General manager

“ As a matter of fact, I can't make you general manager; all I can do is to give you the title of general manager. And a title is like a suit of clothes—it must fit the man who tries to wear it. I can clothe you in a little brief authority, as your old college friend, Shakespeare, puts it, but I can't keep people from laughing at you when they see you swelling around in your high-water pants. ”

“ General Manager.
And this is not merely a literary effort on the part of the management; it is obligatory and final. When we have about accepted as conclusive the time-honored theory that "You must give the public what it wants," and that it wants bilge-water in champagne glasses, we are confronted with the vaudeville theatre, no longer an experiment, but a comprehensive fact. ”

“ When differences of opinion developed among the interested assistant general managers as to the relative ultimate economy of different mechanical or structural devices, the general manager would be invoked to give a decision that really would be worth something, because made after considering different viewpoints. Under the old order of things, the superintendent of motive power or the chief engineer is tempted to seek the ear of the general manager on the latter's best natured day to put over a requisition for some pet device. ”

“ The general manager is responsible not only for the lives of the traveling public, but of the army or railroad employees under him and he is supposed to know everything, and must always be prepared to do the right thing in the right place at the right time, and as in many cases life and death depend on it, he must know how. ”

“ Thus, the company is forced to create its first management team: a general manager with the right doses of respectability, connections and skills, a chief financial officer, a host of consultants and so on. ”

“ There is no more reason for locating either one at a store or at a shop than there is for locating a general superintendent in a switch shanty near a yard. General officers must see the whole property and maintain a balance among its component units, which are normally operating divisions. If I were you, as between your purchasing agent and your general storekeeper, I would appoint the most experienced an assistant general manager, so that his office file can be logically and consistently consolidated with your own. ”

“ My Dear Boy:—An able and successful general manager—not all able men and not all general managers are successful—recently called attention to a most important distinction in the training and practice of superintendents. ”

“ Any wise board of directors, and in the degree in which they are endowed with the requisite wisdom, will be careful to give their general manager full discretion, and not to hamper him with too close an accounting of the details of his administration, so long as he shows gratifying results. He must be a strong man ”

“ Control in the operation and management of the business, as distinguished from general supervision, is the customary test. I look in vain to find in the present arrangement any evidence that the owner acted as the manager of this business. ”

“ If you make him believe that he can learn what men of the same class around him are learning, that you, his elder brother, are in duty bound to help him, you will be astonished at the response of his latent intelligence. The great managers of the feudal period were forceful drivers. The great managers of to-day and to-morrow are great teachers, the greatest of all experts, because they show the man below how to do it. ”

“ And in this is illustrated the importance of creating any business organization without regard to individuals.
9. Organization of Mercantile Business. Leaving for a time the organization of a manufacturing enterprise, we will consider the application of the principles of organization to a trading business. In such a business, the administrative section remains the same: stockholders, directors, officers, executive committee, general manager. At this point the business naturally divides into the departments of buying and selling.
[21]
Fig. ”

“ I nearly burst into a laugh. 'Do you read the Company's confidential correspondence?' I asked. He hadn't a word to say. It was great fun. 'When Mr. Kurtz,' I continued, severely, 'is General Manager, you won't have the opportunity.'
“He blew the candle out suddenly, and we went outside. ”

“ It is of course true that as an establishment increases in size, or as a combination increases the number of its branches, especially if they are widely scattered, it becomes impossible for the manager to give his personal supervision to the details of management of each institution. An executive officer of the highest skill, however, will so select his subordinates, so direct their work, and so infuse into them his own spirit, that, under careful inspection, comparatively little will be' lost from his inability to be present personally in each separate establishment. ”

“ If an executive of a company is confident that his directors approve his policies, appreciate his obstacles, and are ready to back him up in any crisis, his energy and enthusiasm for the common object never flag. If department heads and

foremen are assured that the manager is watching their efforts with attention and regard, approving, supporting, and sparing them wherever possible, they will anticipate orders, assume extra burdens, and fling themselves and their forces into any breach which may threaten their chief's program. ”

“ Everything in the world has its function, and is good or not good in so far as it fulfils this function more or less perfectly. Was a miner a good miner? Then he was complete. Was a manager a good manager? That was enough. Gerald himself, who was responsible for all this industry, was he a good director? ”

“ Before the work is given out each day, the manager should decide exactly what is most required, and apply it to that. He should write down, when distributing the men, the works, and the number employed on each. ”

“ Most strong men like to take responsibility and to be dominant in The Industrial Manager.affairs. When, owing to the advantages of combination that have been enumerated above, the prospect of a virtual monopoly seems certain, provided due skill in management is exercised, it is natural that the manager should wish to bring about the combination in order that he may himself have the satisfaction of being in substantially absolute control of the entire industry in a country, or possibly even in the world. ”

“ The respective duties of the manager and the man in charge of improvement, and the limits of the authority of the latter should be clearly defined and agreed upon, always bearing in mind that responsibility should invariably be accompanied by its corresponding measure of authority. ”

“ The successful manager is he who is enabled to unite his working force of subordinate officials and workmen in a complete and loyal organization, all working for the common good and for the success and prosperity of the concern. ”

“ Those bodies, therefore, are frequently useful, even for administrative business, but in general only as advisers; such business being, as a rule, better conducted under the responsibility of one. Even a joint-stock company has always in practice, if not in theory, a managing director; its good or bad management depends essentially on some one person's qualifications, and the remaining directors, when of any use, are so by their suggestions to him, or by the power they possess of watching him, and restraining or removing him in case of misconduct. ”

“ A young man who had been successful in Golden Rule management hearing of the situation saw in it a possible opening, and asked this man to give him a trial as manager before giving up his business altogether. ”

“ Even in old times, however, they sheltered themselves from the greater pressure of coarse work. They appointed a manager—a Peel or a Walpole, anything but an aristocrat in manner or in nature—to act for them and manage for them. ”

“ Truth will out as sure as the sun will shine, and the manager cannot conceal his subordinates' abilities and pass them off as his own for any length of time.
The good manager will say a kind word to the boss about the employe, if he is the right sort. ”

“ The manager who recognizes the necessity of educational supervision, undertakes, first, a careful time study of each class of work. Then he analyzes the results, and deduces methods of securing greater economy. Having evolved a method of procedure, he reduces it to writing, and furnishes his foremen with detailed written or printed instructions to be followed, or, where the workmen are intelligent enough, the instructions are given to them directly; otherwise it is the function of the foreman to instruct the workmen. ”

“ The writer hopes that the management of "initiative and incentive" will be recognized as representing the best type in ordinary use, and in fact he believes that it will be hard to persuade the average manager that anything better exists in the whole field than this type. ”

“ Every manager has some more or less marked idiosyncrasies, and these must be known and studied by prospective employees. The personality of the management and its effect upon the worker under its direction and leadership are other important factors. The manager who is a keen, positive driver will get good results with a certain type of people in his organization, but only with a certain type. The efficiency of every man in the organization is also conditioned very largely upon the personal preferences, personality, and methods of his immediate superior—his foreman, gang-boss, or chief. ”

“ The first step, after deciding upon the type of organization, should be the selection of a competent man to take charge of the introduction of the new system. The manager should think himself fortunate if he can get such a man at almost any price, since the task is a difficult and thankless one and but few men can be found who possess the necessary information coupled with the knowledge of men, the nerve, and the tact required for success in this work. The manager should keep himself free as far as possible from all active part in the introduction of the new system. ”

“ All who understood anything of the matter--the manager of the works, a plain but intelligent man, with whom I had several times been brought into contact in matters concerning the workmen, and always found him friendly, the young chief of the Technical Bureau, the head-foreman, even Klaus himself--all were impatient and dissatisfied with their employer, who still held back from saying a decisive word, though every month of delay was an irreparable loss. ”

“ Equality between all organs will be underscored for the ultimate benefit of the enterprise.
This will need an understanding of the individual ‘self’. You will have to forget the outer trappings and concentrate on your core. How do I see myself as an accounts manager/ personnel manager/ research manager in order to enhance my organisation? Once this belief in your self is established, then how to behave as a Manager, how to lead others will be easy to understand. Search of this self will lead to the individual's growth through transformation. ”

“ The manager selected should be prohibited, as much as the directors, from experimenting with new methods or machinery. A really experienced man will require no check in this direction, as he will not risk ruining his reputation. ”

“ Men Are Utilized. — The exceptional man who possesses executive ability in all lines, and balance between them all, is the ideal man for a manager, and his special "all round" ability would be wasted in any position below that of a manager. ”

“ Supervision of Workers.—It is plain that the leader's job is one of supervision and direction. It is his business to see that each member of the team does his part to the best advantage for the general result, and so to know the individual capacities of his men that he can assign the right man to each task. This, as in fact do all the other duties of leadership, requires him to be continually watching the individual performances of his men, commending, correcting, and co-ordinating their efforts. ”

“ The most experienced managers therefore frankly place before their workmen the problem of doing the work in the best and most economical way. They recognize the task before them as that of inducing each workman to use his best endeavors, his hardest work, all his traditional knowledge, his skill, his ingenuity, and his good-will—in a word, his "initiative," so as to yield the largest possible return to his employer. The problem before the management, then, may be briefly said to be that of obtaining the best initiative of every workman. ”

“ The experience of self- governing workshops shows that the relationship between the indispensable director or manager (who must, like the conductor of an orchestra, decide the tune and set the time) and the workers whom he directs becomes hopelessly untenable if this director or manager is elected or dismissible by the very persons to whom he gives orders. ”

“ A manager is appointed by the city authorities, subject to the supervision of the director, and monthly reports are made. City funds are appropriated, and the supply is kept up from the last vintages, so that the public may be supplied with a pure article at moderate prices. ”

“ The entire profit of an establishment frequently depends upon the skill of the manager. When many different establishments are organized into one, it is possible to select the most skilful manager of all and Jo put him in charge of the combination, thus securing in many cases, if the trust includes practically all of the establishments in the entire industry, the ablest manager in the country for them all. ”