Meet Antoinette!

Every month we write about one of our team member at Haussmann. This August meet Antoinette, country manager in Zambia!

Name: Antoinette Rapitsi

Nationality: South African

Age: 43

City: Lusaka

Job Title: Country Manager of Zambia

Years of Experience: Over 15 years, about 10 years of running my own Interior Design studio with my business partner and 7 years working for other companies doing corporate and retails projects.

What does your job title mean? What does your job entail? Developing new business and partnerships, mapping the build and design market, identifying competitors, ensuring profitability, managing overall operations (including generating revenue and realistic targets), recruiting staff and managing them, producing detailed business operations plans, creating budgets and producing a performance report. Managing client relations and being an ambassador for Haussmann Group.

I have“...over 15 years of [experience and spent] about 10 years of running my own Interior Design studio...”

When do you wake up? It varies, generally 6h30

At 9 am... I am still going through emails, responding to emails, and reading the news online, making follow up calls before people get busy

At 11 am... I am generally at meetings with new contacts, leads or suppliers. My meetings are after rush hour and before lunch, between 10h00 and 12h30.

What does lunch normally look like for you? If this relates to food - then it consists of how I may feel like on the day, on a good day, salads and wraps, on a bad, not enough time day, coffee and pastry.

At 1 pm... I am generally taking lunch, most offices take lunch seriously here, Lusaka almost halts between 13h00 and 14h00, if it’s not a lunch meeting you can’t get anyone to see you.

At 3 pm...I am doing administration, more follow up calls and searching for new leads

At 5 pm...I get ready for a walk with my dog

How does a workday end for you? What time do you normally leave work? When there’s nothing more pressing for the day

What do you do after work? An event? Dinner? More work? Different things at different times, yes, when there’s a business networking event for me this is the best time and not during working hours, Art exhibitions, some reading, catching up with my husband and long discussions on saving the world

What time do you go to bed? 22h00 - 22h30

Is there anything about your job you’d like people to know? It requires a lot of face time with your clients and effective communication skills.

We appreciate your hard work, Antoinette! Thank you for taking the time to share your day with us!