Strategy & Planning Manager

At M&G our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. As an international savings and investments business with roots stretching back more than 170 years, we offer a range of financial products and services through Asset Management, Life and Wealth. All three operating segments work together to deliver attractive financial outcomes for our clients, and superior shareholder returns.

Through our behaviours of telling it like it is, owning it now, and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

Strategy and Planning Manager – Individual Life & Pensions

Context for the role:

M&G Life is a division of M&G plc and runs the Prudential Assurance Company, responsible for the manufacture and review of all insurance products including our legacy back book and life and pension products open for new business within the UK retail market.

The Strategy and Planning Manager will work closely with the MD, Individual Life and Pensions to deliver on a bold and ambitious strategy to grow the Life business. You will engage with a variety of senior stakeholders across M&G plc to assess our competitive positioning in the UK retail market, provide positive challenge to our development priorities and support the build of practical implementation plans for new market entry and new product development. The successful candidate will prepare compelling, executive-level presentations and facilitate discussions with senior leaders. They will have access to a broad range of internal and external resources to remain up to date and prepare briefings on industry-wide trends. The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting the Managing Director, Individual Life & Pensions with the development of the Individual Life & Pensions strategy and will be responsible for monitoring delivery against the strategic priorities agreed with the management team.  

Success in this role requires a curious and resourceful mindset, experience in strategic thinking, superior problem-solving and analytical skills, excellent communication skills and a confident ability to work across different parts of the organisation. The successful candidate will have a deep knowledge of the Life insurance industry.

Key accountabilities for this role: 

• Supports the development of our profitable growth strategy within Individual Life & Pensions, covering both revenue generation and operating model transformation to drive an efficient and scalable operating model that supports growth

• Translating strategy into practical implementation plans, working with the relevant stakeholders across Finance, Change, Operations and Risk to identify pre-requisites and, in conjunction with our change and programme management function, shape and track end to end delivery of new strategic initiatives

• Provides constructive challenge to senior business and function leads based on facts and analyses

• Assist the MD, IL&P with exploring and defining which projects IL&P should prioritise; including leading  ad-hoc strategic projects end-to-end as per business needs

• Support the MD with preparation for Boards and committees including overseeing production of materials, analysing and sourcing relevant information across a variety of sources, as needed.

• Potential to develop business cases and plans for new growth initiatives including involvement in developing new partnerships.

• Facilitates cross-functional teamwork across the organisation to bring in all relevant stakeholders and drive alignment towards achieving our strategy

• Partners with colleagues within our commercial Finance function to analyse our business performance and competitive positioning

• Identifies growth opportunities, sizes their potential, assesses their relative merits and feasibility, and formulates recommendations based on their analysis

• Build practical business plans and implementation roadmaps

• Defines key metrics and tracking mechanisms

• Working with selected business leads, develops clear, structured narratives about proposed plans, their expected outcomes and how they will be measured:

  • Summarise proposals, scenarios and recommendations

  • Prepare briefing papers for senior leaders, GEC and Board members

• Coaches more junior colleagues, and potentially will take on a line management role depending on the evolution of the scope and size of the team:

Key knowledge, skills and experience:

• Ability to contribute to the development of the strategic direction, priorities and plans of Individual Life & Pensions, supported by an excellent understanding of how M&G operates, its business, the economic and market environment, the regulatory framework and relevant trends

• Ability to interpret customer outcomes and financial information, to identify key issues based on this information and to propose appropriate controls and measures to respond to business and regulatory requirements.

• Established problem solving skills: intellectually agile, able to formulate sound hypotheses and perform relevant analyses to prove or evolve them, strong grasp of the dynamics of an increasingly complex industry landscape affected by economic and regulatory considerations

• Proven autonomy in assessing problems once identified, quickly formulating tough recommendations when needed, and determining an appropriate course of action

• Ability to understand the end-to-end components of the businesses within M&G plc to make connections and highlight opportunities.

• Significant experience in engaging constructively and providing positive challenge at all levels of the organisation, building and managing strong relationships with other senior management team members, gaining trust and respect, and adapting to the internal dynamics and politics as required

• Ability to manage complex relationships downwards (by building trust with the wider teams), upwards (by connecting with executives and senior leaders) and outwards (by engaging with suppliers and external experts / advisers).

• Strong interpersonal skills, combined with diplomacy and discretion

• Ability to operate effectively in a complex, matrix environment.

Qualifications:

• Relevant degree or professional qualification

• Relevant experience of insurance, investments and/or wealth propositions, distribution and markets is preferable

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G plc, underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities, advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability or long term condition, we are looking to attract, promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.

M&G is also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader, and we welcome applications from candidates with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or neuro-divergent conditions.  Being a Disability Confident Leader means that candidates who meet the minimum criteria of a job, will be offered an interview if they 'opt in' to the scheme when applying. 

If you need assistance or an alternative means of applying for a role due to a disability or additional need, please let us know by contacting us at: [email protected]