General Manager

**iStore** - The home of everything Apple, iStore is Africa’s largest Apple Premium Reseller. With a retail footprint of more than 28 physical and online stores across Africa that provide expert advice, Apple Authorised Repairs, Business, Education, training and technical support for anything and everything Apple.

As a market leader in the consumer electronics distribution space, we strategically align our services and values with our global partners - some of the most valued and loved brands in the world - to ensure that we deliver world-class solutions to both the retail and enterprise industry we service across the African continent.

**Requirements**:
**Qualifications**:

- Relevant Qualification
- Sound commercial skills and business acumen
- Sound (4 -7) years management experience managing teams

**Min Requirements**:

- 7 years practical managerial experience with a proven track record of operating effectively within a sales & marketing and customer service focused environment, which is strongly target driven.
- Experience within the retail sector

**Key Performance Areas.**

**1) Communicate & drive the sales target**

**2) Business Development, Customer Relationship and Business Growth**
- Provide input into budget formulation and manage performance in line with budget.
- Develop & agree a business plan for each store.
- Manage the debtors by close liaison with the debtors team.
- Strategic planning in the education vertical.
- Provide in country support and assistance to existing reseller base.
- Grow the B2B base
- Work closely with the marketing team to manage the BDF process to ensure the Apple ecosystem is communicated to the consumer, corporate customer and educational institutions
- Manage & execute in store events

**3) Leadership & Personnel**
- Build, organize, motivate and lead a dynamic, high performance team.
- Inspire, motivate and support iStore teams and continuously follow up with iStores to maximize sales. Provide leadership and ensure team members are effectively managed, coached and developed.
- Grow managers skills and EQ to facilitate growth of the leadership team.
- Build succession capacity of Store Managers
- Support the growth of an embedded culture focusing on demystifying the Apple brand, customer service, increasing traffic into stores, increasing conversion rates, technical expertise, support.
- Ensures adherence to all Labour legislation and relevant acts.
- Performance management appraisals & scorecards conducted in line with company policy.

**4) Customer Experience/Customer interaction**
- Ensure the highest standards of customer engagement and service are set, measured and met.
- Handling customer conflict effectively.
- Demonstrate a hands-on and interactive approach to customers and ensure that the entire iStore team buys into this approach and demonstrate this, and ensure this ethos permeates into the iStores.
- Focus on developing long term customer relationships and ensure that this is a regional approach

**5) Training**
- Daily, “on the sales floor “coaching of sales staff to equip the team to increase sales conversion rates. This is a strategic and critical role of the GM. Build Store Manager’s capacity to fulfil this role effectively.
- Ensure that each store has high level of product, technical and sales skills through intensive and ongoing training of team members, including ensuring that all Apple & Core Group training and certification standards are met.

**6) Process & Procedures**
- Monitor adherence and remedy any non-compliance issues.
- Ensure that all Company policies and procedures are in place and adhered to, to minimise risk and maximise efficiencies
- Identify any gap areas which detract from consistent delivery to meet above & develop necessary iStore Processes that are not in place to provide store staff with daily, weekly and monthly roadmaps that facilitate consistency of delivery within the iStores.
- Control all controllable expenses.
- Be accountable for the safeguarding of stock, cash/debtors and fixed assets in the region
- Identifies potential risk and eliminates gaps by recommending areas of improvement.
- Ensure that all iStore technical infrastructure is operational.
- Attention to detail and uncompromising with company process and procedures

**Stock**
- In conjunction with the planning team work to ensure that the store has the correct mix and volume of stock per stock item.
- Assist in the merchandising layout in each store and ensure the planning team supply the right stock in the right quantities to create an impactful display.
- Ensure stock rotation to minimise unnecessary stock ageing
- Stock planning and optimization.
- Oversee control of stock items and assets within iStore in area of responsibility, with focus on minimizing shrinkage and/or all pilferage.
- Ensure business assets are secured

**Merchandising**
- Conduct customer/store/retail visits where applicable (displays/compliance/ stock levels/competit