Chief Strategy Officer — Consumer Broadband Franchise

The mandate

This consumer-broadband franchise has strong household reach and sees attractive demand among home-based businesses, small offices, shops and professional practices. Many already buy consumer services while expecting faster restoration, clearer support, security or a static address. The opportunity is real, but neither existing model fits.

The company is appointing a Chief Strategy Officer to define a scalable small-enterprise growth thesis. The CSO will determine target segments, needs, proposition boundaries, route to market, service model, investment case and partnership choices. They will also oversee strategic planning and early portfolio governance so the thesis survives contact with customer behaviour and operating cost.

This urgent replacement is not mandated to launch a predetermined bundle. The board wants a leader who will test whether the franchise has a right to win, identify the narrow problems worth solving and reject features that would turn a repeatable offer into miniature bespoke outsourcing. Growth must improve lifetime contribution and use existing assets intelligently.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Singapore, the role influences approximately 1,600 employees and material partners across Singapore and a wider international region. The strategic perimeter touches broadband product, channels, digital journeys, care, field service, network, security, payments, finance, data and partnerships. Separate enterprise and wholesale units hold capabilities that may be reused through explicit service agreements.

The addressable market is diverse. A sole professional may value dependable video calls and priority help; a café may need guest connectivity, payment resilience and simple security; a small clinic may have stronger privacy and continuity needs. Employee count or revenue alone will not predict willingness to pay or operational consequence. The strategy must segment by work pattern and dependency without making intrusive assumptions.

Economics can deteriorate quietly. Premium support may attract customers with existing problems; equipment and installation variants raise cost; field priority can displace household work; a security feature may create ongoing monitoring obligations. The CSO must account for acquisition, service, credit, channel and network costs over the full relationship.

First-year agenda

The first ten weeks will establish a granular fact base. The strategy team will analyse current small-business-like customers, service use, faults, care demand, churn, payment, address, channel and contribution. Interviews and field observation will identify tasks the customer is trying to protect and the consequences of failure. Existing enterprise-light propositions and lost prospects will be reviewed without assuming their design should continue.

The CSO will select a limited number of priority segments and jobs to be done. Each will have a defined customer, service dependency, proposition, exclusions, willingness-to-pay hypothesis and operational pathway. Segments requiring bespoke network design, contractual negotiation or regulated assurance beyond the model will be referred to the enterprise unit rather than forced through a standard channel.

Proposition tests will start with the smallest meaningful promise. Options may combine suitable access, managed Wi-Fi, backup connectivity, business-grade support, simple cyber hygiene or service-status evidence. Every element needs clear ownership and support boundaries. Labels such as priority, resilient or secure will be translated into measurable delivery rather than left as marketing language.

Route-to-market design will consider digital self-selection, consumer stores, targeted outbound, accountants or technology partners and enterprise referrals. Channel economics and suitability controls will be tested. Advisers must understand when a customer belongs in the standard offer and when the needs require specialist solutioning; commission cannot reward misclassification.

The service model will be designed before scale. Customer identity, fault triage, appointment priority, backup activation, equipment replacement and escalation must work across household-oriented systems. The CSO will require end-to-end pilots that include billing, care and cancellation, not just acquisition. Failure demand and manual intervention will be measured as seriously as sales.

Partnership choices will be selective. The franchise may not need to build every cyber, device or support capability, but a partner's service becomes part of the customer promise. Commercial terms, data access, incident coordination, brand, recovery and exit will be tested. Marketplace breadth will not substitute for accountable product ownership.

The investment case will use cohort evidence and stage gates. Early pilots should answer willingness to pay, support demand, network impact, retention and cross-sell. Capital and operating capacity will be released as those assumptions hold. The CSO will stop or narrow a proposition when complexity grows faster than contribution, even if gross additions look encouraging.

By year-end, the board expects a validated small-enterprise strategy, several operating cohorts, a clear scale or stop decision and a repeatable governance model. Success may be a focused franchise rather than a broad market entry; strategic discipline includes choosing a smaller prize that can be served well.

Leadership responsibilities

The CSO will lead corporate and portfolio strategy for the franchise, presenting choices to the group sponsor and aligning consumer, enterprise and technology executives. They will maintain a clear record of assumptions, evidence and decisions. Functional agreement is desirable, but unresolved ownership cannot be concealed beneath a shared presentation.

They will build a strategy team capable of customer research, economics, scenario analysis and implementation governance. Team members will spend time in channels and operations, and insight must be written in language that product and service leaders can use. The CSO will avoid becoming the owner of every strategic project once line accountability is established.

The role will also monitor external developments in access technology, business formation, cyber expectations, channel partnerships and competitor behaviour. Scenario work will identify what would invalidate the thesis and where options should be preserved, without turning distant possibilities into immediate investment.

Measures of success

The board will review qualified customers, conversion, activation, recurring contribution, support demand, fault incidence, retention and movement between standard and enterprise pathways. It will examine economics by cohort and route to market, including partner and field costs. Gross connections without stable contribution will not qualify as success.

Strategy measures include assumptions tested, decisions reached at stage gates, capital released or stopped, service readiness and ownership transferred to the line. Customer evidence will cover whether the proposition solved the intended business dependency and whether exclusions were understood.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring 22–28 years in telecommunications, digital subscriptions, financial services, technology platforms or another scaled service business. They must have shaped and launched a new segment strategy that sat between consumer standardisation and enterprise complexity. Direct accountability for unit economics and operating design is important.

The board will seek examples of narrowing an attractive market, designing a referral boundary between segments and stopping a proposition after service cost invalidated the growth case. Candidates should understand broadband, channels, small-business needs, partnership economics, cohort analysis and stage-gated investment.

The successful CSO will be curious about customers and unsentimental about a thesis. They must translate ambiguity into testable choices, earn trust across consumer and enterprise teams, and say what the organisation will not offer. Strong written judgement and financial fluency are essential.

Compensation and appointment terms

Annual base pay is expected between SGD 420,000 and SGD 570,000, together with annual incentive and long-term participation. Reward will reflect validated strategic value, sustainable cohort economics, customer outcomes and quality of execution choices. Final arrangements will consider comparable portfolio responsibility and verified forfeited awards.

Confidentiality

The franchise remains unnamed because segment economics, proposed offers, partner options and network capabilities are sensitive. Detailed research and pilot information will follow identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must not submit customer records, pricing experiments, partner terms or proprietary strategy materials from another organisation.