VICE-PRESIDENT, ADVISORY SERVICES

We are banking at another level.

Choosing BDC as your employer means working in a healthy, inclusive, and skilled workplace that puts forward the best conditions to bring together unique teams where employees are empowered to act. It also means being at the centre of ambitious economic and financial projects to see further and to do things differently, to fuel the success of Canadian entrepreneurs.

Choosing BDC as your employer also means:

• Flexible and competitive benefits, including an Employee Savings and Investment Plan where BDC matches part of your voluntary contributions, a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, a $750 wellness and health care spending account, to name a few   

• In addition to paid vacation each year, five personal days, sick days as necessary, and our offices are closed from December 25 to January 1

• A hybrid work model that truly balances work and personal life

• Opportunities for learning, training and development, and much more... 

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Vice-President, Advisory Services, is a pivotal leadership role tasked with steering the strategic direction, governance, and performance of the Advisory Services line of business. This role also encompasses driving innovation, expertise evolution, knowledge management and supporting national operations.

Key responsibilities include developing and implementing the advisory services strategy in alignment with BDC and COO strategic priorities. The VP is responsible for overseeing, prioritizing, driving, and coordinating the development and evolution of BDC Advisory Services' offerings. The VP is responsible for ensuring the evolution of expertise and the development of consulting solutions, implementing a knowledge management practice, managing a network of external consultants, and maintaining operational excellence in service delivery and sales support operations.

Additionally, the VP will lead the BDC Academy team, optimizing all delivery channels in collaboration with other AS functions (Business Development and Delivery), and ensuring that corporate functions and COO support teams are dedicated to supporting the advisory services line of business.

This role involves managing five directors, a total team of 45 employees, and 450 external consultants.

To achieve these objectives, the VP acts as the integration hub between Advisory Services and support functions, enhancing the impact of AS, increasing end-to-end productivity, and ensuring a world-class client and employee experience.

The ideal candidate will have a robust understanding of consulting services for SMEs, expertise in strategy development and implementation, and excellent stakeholder management skills. They should also possess a strong understanding of support functions across the organization, including Corporate Strategy, COO shared services, IT, Marketing, Finance, and Human Resources. The VP will lead in a cross-functional environment and be responsible for executing an integrated strategic vision across all Advisory Services.

CHALLENGES TO BE MET

Strategy and business planning

• Lead BDC Advisory Services' overall strategic planning process, in alignment with corporate and COO strategic priorities.

• Develop strategic initiatives and track their deployment.

• Lead the execution of the strategy, with an emphasis on mobilizing relevant internal and external resources and stakeholders.

• Develop and deploy the AS Business Unit Plan (BUP) with COO and other corporate functions to ensure resources are dedicated to implementing AS BUP projects.

• Develop and foster relationships with external networks to keep abreast of emerging trends and drive innovation at BDC.

Governance and Performance Management:

• Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and report on Advisory Services success. Includes overseeing the annual corporate planning activities for AS, setting objectives, financial planning and resources required to deliver on objectives.

• Monitor and evaluate the performance of the advisory services line of business, identifying key operational risks and implementing improvements as needed.

• Establish and maintain governance frameworks to ensure compliance and operational excellence, ensuring key stakeholders are mobilized for AS performance.

Expertise Development and Consulting Solution Development:

• Responsible for overseeing, prioritizing, driving, and coordinating the development and evolution of BDC Advisory Services' offerings.

• Ensure the management and the evolution of expertise in AS, providing standard frameworks  to assess and evolve expertise and solutions.

• Develop go-to-market material that positions AS expertise and solutions to solve emerging business challenges across Centres of expertise (productivity, supply chain, tariffs, technology, etc).

• Foster a culture of continuous learning and professional development for AS.

Network of External Consultants and Knowledge Management:

• Ensure the Network of External Consultants is managed to enable timely delivery of value for our clients.

• Ensure effective onboarding, training, and performance management of external consultants.

• Optimize external consultants’ productivity, performance and satisfaction for greater client experience.

• Provide tools, trainings and other engagement mechanisms to continuously evolve our external consultant’s expertise and relationship with BDC, ensuring they deliver high-quality services on our behalf.

• Implement knowledge management practices to capture and share knowledge across AS; Promote people’s expertise (internal and external) to fully leverage our potential and ensure AS experts are leveraged across BDC for thought leadership on areas of expertise.

Delivery and Sales support operations

• Lead the Delivery and Sales support operations team to ensure national best in class practices for the operational excellence of advisory services.

• Ensure optimal client experience, compliance with all necessary and required Policies and Procedures, risk management and support regular audits.

• Oversee, in close partnership with IT and COO support functions, the day-to-day operations of business applications, ensuring they run smoothly and efficiently. Drive technology roadmap to enhance performance of software applications to increase productivity of all activities in AS.

• Develop appropriate dashboards and periodic operational reports to ensure BDC senior management are adequately informed of key operational metrics/measures – to properly monitor the business, and course correct when necessary.

• Establish and maintain a close relationship with head office functions including Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Research and Information, Internal & external communications, Public Affairs to ensure alignment, coordination and effective use of resources.

BDC Academy Team Leadership:

• Lead the BDC Academy team, ensuring the development and delivery of training programs.

• Identify opportunities to promote Academy offering (leadership retreats, cohorts, e-learnings) with other lines of business and with external partners.

• Evolve the 1 to many offering for greater reach and impact.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, management, or a related field; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.

• 15 years of relevant experience in advisory services, business management, and people leadership. Experience in senior leadership roles, preferably in the management consulting sector.

• Provides strong leadership and vision to team members, contributing to the overall success of BDC and Advisory Services.

• Strategic capabilities: ability to develop and implement strategies to increase value and deliver on organizational objectives.

• Ability to lead and implement change across business lines.

• Ability to operate well in an ambiguous and rapidly changing environment.

• Highly developed organizational and planning skills.

• Proactive; seizes opportunities and acts upon them immediately; displays a sense of urgency with a motivation towards tangible results and delivering on commitments.

• Coaches and mentors team members in their professional development.

• Strong communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work with cross-functional teams across business lines and regions, bringing a positive influence.

• Continuous learning attitude, with the maturity to give and take feedback constructively.

• Fully bilingual in French and English, both verbal and written.

This position’s duties require access to confidential information. As a condition of employment, the position therefore requires a "secret" security clearance. The selected candidate will therefore have to submit to an investigation by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Satisfactory results are a condition of employment. 

Proudly one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible environment where all employees can thrive and feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work. If you require an accommodation to complete your application, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

While we appreciate all applications, we advise that only the candidates selected to participate in the recruitment process will be contacted.