General Manager – Luxury Retail Jobs in Dubai (UAE) 2023 | Chalhoub Group

INSPIRE | EXHILARATE | DELIGHT

For over six decades, Chalhoub Group has been a partner and creator of luxury experiences in the Middle East. The Group, in its endeavour to excel as a hybrid retailer, has reinforced its distribution and marketing services with a portfolio of eight owned brands and over 300 international brands in the luxury, beauty, fashion, and art de vivre categories. More recently, the Group expanded its expertise into new categories of luxury watches, jewellery, and eyewear.

Every step at Chalhoub Group is taken with the customer at heart. Be it constantly reinventing itself or focusing on innovation to provide luxury experiences at over 750+ experiential retail stores, online and through mobile apps, each touch point leads to delighting the customer.

Today, Chalhoub Group stands for 14,000 skilled and talented professionals across seven countries, whose cohesive efforts have resulted in the Group being ranked third in the Middle East and first in Saudi Arabia as a Great Place to Work.

To keep the innovation journey going, the Group has set up “The Greenhouse”, which is not just an innovation hub, but also an incubator space and accelerator for start-ups and small businesses in the region and internationally. This is just one of the several initiatives taken by the Group to reinvent itself, catalysed by forward thinking and future-proofing. The Group has also been embedding sustainability at the core of its business strategy with a clear commitment towards people, partners and the planet, and by being a member of the United Nations Global Compact Community and signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

What you’ll be doing

Our General Manager is responsible for designing and implementing the strategy, goals and objectives, setting budgets and commercial targets of their brand(s) in alignment with the Vice President’s strategic direction for the short and long term.
In addition, our General Manager is responsible for driving the development of their brand(s), predominately in its growth through new projects, whilst also reviewing and supporting the management of the current operational growth of retail/wholesale, commercially and financially.
Our General Manager will enable our business to achieve results through driving the capability of its human capital and promoting knowledge and information sharing whilst ensuring compliance within the Group’s guidelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop the business plan of the brand(s) in line with the strategic direction of the vertical and seek the buy-in of the Vice President (where applicable) or President
• Agree on portfolio’s commercial KPIs for the year with Vice President/President (where applicable) and cascade to team accordingly; continuously monitor progress and development towards strategic objectives
• Participate in strategic meetings with suppliers, marketing, merchandising and regional teams to negotiate commercial conditions (margin, animations, exclusivity…)
• Partner with Group leadership and run projects that enhance efficiencies around cost and time (i.e. any transformation or automation projects)
• Set the yearly fiscal and manpower budgets of the brand(s) with plans and needs and leverage available dashboards to monitor budget materialization
• Ensure People KPIs (i.e. nationalization, turnover rates) are agreed and cascaded to Line Managers (where applicable)
• React with agility to underperforming or successful initiatives
• Develop an evolving hybrid customer journey allowing to build, grow and sustain a community of loyal customers
• Manage store network investments (opening, renovation and closing) and digital investments (e.g. eCommerce, apps, digital in store, etc…)
• Create a strong digital revenue channel for the brand(s)
• Manage contracts and agreements with Brand(s) and request legal advisory where needed
• Align operationally with Brand(s) for implementation of contractual agreement
• Develop long-term vision for the category and a brand acquisition strategy
• Prepare a compass, identify gaps in portfolio to match customer’s aspirations and scout new brands
• Ensure that IRR by store conforms to the Group’s guidelines
• Manage portfolio of brands (scale fast successful brand or terminate quickly failed brand)
• Review bi-annual list of bad performing stores(retail-specific)/retailers (distribution-specific) to ensure remedial plan is implemented
• Ensure all OPEX and CAPEX commitments remain within monthly budget allotments
• Ensure that monthly and annual financial statements prepared by own financial team reflect the financial position of Boat
• Deliver business KPIs as agreed with VP (budget, P&L, People Metrics)
• Mentor and coach team and lead them to achieve brands’ vision and business plans milestones
• Assign operational responsibility to team while keeping accountability of deliverables
• Identify gaps in competences and manpower in team and find remedies with the help of the People Partner and Digital Business Manager
• Participate in Group’s succession planning by identifying high potential within the team, especially potential captains

What you’ll need to succeed

• Experience in identifying, pursuing and capturing new business opportunities
• Experience in financial management, negotiating and agreeing to contracts
• Able to nurture relationships with clients/ partners
• Able to influence without authority and to be regarded as a credible trusted leader of a business
• Self-aware, with the appropriate leadership skills to inspire high performing teams
• Experience in developing and managing a cross-functional team with a variety of skills and experience
• Experience of working in a fast-pace, matrixed environment
• Exceptional communication, relationship-building, and project management skills
• Master’s Degree in Operations Management/ Business Administration or any related field
• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience with at least 5 years in a similar role

What we can offer you

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality. We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.

We recognise the value that you bring, and we strive to provide a competitive benefits package which includes health care, child education contribution, remote and flexible working policies as well as exclusive employee discounts. To view all our perks and benefits, click here.

We Invite All Applicants to Apply

It Takes Diversity Of Thought, Culture, Background, Differing Abilities and Perspectives to truly Inspire, Exhilarate and Delight our customers. At Chalhoub Group, we are committed to inclusion and diversity.

We welcome all applicants to apply and be part of our exciting future. We ensure equal opportunity for all our applicants without regard to gender, age, race, religion, national origin or disability status.