Waldi Wepener ACMA MBA

Direct all aspects of Vodacom Business' commercial management strategy and execution in South Africa, covering Small, Medium, Corporate & Public Sector segments, leading a team of 130 staff. Functional responsibility for Customer Value Management, Digital Transformation, Deal Pricing, NPS/Customer experience enhancement, Bid & Contract Management, Sales Operations, Order Management & Billing. Accountable for churn & retention metrics, revenue growth through up-sell & cross-sell execution, deal profitability & win rates, NPS as well as acquisition & retention, operational expenditure and commissions budgets (+-R1.2bn pa).

Key achievements

• Delivered several large scale digital transformation programmes to enhance opportunity management, CPQ (configure, price & quote), target setting and commissions
• Improved NPS from 9 to 55, attaining market leadership, through targeted customer experience improvement initiatives over 4 years
• Built scale in CVM execution resulting in increase of 50% in upgrades, reduction in churn by 30% and increase in product penetration of 20%
• Reduced team operating expenditure by 25% in real terms through introduction of RPA & process improvements

Developed and executed the commercial operations strategy for Vodafone Global Enterprise, for Southern Europe, Middle and Africa. Responsible for Deal Pricing and Bid Management, supporting the growth of Vodafone's market share in the region. Accountable for ensuring profitable deal win rate and contract value maximisation of local and multi-country deals. Led a team of 14 senior commercial leads and managers, based in Spain, Italy, the UAE and South Africa.

Key achievements:

• Developed bid strategies and pricing on the critical path to successful conversion of multiple deals with total contract values in excess of 100m EUR.
• Significantly contributed to Digital Transformation of Vodafone Global Enterprise commercial operations pricing, bid qualification and bid management practices.

Responsible for development and execution of commercial operations strategies, including Vodacom Business South Africa & Vodacom Business Africa. Functional ownership of deal pricing, bid management, contract management, order management & billing. Led the ExCo of Vodacom Business Africa International for 30 months, with full P&L accountability. Led a team of 80 commercial operations professionals.

Key achievements:

• As chair of the VBA International ExCo, oversaw revenue growth from $12m to $45m pa and turned the business around from being contribution margin loss making to EBITDA profitability in 24 months, through revenue growth and cost reduction initiatives.
• Successfully resigned DHL EMTO (Pan-Middle East & Africa fixed) agreement, whilst optimising it from an onerous contract to significant EBITDA margin driver, through vendor direct cost renegotiations and re-pricing.
• Contributed as part of the project team to Vodafone Global Enterprise's Project Spring initiative for strategic fixed line investments across Africa, through strategy development and the provision of key regional insights.

Directed the development and execution of BlackBerry's Sales, Marketing and Operations strategy in East, Central and West Africa, with key markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. Strategic regional account management of key carrier and distribution partners, including Airtel, MTN, Brightstar and Emitac Mobile solutions. Ownership of regional retail and channel execution. Accountability for circa. $500m pa revenue target and associated gross margin & marketing budgets. Led a team of 10 account, country, retail & marketing managers.

Key achievements:

• Led BlackBerry from 18% to 62% market share in Nigeria in 18 months, through the development and execution of strategic market growth plan.
• Doubled regional device sales to more than 1m units pa through improved execution with distribution partners & countering grey market imports.

Directed business planning activities across Middle East & Africa, including annual sales and operations plans, as well as quarterly demand plans & business reviews. Chaired BlackBerry EMEA's Strategic Business Case committee, in which I was responsible recommending prioritisation of investments, based on optimising business outcomes. Led a team of 4 business planning specialists, managing country business plans, sales target setting and commissions.

Key achievements:

• Co-author of BlackBerry´s Africa strategic growth plan, which included significant investment in headcount, new in-country offices/entities and delivered a 4x increase in revenues over 12 months, after implementation.
• Led tender processes for appointment of new distribution partners in several markets across the MEA region.

Ownership of financial planning and analysis for BlackBerry in the UK and Vodafone Group. Responsibilities including monthly management accounting, short to medium term financial planning, business case decision support and provision of key insights for leadership team decision making. Led a team of 6 FP&A professionals.

Key achievements:

• EMEA representative in global counter-grey market task team, which included development of tactical pricing and marketing initiatives which reduced prevalence of grey market tradingby 20%.
• Provision of financial analytics and insights leading to successful long term contract negotiations with Vodafone Group.
  

Joined SpinVox during start-up phase and introduced core business practices such as revenue & gross margin forecasting / long range planning, product performance analytics and deal related business case preparation and approvals.

Joined AOL Broadband during AOL Inc. divestment process. Led short & long term Business Planning for Access/Internet portfolio and served as key contact to Citi Bank during bidding process, which ultimately resulted in Carphone Warehouse's acquisition of AOL Broadband. Subsequently, served as Commercial Manager within Carphone's MVNO business, during which I led the design of tariffs & monthly deals, as well as overall profitability management for new TalkMobile Brand. Additionally held full P&L responsibility for legacy OneTel Mobile business, which I returned to revenue and profitability growth.

Positions held:

• Commercial Manager - MVNO (11/2006-12/2007)
• Senior Financial Analyst - Access (05/2006-11/2006)

Joined 3 UK during start-up and commercial launch phase. Roles commenced in core accounting functions, but evolved to finance leadership roles in which I business partnered with the sales organisation, to finally leading long range business planning for revenue and gross margin.

Positions held:

• Business Planning Manager - Revenue & GM (06/2005-05/2006)
• Finance Manager - 3rd Party Sales (11/2003-05/2005)
• Revenue Analyst (03/2003- 10/2003)
• Management Accountant (08/2002-02/2003)
• Assistant Management Accountant (06/2001-07/2002)
• Accounts Assistant (07/2000 – 06/2001)