General Managers In Action

Intended as a casebook for advanced management courses in MBA programs and executive education, this volume consists of eighteen classic case studies from a variety of international businesses--including General Electric, Gold Star, Johnson and Johnson, British Petroleum Company, and the Monsanto Company--that illuminate the major decisions of business life and provide executives with strategies for dealing with specific situations. To supplement the case studies, Aguilar discusses the critical issues faced by general managers and includes explanatory notes for each case as well as references for further study.

Stop! If you have been looking for the one resource for managing a business of any size, this is it. Based on the extensive business experience of five experts, this authoritative guide provides an in-depth look at what every leader must know about managing across departments, functions, divisions, or companies. Drawing on decades of combined experience, John Colley and colleagues detail the wide range of skills, tools, and conceptual understanding as well as the qualities of leadership that a successful general manager must acquire. In an era of specialization and specialists, the authors return due focus to the generalist. No other book so passionately and thoroughly examines the roles and responsibilities of the general manager and the full scope of this distinct, pressure-filled occupation. The authors explore the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the job and discuss how the skilled manager moves an organization from abstract goals to definitive action. For every profit center or plant manager, function head, division president, or CEO, this book is indispensable reading.

This book analyses changes which have occurred in the organization and management of the UK public services over the last 15 years, looking particularly at the restructured NHS. The authors present an up-to-date analysis around three main themes: the transfer of private sector models to the public sector, the management of change in the public sector, and management reorganization and role change. In doing so they examine to what extent a New Public Management has emerged, and ask whether this is a parochial UK development or of wider international significance. This is a topical and important issue in management training, professional, and policy circles. Important analytic themes include: an analysis of the nature of the change process in the UK public services, characterization of quasi markets, the changing role of local Boards, and possible adaptation by professional groupings. The book also addresses the important and controversial question of accountability, and contributes to the development of a general theory of the New Public Management.