addis Ababa with some travel to regions

Contract duration: One year with possible extension

Required Qualification, Experiences and Skills

Education: Masters’ degree from a recognized University in Business Management, Accounting and Finance, Economics, and related disciples. A certification in business advisory services/entrepreneurship development will be considered an advantage. Experiences working in incubation services and business development services management is essential.

Experience:  Minimum of 8 years’ professional experiences in a related post.

Skills and knowledge:

• Strong presentation and communication skills
• Supervisory skills and capacity to be a member of a multidisciplinary team
• Adherence to integrity and confidentiality
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (particularly Word and Excel)
• Confident and dynamic personality with strong creative outlook.
• Superior project management and time management, organizational and planning skills
• Self-motivated with a positive and professional approach to management
• Knowledge of stages of business growth processes for MSE’s and ability to analyze and advise on complex business growth challenges of MSE’s
• Excellent analytical, technical and conceptual knowledge about management and grasp of business management principles and practices