The General Manager S Story

In this unprecedented study of America's leading executives, John Kotter shatters the popular management notion of the effective "generalist" manager who can step into any business or division and run it. Based on his first-hand observations of fifteen top GMs from nine major companies, Kotter persuasively shows that the best manager is actually a specialist who has spent most of his or her career in one industry, learning its intricacies and establishing cooperative working relationships. Acquiring the painstaking knowledge and large, informal networks vital to being a successful manager takes years; outsiders, no matter how talented or well-trained seldom can do as well, this in-depth profile reveals. Much more than a fascinating collective portrait of the day-to-day activities of today's top executives, "The General Managers" provides stimulating new insights into the nature of modern management and the tactics of its most accomplished practitioners.

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.

The Role of the CEO in Corporate Transformation is a narrative research study on how four successive CEOs influenced the transformation of their company over a thirty-year period. The book is intended for students of business leadership as well as for business leaders seeking to understand better the dynamics of leadership and corporate transformation. The book argues that what leaders do to lead and how they lead is significantly influenced by the context of the operating environment as well as by the dynamics of their interaction with key stakeholders. The thesis is that to understand the role of leaders in strategic change consider their responses to constraints and challenges and what enactments they engage in.