Introduction to General Management -

ADMN2167Glenn Brophey

General Management Who practices it? What is it? General manager’s guiding principles – aka questions

about Mission/Vision/Objectives/Strategy/Tactics An overall model Assessment of need to do Assessment of can do Assessment of want to do Identify gaps Evaluate strategic alternatives Implement the chosen strategy

Who practices “General Management”

1) Entrepreneurs - large and small2) Presidents, VP’s, General Managers,

Profit Centre Managers3) Functional managers contribute to

understanding of 1 and 2

What is “General Management”

The integration of all of the functions - Marketing, Operations, Accounting, Finance, HR, etc.,

Alignment of the organization to it’s environment

SWOT analysis is a well-known but limited method for doing analysis at the general management level

General manager’s guiding principles – or Where strategy fits?

The questions we have to ask to develop the guiding principles are;

Who we are? What do we do? Where are we going? How will we know when we get there? How will we get there?Mission and Vision Statements come out of the answers to

the questions Who we are? What do we do? and Where are we going?The Statement of Objectives comes out of the answers to the

question How will we know when we get there?Strategy is all about How we will get there?

Example of Guiding Principles

You are the management team of the HalifaxHurricanes a new community-owned NHL franchise,and you might choose the following guiding principles;Your Mission/Vision statement might be; Win the Stanley Cup while making as much money

as you can Your Statement of Objectives might be;

(measurable - time driven)1)Win 25 % of your games in the first three years,2) Make the playoffs by year five3)Win the conference by year seven, 4) Win a Stanley cup within the first ten years

Example of Guiding Principles (2)Your Strategy might be; Build a defense-first mentality (our competitive

advantage) to win some games in order to entice fan support while providing positive league experience for our young prospects.

Your Tactics might be; With the initial draft we will draft in the following order

(unless our pick allows us to acquire players that are more attractive to other teams and then we will execute trades) to achieve the following mix of players;

1) a solid veteran goalie2) three solid veteran defensemen 3) near term potential defense prospects 4) high energy unproven forwards5) long term goalie prospect

An overall model

Effective general management aligns what an organization needs to do with what it’s people want to do and what the organization can do

General management addresses the gaps in the alignment of these three factors with effective action plans

Strategy is about balancing

Want to do

Can do

StrategyNeed to do

Environment

Resources

Management prefs

Help with knowing what we need to do?

Align the organization with it’senvironment by,Determining a suitable strategy by a) Picking the right industry and,b) Delivering a value package that fits

that customer.

Picking the right industry

Porter‘s five forces model-Ideal industry has low competitive forces, low supplier power, low buyer power, low likelihood of substitutes and low threat of new entrants

PEST & Supply/Demand/Competition-Monitoring of opportunities and threats

Delivering value to the customer in your chosen industry

Use value package (product, price, package, speed of delivery, accessibility of seller, store surroundings, image created by advertising, guarantee, brand name, service, buyer’s past experience, reputation of the producer) to reveal what customer requires.

The essence of management is simple;Get to know what your customers value and deliver it better than your competitors do

Recap-Knowing what we need to do?

Picking the industry or spotting theopportunity and describing thecorresponding required value packagereveals what the environment tells uswhat we need to do

Remember -Strategy is about balancing

Want to do

Can do

StrategyNeed to do

Environment

Resources

Management prefs

Help with knowing what we can do?

Resource Analysis Analysis of

financial/operations/human/market position resources

Uses tools like - ratios, projected statements, process flow analysis, capacity analysis, Maslow, Herzberg market segmentation and research, core competency analysis

Strategy is about balancing

Want to do

Can do

StrategyNeed to do

Environment

Resources

Management prefs

Help with knowing what we want to do?

Management Preferences Uses tools like Vision, Mission

Statements, Corporate Objectives, etc.,

Analysis of values, goals, objectives,

Strategy is about balancing

Want to do

Can do

StrategyNeed to do

Environment

Resources

Management prefs

Typical strategic choices

Product/market choices Integration choices Diversification choices Growth methods

General Management – Strategic Selection

It’s where everything to be considered comes together and decisions are made

Almost always it involves a degree of compromise between what the firm needs to do, can do , and wants to do

General Management - Implementation

Once a direction is chosen, then the general manager needs to consider the most effective approach to implement the decision

Issues of leadership style, operating context, time available, all affect choice of method for implementation

Effective general managers Can operate both at the big-picture level

and at a detailed level. Are flexible in their approach as the context

dictates. They also recognize their own leadership style and find ways not to put themselves into situations that require changes in style they cannot perform

Deal with the hard issues as they arise, so that they don’t become a drain on the organization.