Leads multiple retail regions and stores, driving financial performance, omnichannel sales, budgeting, inventory, customer service, operational compliance, and company initiatives. Manages and develops regional managers and large teams, audits store performance, supports openings and closings, coordinates marketing and campus relationships, and represents Follett with academic stakeholders. Requires strong financial acumen, retail expertise, strategic leadership, communication, and frequent travel to stores and campus events.
Job Summary & Responsibilities Preferred Qualifications
Position Overview
The Group Vice President (GVP) develops and implements corporate strategies to achieve the store's financial, operational, and customer-service goals while addressing each Group, Region, and Store's unique challenges. The GVP will drive accountability for financial planning, omnichannel sales, expense management, goal setting, territory allocation, Follett Strategy, and Program activations and implementation as well as stakeholder relationships.
In addition, the GVP will be the corporate representative for Follett to our campuses and be accountable for communicating account performance and opportunities, industry trend data, implementing Follett solutions and growth initiatives such as Follett Access, Follett on Demand, and campus integrations of Follett Discover and collaborating to execute.
As a leader of teams, the GVP will motivate, coach, train and strengthen Regional and Store Managers as team leaders, retail operators, and business owners, serve as a resource and provide expertise on key customer issues, team staffing, and management, store operations and company policies and procedures, and ensure that our locations are meeting/exceeding the Operational Standards and that all operations are being executed in accordance to company policies, procedures, and applicable laws.
Responsibilities
- Responsible for providing leadership and oversight for a number of regions. Provides strategic vision in support of company objectives. Regularly communicates with school contacts regarding Follett business issues, stores, and industry trends. Establishes a budget with sales/ profit goals for each region and store and monitors each region and store budgets to measure sales/profit performance, monitor cash flow, track inventory, and insure compliance with company policies and procedures.
- Manages and supervises regional managers including staffing, selection, training, and performance management. Makes salary recommendations and when necessary disciplines and discharges assigned staff. Communicates with regions to provide updates using a variety of formats including conference calls and regional meetings.
- Works with Home Office departments to ensure company initiatives, store policies, procedures, and standards, Acts as an advocate for one Home Office department completing quarterly meetings and reports with the corresponding advocate.
- Visits stores to inspect their merchandise presentation, ensure loss prevention procedures are enforced, policy adherence, and verify customer service excellence. Suggests improvement and resolves any problems that may require high-level decision-making. Provides feedback to ensure correct product assortments, promotions, and planning for events.
- Works closely with business contacts, store transitions, and home office departments on new store openings and store closings.
- Accountable for the group's budget. Analyzes monthly stores' and regions' financial performance. Identifies any trends and adjusts budgets and store plans accordingly. Plans the annual budget and forecasts course materials and other department sales, profits, expenses, sets targets for course materials sales, and reviews regularly.
- Plans the coordination of marketing Follett for new contracts and renewals to a school in conjunction with the Marketing representative.
- Meets with key members of the academic community on campuses to remain informed of new developments, assess FHEG's reputation, and promote Follett as a leader in the college bookstore industry.
- Attend campus events.
- Bachelor's degree is required. Master's is preferred.
- 5+ years of managing Regional/District Manager level, including multi-unit management experience.
- 10+ years of management experience leading a team of 150+ total employees, including training, developing, and coaching.
- Strong financial acumen and retail industry experience are required in this role.
- Strong organizational, interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills.
- High energy, self-motivated, with a positive attitude that is contagious to others.
- Ability to multi-task as well as stay on task and concentrate with constant activity
- Self-motivated and inspired to produce results.
- Must be able to make business decisions based on financial reports.
- Exceptional business etiquette and the ability to effectively conduct presentations and influence top management are paramount.
- Road warrior -- visit stores and audit stores' performance.
- Ability to solve problems and demonstrate critical thinking skills.
Follett Higher Education Westchester, Illinois, USA Office
3 Westbrook Corporate Center, Westchester, Illinois, United States, 60154
Similar Jobs
Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • Sales • Security • Software • Cybersecurity • Data Privacy
Leads a team of Technical Program Managers and oversees complex, cross-functional technical programs across the Product organization. Responsibilities include program strategy and execution, stakeholder alignment, continuous planning, risk and dependency management, performance development, and establishing TPM frameworks and operational standards. The role partners with engineering, product, design, research, and executive leadership to improve delivery predictability, scalability, collaboration, and customer value.
Top Skills:
AgileModern Web TechnologiesSaaS
Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • Sales • Security • Software • Cybersecurity • Data Privacy
Design, build, deploy, and support scalable Java microservices on AWS. Provide technical leadership, architectural direction, code reviews, troubleshooting, proof-of-concept development, and cross-functional collaboration. Work with high-throughput data, messaging systems, distributed architectures, observability, and AI-assisted development tools. Participate in on-call support, mentor engineers, lead architectural initiatives, and deliver reliable SaaS platform features.
Top Skills:
AirflowAutomated Testing FrameworksAWSBig DataClaudeContinuous DeliveryCursorData LakesDatabricksDatadogDistributed SystemsEvent-Driven ArchitectureGrafanaJavaKafkaMachine LearningMicroservicesPrometheusRedisSnowflake
Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
Sell and advise customers on Life, Home, and Auto insurance through phone, email, text, and chat. Manage leads and sales pipelines, guide members from intake through quoting and fulfillment, identify cross-sell opportunities, and help build SoFi Protect’s operational processes. Collaborate cross-functionally to improve the business and deliver tailored coverage solutions.
What you need to know about the Chicago Tech Scene
With vibrant neighborhoods, great food and more affordable housing than either coast, Chicago might be the most liveable major tech hub. It is the birthplace of modern commodities and futures trading, a national hub for logistics and commerce, and home to the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. This diverse blend of industry influences has helped Chicago emerge as a major player in verticals like fintech, biotechnology, legal tech, e-commerce and logistics technology. It’s also a major hiring center for tech companies on both coasts.
Key Facts About Chicago Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 245,800; 5.2% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: McDonald’s, John Deere, Boeing, Morningstar
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, fintech, software, logistics technology
- Funding Landscape: $2.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Arch Venture Partners, MATH Venture Partners, Jump Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners
- Research Centers and Universities: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
