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Information about General Management

For the term general manager used in professional wrestling, see .


The term general manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, although the duties of the general manager role vary by industry.

Generic usage

Most commonly, the term general manager refers to any executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement. This is often referred to as Profit & Loss (P&L) responsibility. This means that general managers usually oversee most or all of the firm's marketing and sales functions as well as the day-to-day operations of the business. Frequently, the general manager is also responsible for leading or coordinating the strategic planning functions of the company.

In many cases, the general manager of a business is given a different formal title or titles. Most corporate managers holding the titles of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or President, for example, are the general managers of their respective businesses. More rarely, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), or Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will act as the general manager of the business. Depending on the company, individuals with the title Regional Vice President, Country Manager, Product Manager, Branch Manager or Segment Manager may also have general management responsibilities.

In consumer products companies, general managers are often given the title Brand Manager or Category Manager. In professional services firms, the general manager may hold titles such as Managing Partner, Senior Partner, or Managing Director.

In non-profit enterprises, the general manager is often given the title Executive Director.

Industry-specific usages

Hotels

In the hotel industry, the general manager is the head of hotel operations. He or she oversees the entire operation including other senior executives and their respective departments. These may include a Director of Food & Beverage, Executive Housekeeper, Chief of Engineering, Director of Sales & Marketing, and Director of Maintenance, Repair, & Operations. The GM typically works long hours and often has significant industry experience. In larger or busier facilities, the GM may be supported by an Assistant General Manager.

A hotel GM handles the budget, forecasting, payroll, accounting (payables and receivables) and often coordinates with corporate management and or property owners on strategic planning for the hotel.

Retail stores

Main article: Store manager
The title of General Manager in the context of retail establishments often refers to the top manager of a given store. The general manager has the ultimate operational authority for the store and manages the outlet's budget and personnel.

Sports teams

In most professional sports, the General Manager is a team executive responsible for acquiring the rights to player personnel, negotiating their contracts and reassigning or dismissing players no longer desired on the team. The general manager may also have responsibility for hiring the head coach of the team.

For many years in U.S. professional sports, coaches often served as general managers for their teams as well, deciding which players would be kept on the team and which ones dismissed, and even negotiating the terms of their contracts in cooperation with the ownership of the team. In fact, many sports teams in the early years of U.S. professional sports were coached by the owner of the team, so in some cases the same individual served as owner, general manager and head coach.

As the amount of money involved in professional sports increased, many prominent players began to hire agents to negotiate contracts on their behalf. The intensified contract negotiations that resulted and the overall increased need for professional business management drove many sports teams to separate the positions of coach and general manager. Some coaches, however, still insist on being allowed to fill both positions as a condition of employment.

In some sports leagues salary caps have been adopted to maintain a competitive balance and in these leagues it is one of the functions of the general manager to ensure all player contracts are in accordance with these caps, as well as consistent with the desires of the ownership and its ability to pay.

General managers are usually responsible for the selection of players in player drafts and work with the coaching staff and scouts to build a strong team. In sports with developmental or minor leagues, the general manager is usually the team executive with the overall responsibility for "sending down" and "calling up" players to and from these leagues, although the head coach may also have significant input into these decisions.

Some of the most successful sports general managers have been former players and coaches, while others have backgrounds in ownership and business management.

The term is not commonly used in Europe, especially in soccer, where the position of manager or coach is used instead to refer to the managing/coaching position. The position of director of football might be the most similar position on many European football clubs.

See also

Professional wrestling, or pro wrestling, is the athletic performance, management, and marketing of a form of entertainment that is based on simulated elements of catch wrestling, mock combat and theatre.
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corporate titles or business titles on company officials as a means of identifying their function in the organization. In addition, many non-profit organizations, educational institutions, partnerships, and sole proprietorships also assign titles of the same nature.
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Business law
Business organizations
Basic forms:
Sole proprietorship
Corporation
Partnership
(General · Limited · LLP)
Cooperative
USA:
Business trust · LLC · LLLP
Delaware corporation
Nevada corporation
UK/Commonwealth:
Limited company
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Revenue is a business term for the amount of money that a company receives from its activities in a given period, mostly from sales of products and/or services to customers.
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cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost.
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An Income Statement, also called a Profit and Loss Statement (P&L), is a financial statement for companies that indicates how Revenue (money received from the sale of products and services before expenses are taken out, also known as the "top line") is transformed
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Marketing is a social process which satisfies consumers' wants. The term includes advertising, distribution and selling of a product or service. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, often through market research.
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Sales are the activities involved in providing products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.[1]
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Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets
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Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.
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Chief Executive Officer (CEO), or chief executive, is the highest-ranking corporate officer, administrator, corporate administrator, executive, or executive officer, in charge of total management of a corporation, company, organization or agency.
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President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides , who sits in leadership (from Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit"; giving the term
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Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a company or public agency is the corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the business or agency.
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A Chief Operating Officer or Chief Operations Officer (COO) is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation. The COO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, monitoring the daily operations of the company
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The Chief Marketing Officer, or CMO, is a job title for an executive responsible for various marketing-related activities within an organization. Most often the position reports to the chief executive officer.
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Aspinwall Classification System (Leo Aspinwall, 1958) classifies and rates products based on five variables:
  1. Replacement rate (How frequently is the product repurchased?)
  2. Gross margin (How much profit is obtained from each product?)

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The discipline of brand management was started at Procter & Gamble PLC as a result of a famous memo by Neil H. McElroy. In other terms:

Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand.
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Professional services are infrequent, technical, or unique functions performed by independent contractors or consultants whose occupation is the rendering of such services.
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A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", also "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is a legally constituted organization whose primary objective is to support or to actively engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit purposes.
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hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare.
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Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure.
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The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids. As a noun, it refers to the liquid that is ingested. It is often used in a narrower sense to refer to alcoholic beverages (as both a verb and a noun).
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A housekeeper is a person responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of (usually residential) premises.
  • Housekeeper (industrial)–responsible for the cleaning of institutional premises

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Engineering is the applied science of acquiring and applying knowledge to design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development, also known as ECPD,[1] (later ABET [2]
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Sales are the activities involved in providing products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.[1]
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Marketing is a social process which satisfies consumers' wants. The term includes advertising, distribution and selling of a product or service. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, often through market research.
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Maintenance may refer to:
  • Maintenance of an organism
  • Maintenance, repair and operations
  • Maintenance of way
  • Car maintenance
  • High maintenance
  • Preventive maintenance
  • Software maintenance
  • Child support or alimony, also called spousal support

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For the rental car company, see .


Budget (from french bougette) generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs
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Please help [ improve this article] by expanding this section.
See talk page for details. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. (tagged since January 2007)
In a company, payroll
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Accountancy (profession) or accounting (methodology) is the measurement, statement or provision of assurance about financial information primarily used by managers, investors, tax authorities and other decision makers to make resource allocation decisions within companies,
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