Regional Director

Petra, Regional Director Germany

My duties:

  • Direct and manage a network of stores
  • Support, train and evaluate store managers and staff
  • Manage promotions, merchandising and operational marketing

My qualities:

  • Management
  • Versatility
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Organizational skills

How did you discover Maisons du Monde?
I'm German, but I live in Toulouse. One day I was at a friend's house, and I loved her home decor. She told me about the Maisons du Monde store which was just around the corner... I learned about Maisons du Monde from her. I was surprised because I'd been living there for 2 years and I had never noticed the store.

What do you like most about your current job?
The diversity.
I work on a wide range of issues: hiring, administration, business development, business trips to Germany. I'm very involved in multiple projects on the ground. For example, I help with merchandising in stores. I appreciate being able to connect with people, particularly with store personnel. It's this diversity, the mix between the relationship with the teams, the various collections of Maisons du Monde and the projects that I love.
 

Quelles sont pour vous les qualités nécessaires pour être responsable régionale Allemagne ?
You need to have good interpersonal skills, mobility, business sense, the ability to act quickly and effectively; iyou need to be organized but also have a sense for numbers and especially "visual" skills for visual merchandising. I often have to deal with issues in the German stores.

Sometimes, you have to react very quickly, taking into account the traditions and current situation of the cities. In this context, you also need managerial skills: how to integrate and train staff, be able to anticipate and plan ahead.

Can you describe a typical day?
Monday is my "day at the office". That's when I take care of administrative issues, reports and sales. I have telephone conferences, briefings to prepare my week. On Tuesday, I fly to Germany. Until Friday evening, I work with the 8 German stores, on site or remotely.

In the stores, I'm very attentive to the teams. Since I'm someone who focuses on the positive, I work "lösungsorientiert", that is to say, we work together to find solutions. We discuss the sales results per week (or balance sheets at month end), we analyse how the week has gone, where the strengths and weaknesses are, what are the needs in terms of hiring, etc.
I check inventory and product presentation, visual merchandising is very important at Maisons du Monde, which has a very wide range of products ...Interacting with the subsidiaries is very important to me. I like connecting with the employees even if sometimes you need to keep some distance, but for me it's really a mutual relationship.

Do you have a story to tell that reflects the spirit and values of Maisons du Monde?
As I said at the start, I learned from a friend that there was a Maisons du Monde store just near my house. I have a degree in "Textildesign" and I had worked in the fashion industry before. I really like the Maisons du Monde products. I applied for a job as manager of a French store in Toulouse.

With my experience, the job suited me perfectly, I was just hesitant because of the language barrier. I never thought it would work. It was at a time when the company wanted to expand into the German market. A recruiter offered me the position of Regional Director for Germany.

Giving me this chance is one of the Maisons du Monde values, which I greatly appreciate.