Regional General Manager

 

Role Purpose

The Regional General Manager leads and owns end-to-end performance of a regional business unit — commercial, operational, financial, people, and safety. The role translates Group strategy into a regional operating plan and delivers it through a network of branches, a regional sales and operations team, and shared-service partners. This is a general-management role, not a functional one: the successful incumbent thinks like an owner, balances short-term delivery against long-term asset and customer value, and builds institutional capability beyond their own tenure.

 

Organisational Positioning

Key Interfaces: Chief Operating Officer (line manager); CEO, CFO, CHRO, CIO (functional partners); fellow General and Group Managers (peers); Regional leadership team; Branch workforce; Key and strategic account customers at executive level; OEMs and supplier partners; Industry bodies and regulators (DMRE, DoEL).

 

Key Responsibilities

1. Translate Group strategy into a regional operating plan with clear targets, initiatives, and owners; contribute regional market intelligence into Group strategy formulation.
2. Own the regional P&L — revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, ROIC — and deliver monthly forecasts the Group can rely on, with precise variance explanation and corrective action.
3. Drive commercial performance: own the regional sales pipeline, pricing execution, CRM discipline, and personal accountability for retention of top accounts.
4. Ensure operational excellence: on-time-in-full deliveries and collections, fleet availability, service response, workshop productivity, and sustained ISO 9001 accreditation.
5. Discharge OHS Act s.16(2) accountability for the region; build a culture of stop-work authority, near-miss reporting, and timely close-out of SHEQ audit findings.
6. Build and lead the regional leadership team; develop a succession pipeline for every critical role; actively grow internal talent and embed Group values.
7. Manage capex proposals and working capital (debtors, stock, WIP) within Group policy; drive debtor collections to target DSO.
8. Ensure regional delivery on Employment Equity, B-BBEE, and all applicable legal and policy compliance obligations.

 

Functional Competencies

• Commercial and financial acumen: fluent P&L and balance sheet reading; makes disciplined trade-offs between growth and return; diagnoses variance from first principles.
• Operational grip: understands how branches and workshops actually run; uses data and site visits — not only dashboards — to know what is going on.
• Leadership at scale: builds teams that perform without constant intervention; develops successors; gives hard feedback well; navigates union, customer, and peer relationships with the same steady register.
• Judgement under pressure: good decisions with incomplete information; prioritises safety and integrity without hesitation; holds Group policy even when commercially inconvenient.
• Executive presence and candour hold the room with customers and ExCo alike; tells the truth early; shifts on the strength of a better argument, not volume or rank.
• Bias to action with discipline moves fast where speed compounds; slows down where reversibility matters; runs the region in person, not from behind a desk.
• Resilience and creativity absorb setbacks without losing the plot; finds white-space growth and commercial constructs competitors are not running.

 

Technical Skills & Tools

• Financial management systems and P&L analytics (ERP — SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or equivalent) [Required]
• CRM system fluency (Dynamics 365 or equivalent) for pipeline oversight and commercial governance [Required]
• Microsoft Office Suite at advanced level (Excel modelling, PowerPoint for ExCo reporting) [Required]
• Deep working knowledge of MEWP / capital-equipment rental commercial models (utilisation, rate yield, residual value, life-cycle economics) [Required]
• Fluency with OHS Act requirements, ISO 9001 frameworks, and B-BBEE / EE scorecard mechanics [Required]
• Valid Code B driver’s licence [Required]
• OHS Act s.16(2) designation (formalised on appointment) [Required]

 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Revenue to budget (%) and YoY regional revenue growth (%); fleet utilisation (%).
• EBITDA margin (%), ROIC (%), DSO (days), and capex yield versus Group target.
• On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) (%), fleet availability (%), Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) (hours), ISO 9001 audit outcomes.
• LTIFR and TRIR trend; s.16(2) registers current; SHEQ audit findings closed within cycle time.
• NPS / CSI trending up; SLA adherence (%); complaint resolution cycle time; strategic account plan execution status.
• Employee engagement score; voluntary attrition (%); succession cover ratio; internal promotion rate.
• Regional delivery on Employment Equity and B-BBEE scorecard targets.

 

Qualifications & Experience

Education

• Relevant tertiary qualification (NQF 7) in business, engineering, commerce, or equivalent [Required]
• Post-graduate business qualification (MBA or NQF 8/9) [Preferred]

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience, including a minimum of 5 years accountable for a P&L at multi-site or regional level [Required]
• Demonstrated track record of growing revenue, EBITDA, and ROIC in a rental, capital-equipment, industrial-services, or similar asset-intensive business [Required]
• Leadership exposure across both commercial and operations disciplines [Required]
• Experience in mining, construction, or heavy-industrial end-markets [Preferred]
• MEWP / access-equipment sector experience [Preferred]

Language Requirements

• English (fluent, written and verbal) [Required]

 

Compensation & Total Reward

Total Guaranteed Package: Patterson D-Upper band; indicative TGP R1.8m – R2.6m per annum, positioned at or above the 50th percentile of the SA MEWP and capital-equipment rental market.

Short-Term Incentive: On-target bonus 25–35% of TGP, stretch up to 50% (weighting to be determined).

Vehicle & Travel: Structured travel allowance included in TGP; fuel card for business travel.

Benefits: Retirement fund with disability and funeral benefits.

Final offer constructed against the successful candidate’s qualifications, skills, experience, and current package, within the Group’s remuneration framework.

 

Working Conditions

Travel	Regular intra-region; periodic national
Physical Demands	Site visits to branches, workshops, and customer operations; ability to attend active industrial environments
Hours	Standard office hours with regular after-hours customer and operational engagement
Location Type	Regional office with significant branch and customer-site presence

The role holder may be required to undertake any other lawful and reasonable responsibilities consistent with the seniority and scope of t