Position Overview:

Every Business Unit within Blackbaud has a vision, objectives, and a path it wishes to take. With increased focus on our most important Business priorities, Arts and Cultural is well positioned to continue providing accretive revenue growth. Business initiatives are the means through which a vision is translated into practice. Within Blackbaud, the “glue” to making our BU + COE model work includes having each BU provide direct ownership of the initiatives most important to its success. Leaders of business initiatives are responsible for putting plans and goals into action, as well as managing, overseeing, and advancing the Vertical’s short- and long-term priorities. Leaders in this role drive transformation and alignment within the organization in a highly skilled manner. Importantly, these individuals work closely with Blackbaud COE’s, bridging the gap between Horizontal COE focus and Vertical Business Unit priorities. Said differently, the two work closely together to ensure alignment to advance the growth of the vertical and success of Blackbaud overall.

These Managers are tasked with executing programs, ideas, and tactics to improve the business and help move the Vertical forward. They also lead the process to operationalize our annual planning and work closely with other senior leaders, allowing the BU General Managers to focus on the long-range strategy of the Vertical and the necessary day-to-day sales execution within the Vertical.

They must ensure all communication is clear and may oversee budgeting and managing funds for the Business Unit. Networking is important in this position to build beneficial relationships within the industry and within other COE’s to create a more efficient and successful business environment.  Individuals in these roles work closely with both the Business Unit and our COE’s, bridging the gap between the two to advance Blackbaud’s growth. The role is also a significant driver of talent development, aiding the company in our goal of developing leaders with a broad, Vertical view of our Business Units to grow the next generation of General Management leadership skills.

Managers of business initiatives must be articulate, decisive, and able to multitask, manage time, and work under pressure to meet deadlines.

Summary of Key Accountabilities:

The Manager, Business Initiatives role is a leadership position that functions as a program manager that enables the delivery of the business unit’s growth initiatives. Typically, these initiatives a result from the Long Range Plan or the Annual Operating Plan and are cross function both within the Business unit and throughout Blackbaud. For example, while the BBMS COE broadly handles Merchant Services priorities, they rely on the Business Units to provide Initiative leadership unique to a given Vertical (i.e. in the case of Arts and Cultural, BBMS working with the BU Initiatives Leader to identify other Software targets to “wire up” BBMS to and leading, through vertical market expertise, the pursuit and execution of that activity). Another example would be leading our Annual Operating Plan. The Business Initiatives leader works closely with Corporate Strategy, RDO and other groups to serve as the Vertical representative needed to size, support and operationalize specific AOP priorities. The role provides bandwidth to the Vertical GM allowing the GM to focus on the strategic, while the business initiatives leaders focuses on the more tactical.

This position has a strong operating requirement and is tasked with driving outcomes that are not otherwise owned throughout the company (for example BBMS declining account contact, which is a BU responsibility currently without focus or ownership). The role enables the success of our BU + COE operating model and reports directly to the President of the Business Unit and is a key member of the BU Executive Leadership Team (Executive Committee). The leader will develop, oversee and implement programs and projects that support the company’s vision and short and long term plans. These initiatives will change from time to time but may include:

1. Ownership and accountability to operationalize, execute and deliver on the prioritized key initiatives of the Business Unit

2. Creation and oversight of meaningful Vertical Partnerships to accelerate growth. Works closely with our Partner COE who manages contractual relationships with the Partners, while the Business Initiatives leader in the Vertical enables market specific partnerships by operationalizing vertical specific plans, providing navigational assistance within the Vertical, and coordinating conversations with key vertical staff.

3. Accountability for the success and growth of our BBMS Payments business, within a given Business Unit, to deliver accretive growth. Accountable for maintaining accretive Payments growth within a Vertical, operationalizing BU actions to capture High Value Accounts, and develops Vertical specific strategies to expand BBMS revenues within the Vertical.  Whereas BBMS thinks horizontally and globally, the Business Initiatives leader applies Vertical specific tactics to drive success.

4. Personal engagement with key, high impact Clients for long term value and strategic input. Whereas our Customer Success COE provides programmatic support to the customer base, the Business Initiatives leader performs regular Discovery with the Verticals top customers to inform the Vertical strategy of the Business Unit.  The Business Initiatives leader possesses deep vertical domain expertise and empowerment that, when matched with the horizontal and programmatic expertise of the Customer Success COE, enables customer delight.

5. Drives the Vertical specific program to migrate RE7 and FE 7 to NXT; Marshall’s resources to accelerate back to base share of wallet, which is a Vertical specific activity that currently “falls between the cracks” of our COE / BU operating model.  

6. Supports the GM in development of the Long Range Plan (LRP) and provide direct leadership/operationalization of the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) to guide the strategic direction of a given Blackbaud Business Unit.

Details of Key Accountabilities:

Ownership of Vertical Initiatives

· Direct ownership and accountability for the executive of the highest priorities within an assigned Business Unit, creating alignment between BU and COE to enable success.

· Responsible for operationalizing each initiative and working closely with others, both internally and externally, to ensure success of each initiative (highly accountable).

· Develops Operational Key Results (OKR’s) to measure progress and communicate that progress transparently across the organization

· Modifies tactics, as needed, to ensure the successful execution of each strategic priority

Partnership Development and Execution

· Develops Business Unit partner strategy identifying key partners, the scope of desired partnerships, business impact and technical strategy, then works closely with partner COE for execution.

· Serves as the Business Unit Liaison to Blackbaud Partner Management, RDO and other internal teams to ensure the effectiveness of desired Business Unit partnerships.

· Lead ongoing Governance meetings with key partners to monitor progress/results and implement corrective action when needed to deliver beneficial outcomes

· Working with Vertical Marketing, enable Arts and Cultural Associates with the necessary understanding to promote Partnerships in a mutually beneficial manner

Payments Revenue Growth

· Accountability for the Business Unit Payments with a requirement to maintain growth of BBMS accretive (double digits)

· Identify High Value Prospect Accounts (HVA’s) and own the accountability to execute a strategy to capture these HVA’s as processing clients

· Analyze, on an ongoing basis, key BBMS trends including Rate x Volume reporting on a bi-weekly basis

· Identify top performing (processing) BBMS clients in the vertical and ensure appropriate company resources are stewarding the success of these clients in order to reduce risk of churn

· Identify low performing clients and personally engage to drive the necessary turn around in processing volume in order to minimize financial risk to Blackbaud

· Develop strategic relationships with Software providers in each Vertical space and be accountable for “wiring up” BBMS to these providers as a strategy of accelerating Payments revenue within the Vertical

Customer Engagement

· Serve as the Business Unit senior leader (member of the EC) who personally engages in key client escalations and provides ownership to remedy the escalated situation, coordinating resources across Blackbaud when necessary

· Working closely with our Customer Success team and other COE’s, ensure alignment of resources to Business Unit Strategic Priorities

· Monitor for risk in our client base and implement measures to reduce the overall risk profile of our customer set

· Directly engage with key “at risk” clients to ensure retention and long-term success

LRP and AOP Planning

· Participates with the BU General Manager in LRP planning and leads the Annual Operating Plan process for the Business Unit

· Provides a critical strategic perspective as part of the vertical leadership team as well as actively participates in other senior management forums

· Builds close working relationships with RDO, Customer Ops, Customer Success, Marketing and other COE’s to ensure alignment of LRP priorities

· Represent the Vertical in companywide LRP and AOP interdependency and read out strategy sessions with Blackbaud senior leadership

· Operationalize LRP and AOP commitments and provide regular updates as a member of the BU Executive Committee on progress and any necessary course correction

Required Experience:

· Deep domain expertise with a minimum of 7 years of experience

· Demonstrated ability to work well in a matrixed environment, supporting the charters of our COE’s through vertical expertise

· Executive presence and ability to deliver results through power of influence

· Expert understanding of Profit and Loss (P&L) management with 5+ years previous P&L management background

· Strategic agility and ability to work across the Blackbaud organization to accomplish strategic goals

· Strong communications skills, both written and verbal. Ability to work at both the tactical and strategic (Executive) level

· Well developed analytical skills with an ability to translate raw data into actionable strategies and initiatives

· Bias for action. Proven ability to “get things done.” Operationalize plans, focus on KPI’s, OKR’s, deliver in an accountable manner