Questions and Answers of Principles Of General Management

What is the definition of a general manager?
How has the role of the general manager evolved?
Who are the major stakeholders of a corporation? Are general managers required to consider the interests of all major stakeholders in their decision making?
What is the difference between shareholder capitalism and stakeholder capitalism?
What is corporate governance?
What is the distinctive role of the general manager within our system of free enterprise, capitalism, and competition?
What are the duties of the members of the board of directors?
How should the performance of a CEO be evaluated?
What are the dynamics of the board-management relationship?
Should an individual simultaneously hold the positions of CEO and chairman of the board? Why or why not?
What are the variables that should be considered in determining the most effective organizational structure for a business?
What are the essential roles of a general manager?
Are certain roles more important than others? If so, which ones are most important? If not, why not?
How does the analogy of “architect” fit the general manager?
What factors complicate the tasks of the general manager?
How can an aspirant general manager best prepare for the responsibilities of the position?
Who are the important evaluators of performance for a business?What does each evaluator desire?
What is a business concept?
What should a general manager consider in assessing the situation of a business?
What should a general manager consider in determining whether an organization is ready to begin a process of strategic management?
What is the meaning of the phrase, “change the people, or change the people”?
What are the differences between strategic goals and financial goals?
How might a general manager transfer goals into action?
What role does critical thinking play in strategic planning?
Why is process so important in strategic management?
How does a general manager determine the starting point for a company’s strategic management process?
What are the “preliminaries” necessary for the successful formulation of strategies? Describe them.
What are the differences between the mission, the vision, and the values?
How does management ensure that it understands the industry, the market, and the ongoing changes to them?
What must the general manager understand about the competitors and the external environment?
How does the general manager’s choice of the means to compete become imbedded in the organization?
What is the purpose of a strategic plan?
What is the difference between a holding-company plan and an operating-company plan?
How are strategic objectives translated into action?
To whom should a strategic plan be communicated and why is communication of the plan so important?
How are the strategic plan, the business plan, and the annual plan linked with one another?
What factors determine the appropriate length of the planning horizon?
Why is it necessary to provide the planning data in such detail?
What is the reason for separating the cash balance between “minimum cash” and “excess cash”?
What should the general manager learn from sensitivity analyses?
Which elements of JL Inc.’s business plan reflect a pattern of continuous improvement?
How does the annual plan or budget relate to the first year of the business plan?
What is the utility of providing quarterly forecasts of all key input data and the resulting financial statements?
How does management determine when the existing annual plan or budget should be revised?
Which of the quarterly results should the general manager closely monitor?
How should the general manager divide his or her time between monitoring current-year results and planning for the future?
What is a business model, and what are its key elements?
Why is pricing strategy so important to profitability?
What are the elements of cost control?
What is meant by the incremental cost of debt?
Why is projecting cash requirements so critical in a growing firm?
What are the principal elements in the cash flow–growth relationship?
How does inflation affect the need for cash?
What is the capacity-demand relationship?
Should a general manager understand the firm’s sustainable growth rate?
Why is it important for everyone in a business to understand the target market segment?
Is it preferable to have a high market share of the target segment or a given share of the total market?
How does the general manager pinpoint his or her organization’s weaknesses?
How does a general manager with a liberal arts background identify such technical problems as overdesign or overmanufacture?
What is the result if the firm can lower the cost to the consumer of a premium product to equal the prices of competitors’ less-effective products?
Why is the productivity of a firm’s workforce important strategically?
What factors influence employees’ willingness to support efforts to increase productivity?
Why should measures of labor productivity include all of a firm’s employees, as opposed to only the direct production workers?
How do growth economies differ from scale economies or learning curve effects?
What is the significance of strong growth economies among the Fortune 500?
What natural instincts cause some managers to resist detailed comparisons with competitors?
How might knowledge of economies of scale and growth relationships among competitors assist managers in strategic planning efforts?
How can two-way performance mapping assist a manager in understanding the competitive structure of his or her industry?
Why might managers want to know which competitors are creating jobs, which are eliminating jobs, and over what type of time frame?
What led to the intense interest in EVA in the 1990s?
Should assets be valued at replacement costs?
How should the capital charge rate be determined?
How should a general manager choose between EVA and ROI measures?
Why are ROI measures more widely used?
What are the major sources of cash for a company?
What are the major uses of cash for a company?
How should the sample company decide which capital projects to fund?
How can a general manager defend discretionary projects that may appear to shareholders to be “perks”?
What role does cash play in the restructuring of a company through acquisitions and divestitures?
What are the reasons for share repurchases?
What are the benefits to the shareholder?
Under what circumstances is it prudent to increase leverage by purchasing shares?
What are the methods of share repurchase?
How can the impact of share repurchases on stock price be evaluated?
Why is the fit between the general manager and the situation so important?
What factors influence the type of general manager needed?
What are the four levers that provide an impetus for change?Are there others?
Why is it important for a general manager to take action?
What are the risks associated with inaction?
Why is the form of organization important to a business?
Which form of organization provides the best experience base for those aspiring to be general managers?
Why is the alignment between the organization and systems so important?
What role does culture play in implementing change?
Why should an aspiring general manager seek experience in at least two functional areas?
Why is the metaphor of a casting director appropriate for the role of a general manager?
Why might an organization have too many people and what should a general manager do about it?
How does an organization determine the kind of people it needs?
Why is staffing so important to a firm?
How does a company go about getting the right people? How does it keep them?
What is the role of personnel administration?

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