Accompany Advisory

B-BEE Level 2 Black Woman Owned firm, that has been a strategic partner to a top-tier (MBB) firm, working on strategic and operational transformations through advanced analytics, critical thinking, complex problem solving, and proactive performance and program management. Holds minority strategic investments in digital and disruptive businesses.

Managing Director

Nomanini

1️⃣ Co-founded digital informal sector banking platform; supported CEO and Exco; Non-Executive Director advising on strategy, value drivers, partnerships, talent sourcing, and financing to scale and grow.
2️⃣ Led commercial team of six direct reports across Africa and Middle East driving pipeline of organic and inorganic deals. Exco CCO role works with Product, Operations, and Engineering.
3️⃣ Drove Exco recruiting (Product, Operations Heads; CFO), and strategic projects around growth strategy, organisational structure, process improvement, ways of working; to drive clarity, performance growth.

Co-Founder; Investor; Board Director; Director Special Projects; CCO

Industrial Development Corporation

The IDC drives industrial value chain growth and development impact in Sub-Saharan Africa across its asset base of R120bn+. Worked with the CEO and Exco to articulate and drive delivery momentum across six key themes focused on IDC's twin pillars of financial sustainability and development impact.

Strategic Advisor to CEO

Spencer Stuart

Spencer Stuart is trusted by major multinationals and emerging companies around the world to help them make senior-level leadership decisions that have a lasting impact on their enterprises. Supported Exco teams source scarce talent and align on growth-focused strategic agendas. Worked across industries, with a focus on financial services, TMT, and FAANG.

Director

City of Johannesburg

Board member involved in strategic planning, policy critique, monitoring and challenging performance of executive team and wider management for a City of Johannesburg MOE.

Board Member, Director (Independent NXD)

McKinsey & Company

Strategy and management consultant across industries (esp. TMT, Energy, Logistics). Experience with internal firm building through best-practice consultant training and onboarding.

Management Consultant, Engagement Manager

South African Department of Health (KZN)

Worked in high-pressure roles as a Medical Officer, General Practitioner for a full-service community clinic, Emergency Response Doctor, and Paramedic College Lecturer. Key skills: problem diagnosis, structuring; fast fact-gathering; rational under pressure; psychology of teams.

Medical Doctor and Lecturer

Four Key Points:

1️⃣ Global Roots

I was born in Germany into an American-Persian Baha’i family. Speaking three languages at once was the norm. I've lived in Europe, the USA, and Africa, and seen 25+ countries.

I studied IB at a United World College, whose mission is to be a “force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace.”

The above compel an approach of questioning assumptions, listening deeply, and seeking robust, collaborative solutions.

2️⃣ Doctor First

After IB, I toured 16+ European countries for a year with a German-based dance group; my dream was to become a multi-media producer. I became a medical doctor instead.

Apart from medical know-how, this discipline drove me to understand: 

(1) Patterns, systems, and insights from large volumes of data quickly
(2) People’s psychology, motivations, and drives dramatically improve team delivery
(3) That ‘life-and-death’ (LAD) is serious, but rare; life is mostly not LAD, so take moments under pressure to think clearly

3️⃣ Top-Tier Consulting

I’ve spent two decades in top-tier consulting, with McKinsey, Spencer Stuart, and otherwise.

I’ve held Executive, Board, and Advisory roles where broad perspectives were essential. 

One example: advising the CEO/Exco of a Financial Institution with a $10bn asset base and 800 professionals. Over two years, this client's profits doubled, and its funding pipeline grew by 147% to $1bn+ per year.  

I’ve seen the outsized value of structured, fact-driven, analytical, and disciplined approaches to incremental and innovative projects, pipelines, and problems.

4️⃣ Problems I Help You Solve

(1) I’ve spent 20,000+ hours over two decades processing leadership learnings and questions, which I post regularly. Ring the bell on my profile to be notified of these.

(2) Join “The Impactful Executive,” newsletter, where we address the three pains CEO face weekly.

(3) I help Boards and 'G3' Executives (CEOs, CHROs, CFOs) unlock value through: 

* Analytical Thinking (value drivers, model building) & Strategic Clarity (high-impact decisions)
* Execution Discipline (incremental and innovation-focused program management and value-building)
* Top Team Sciences (Exco engagement, effectiveness, efficiency, and senior team dynamics) 
* Executive Talent & Soundboarding (executive search global best practice, leadership advisory)

(4) I can hold a few Board and Exco advisory roles globally (esp. high-tech, high-growth).

If you'd like help driving outsized impact, please reach out.

Dr Ali Monadjem

Agile Business Solutions Limited

I am tasked with delivering high-quality projects on time and within budget using Agile methodologies. I Manage cross-functional teams and ensure client satisfaction, prioritizing continuous learning.

My focus areas are:

Strategic Project Management: Setting clear project goals, resource allocation, and milestone tracking.
Team Leadership & Development: Motivating and upskilling teams, fostering collaboration for peak performance.
Client Satisfaction: Ensuring seamless communication and exceeding client expectations through top-notch project execution.
Continuous Improvement: Implementing process enhancements and staying abreast of the latest technologies to drive efficiency and innovation.

Project Portfolio Manager

As Product Manager at Nomanini, I undertook;

•	Aligning of product roadmap with organizational strategy.
•	Product Owner tasks, including iteration planning, backlog refinement, coordinating squad scrum ceremonies
•	Prioritizing the product backlog based on business impact and value.
•	Gathered traders' feedback from insights from research and market visits.
•	Stayed updated on market developments, regulatory changes, and competitor activities.
•	Crafted Product Requirements and specifications and translated to epics and user stories.
•	Interacted with clients for product updates, issue resolution, and alignment with strategic objectives.
•	Developing end-to-end process flows and customer journeys for new products and enhancements as well as performing UATs.
•	Cross-functional collaboration with internal teams and vendors for issue resolution and clarification during development 
•	Analyzing retailer data for VAS products, loan uptake, and repayment behaviors across different countries.
•	Reviewed wireframes towards UI/UX design enhancements for the retailer app and dashboards.

Product Manager

Safaricom PLC

As a Commercial Manager, my role encompassed;

•	Periodic data analysis and Reporting as well as implementing their automation or the Fixed Data Tribe to ensure initiatives address customer experience issues for NPS growth and demand reduction
•	Cultivating a culture of Customer Obsession by facilitating co-creation and defining partner operating standards for consistency.
•	Coordination and governance of product backlog, Customer experience and Revenue squads to verify prioritized backlog items to align with commercial goals
•	Providing training and empowerment for Direct and Partner channels to strengthen relationships and enhance capabilities.
•	Creating comprehensive product guides, support documentation, and knowledge bases for the Fixed products portfolio to ensure clarity and consistency.
•	Reviewing customer feedback, ensuring closure, and driving regular reviews on existing products to foster a customer-centric approach in development improving overall customer experience and reducing demand calls.
•	End-to-end business process documentation to ensure clarity and consistency in the Fixed products portfolio.
•	Conducting data analysis to derive insights contributing to the achievement of the tribe's OKRs and setting KPIs for data-driven decision-making.

Commercial Manager - Fixed Data

As the Customer support manager, I lead support operations for Fixed Internet customers executing;
•	Formulating Strategy and support partners governance for Fixed Solutions long-term and short-term customer needs.
•	Analysis of customer feedback, gather insight from support tickets in order to craft and implement initiatives reducing customer support resolution time, SLA, repeat calls and visit
•	Coordinate with customer touchpoints i.e. (Sales, Call center, Retail) teams to provide 2nd level support and resolution of customer escalations.
•	Evaluate and fine-tune ISP technical customer support policies and procedures.
•	Establish, provide leadership and coaching for the Customer support engineers, Dispatch and Field technician teams.
•	Analysis of customer feedback, and gather insight from support tickets to craft and implement initiatives reducing customer support resolution time, SLA, repeat calls or visits.
•	Timely communication and alignment with Internal and external stakeholders in case of Faults, Proactive maintenance or system downtimes of fixed solutions, in addition to customer communication.

Customer Support Manager - Home Solutions

As Key accounts and Product Manager I was responsible for;
•	Customer engagement through interviews and surveys for feedback on services to guide service and product improvements.
•	Execute Retention initiatives, such as win-back outbound calls, Offer campaigns, etc., and monitor their performance.
•	Optimize differentiated support and unique product subscription journeys for High-Value Customers.

•	Retention Analysis and Reporting.
Customer segmentation of home internet and IOT customers ecosystem.
Establish, providing leadership and coaching for retention account managers and win-back outbound calls teams. 
•	Execute Customer Value Management (CVM) and Loyalty campaigns in home internet-connected homes.
•	Drive growth by building strategic add-on products for active home fiber internet customers.
•	Execute CVM SMS/Email Product education and marketing campaigns Customer communication.

Key Accounts & Product Manager - Home & Consumer IOT

As Sales Account Manager for market development in the Home and content department I took on the challenge to;

•	Establish Strategies for High-value packages to drive the growth of customers and Revenue   
•	Execute and monitor upgrade campaigns for home internet customers.
•	Channels empowerment (Sales and Customer care) through training. 
•	Establish a product knowledge base for reference on portfolio products to optimize operational excellence and uniform experience across touch points.
•	Defining and documentation of portfolio products customer journey and product support processes.
•	Operations support for Direct and Indirect (Dealer) sales channels.

Sales Account Manager - Home and Content Department

As a Retail store Stock Controller, I undertook responsibilities of;

•	Ensuring adequate stocking at the Retail store assigned as per the established retail inventory guidelines
•	Liaising with vendors (Logistics, Repair centers and device manufacturers) to ensure agreed SLA and OLAs are met for a flawless after-sales service.
Coordinating with the Warehouse for seamless shipping stocks to and from the retail store.
•	Stock reconciliation and reporting for the retail store to ensure the accuracy of records through the Inventory Pipeline
•	Liaise with suppliers for repair of faulty phones and ensure collection and delivery to the required care center 
•	Accurate and timely preparation of stock forecast reports for submission as per requirement.
•	Maintain Product knowledge on all Safaricom products to enable faster customer resolution in the retail store.

Retail Stock Controller - Retail Department

As a Retail Customer Experience Executive, I was tasked with;

•	Revenue generation - Achievement of individual and contribution to team revenue target of the retail store.
•	Deliver high-quality customer service in all interactions with customers as per Safaricom set standards and provide differentiated quality of service to high-value customers.
•	Ensure prompt escalation of all issues not resolved during customers’ visits to the relevant resolution teams and source expertise where necessary.
•	Follow to resolution of escalated issues and keep customers updated.
•	Maintain product knowledge on all Safaricom products & services to enable swift customer resolutions.
•	Cascading of best practices and tips to colleagues.

Customer Experience Executive - Retail

As Retail Center Agent I was entrusted with;

•	Delivering high-quality customer service in all interactions with customers as per Safaricom set standards and providing a differentiated quality of service to high-value customers.
•	Ensuring accuracy in performing payment transactions for Customers and staff on the manual and computer systems (POS, CRM & Orders/Ticketing).
•	Merchandising - Participate in sales activations, merchandising of products, and marketing material in the retail store.
•	Ensuring accurate reconciliation of all allocated stock items and cash from sales at the close of business.
•	Attending training and developing relevant knowledge and skills
•	Achieving assigned revenue targets through sales of Safaricom Products and services within and out of the retail store.

Retail Center Agent

Versatile professional with over 13 years of distinguished expertise in the Telecom and Fintech sectors, excelling in various roles. Throughout my career, I've successfully navigated diverse challenges, showcasing a strong focus on strategic product management, customer-centricity, and technical expertise.

Having led cross-functional teams, I take pride in delivering high-impact results, earning recognition for outstanding performance for example achieving 46.1% market share in Fixed services in Kenya. Acquiring 136 merchants after An MVP Launch at Nomanini. 

I am dedicated to continuous learning and improvement, with a passion for transforming innovative ideas into successful products. My unique blend of skills allows me to harness technology's transformative influence, contributing to the enhancement of lives and driving innovation.

Key Skills: Strategic Product Management, Cross-functional Leadership, Customer-Centric Approach, Technical Proficiency

Let's connect and explore how my expertise can bring value to your team or organization.  Feel free to get in touch with me through my email: Johnmmaina@outlook.com

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The Battle

Dr Ali Monadjem

John Maina PMP ®

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