Franchise Operations Officer

The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has a wide network of health-care facilities. An extensive network of non-governmental organization (NGO) clinics supplements the public sector system. For the past 30 years United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported healthcare service delivery through NGOs. In fact, it is estimated that 19% of the total population receives services through a USAID-supported NGO service site. Through this support, NGOs provide a package of service called, essential service delivery (ESD) services. This package includes family planning, antenatal care, immunization, limited curative care (LCC), as well as emergency obstetric care (EmOC) and diagnostic services.

The Smiling Sun Franchise Program (SSFP) works with 29 NGOs to provide good quality and affordable services in rural and urban settings. The SSFP franchise, one of the largest social franchises in the world, uses a unique double bottom line approach to turn the existing network of NGOs into a viable social health system, by helping these organizations to expand and strengthen the quality of their services while meeting financial sustainability targets and simultaneously serving the poorest of the poor. The aim of the sustainability portion of the project is to recover a portion of operational costs, preparing the network to continue or even enhance operation when facing an eventual decrease in donor financial support.  

Currently, the project has reached over 35% cost recovery while increasing services offered. By the fourth year of this project the Smiling Sun network should have reached 70% financial sustainability, measured as revenues divided by expenses, and expressed as a percentage. Therefore increasing patient volume and revenues, and its concomitant ability to cross subsidize services for the poor, is essential for the network success.

The Franchise Operations Officer is a leadership position, in order to guide highly motivated and fairly large Franchise Operations Team (FOT) employed by Chemonics International Inc, consisting of vastly skilled professionals from medical, engineering and business sectors. This position reports to the Franchise Manager and supervises eight professional staffs.  

Scope of Work

Principal duties and responsibilities

  • Lead the implementation of a unique social franchise business model in over 320 health clinics that are managed by 29 franchisees, ensuring that schedules are attained, outputs are delivered as per planed and business objectives are achieved;
  • Plan, design and implement the franchise operational activities and proactively monitor overall progress, resolving critical issues and initiating corrective actions as appropriate;     
  • Represent the franchise operations team and provide input in project reports and other documents as needed;
  • Generate and disseminate the best practices and lessons learned to program staff and franchisees;
  • Ensure franchise quality assurance, compliance, and procurement policies are implemented & adhered to;
  • Liaison and maintain close contact with relevant stakeholders.

Qualifications

  • 12 years of work experience including 7-10 years in senior management positions;
  • An MBA in Marketing or a advanced degree in a related field preferred;
  • Demonstrated ability to lead and coach a group of highly skilled and experienced professionals;
  • Balanced blend of working experience in commercial business sector, as well as in development sector, preferably in USAID funded project;
  • In-depth knowledge of franchise business management is highly desirable;
  • Excellent communication skill in Bangla and English is a must;
  • Prior Experience in health sector preferred.

Reporting

  • The Franchise Operations Officer is directly supervised by the Franchise Manager.

Level of Effort

  • Full time position.

 Instructions to apply: Interested candidates are requested to send their CV in strict confidence, mentioning current salary by emailing to jobs@smilingsunhealth.com by February 18, 2010.

Application Deadline: February 18, 2010