General Management:
Processes and Action by David Garvin focuses on implementation, and the way that
general managers get things done. Typically they work through processes like strategic
planning, business planning and budgeting to move their organizations forward. A deeper
understanding of the skills necessary to influence the design, direction and functioning
of processes is essential to effective management. The aim of the General Management
is to develop in students a deeper understanding of these activities and their links to
performance. The author, David Garvin, is known for his cases. His cases are currently
being used at such schools as Wharton, Stanford, Columbia and MIT.
This text focuses on
Implementation, or "how-to" get things done. This area of study is important in
the practice of Management.
General Management
focuses on high-level processes that are of interest to general managers; for this reason,
virtually all case protagonists are division presidents or higher.
As in the real world, this
text uses examples of managers from all size companies. From the very small companies with
only six employees to the very large companies such as American Express.
Set in a module format,
Garvin's text is divided into six parts, each corresponding to an essential task of
general management and the associated processes for carrying it out.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
- 1. The Processes of
Organization and Management
MODULE I: STRATEGIC
PROCESSES
- 2. Arthur D. Little, Inc.
- 3. R. R. Donnelley &
Sons: The Digital Division
- 4. Allstate Chemical
Company: The Commercialization of Dynarim
- 5. Time Life Inc. (A)
- 6. Watermill Ventures
- 7. Note on the Major
Appliance Industry in 1988
- 8. Electrolux: The
Acquisition and Integration of Zanussi
- 9. Emerson Electric:
Consistent Profits, Consistently
- 10. Xerox Charts a New
Strategic Direction (Excerpts)
MODULE II: RESOURCE
ALLOCATION PROCESSES
- 11. Ellis International
Division: Patrick O'Brian
- 12. Americhem: The Gaylord
Division (A)
- 13. Westinghouse Electric
Corporation: Automating the Capital Budgeting Process (A)
- 14. Peterson Industries:
Louis Friedman
MODULE III: DECISION-MAKING
PROCESSES
- 15. British Steel
Corporation: The Korf Contract
- 16. Note on Process
Observation
- 17. Strategic Decision
Processes in High Velocity Environments:
Four Cases in the
Microcomputer Industry
- 18. Making Fast Strategic
Decisions in High-Velocity Environments
- 19. Decision-Making Exercise
(A)
- 20. Growing Pains
- 21. Decision-Making Exercise
(B)
- 22. Decision-Making Exercise
(C)
- 23. The Case of the
Unhealthy Hospital
- 24. A Thousand Days
- 25. Thirteen Days
- 26. Decision Making at the
Top: The All-Star Sports Catalog Division
MODULE IV: LEARNING
PROCESSES
- 27. Building a Learning
Organization
- 28. Types of Learning
Processes
- 29. A Note on Knowledge
Management
MODULE V: MANAGERIAL
PROCESSES
- 30. Serengeti Eyewear:
Entrepreneurship within Corning Inc.
- 31. The Soul of a New
Machine
- 32. The Transition to
General Management Website
- 33. No Excuses Management
- 34. Harvard Business School
Publishing
MODULE VI: CHANGE PROCESSES
- 35. SAP America
- 36. Millipore Corporation
(A)
- 37. Harvey Golub: Recharging
American Express
- 38. Pepsi's Regeneration,
1990-1993
- 39. Leveraging Processes for
Strategic Advantage
631 pages