A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

and

cost In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in whic ...

elements of a company's

income statement An income statement or profit and loss accountProfessional English in Use - Finance, Cambridge University Press, p. 10 (also referred to as a ''profit and loss statement'' (P&L), ''statement of profit or loss'', ''revenue statement'', ''stateme ...

, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of the firm's

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in ...

functions as well as the day-to-day operations of the business. Frequently, the general manager is responsible for effective planning, delegating, coordinating, staffing, organizing, and decision making to attain desirable profit making results for an organization (Sayles 1979). 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 A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

(CEO) or president, for example, are the general managers of their respective businesses. More rarely, the chief financial officer (CFO),

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

(COO), or

chief marketing officer A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...

(CMO) will act as the general manager of the business. Depending on the company, individuals with the title managing director, regional vice president, country manager, product manager, branch manager, or segment manager may also have general management responsibilities. In large companies, many vice presidents will have the title of general manager when they have the full set of responsibility for the function in that particular area of the business and are often titled

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

and general manager. In technology companies, general managers are often given the title of

product manager A product manager (PM) is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the product strategy behind a product (physical or digital), ...

. In

consumer products A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, but t ...

companies, general managers are often given the title brand manager or category manager. In

professional services Professional services are occupations in the service sector requiring special training in the arts or sciences. Some professional services, such as architects, accountants, engineers, doctors, and lawyers require the practitioner to hold profe ...

firms, the general manager may hold titles such as managing partner, senior partner, or managing director.

Industry-specific usages

Hotels

In the hotel industry, the general manager is the head executive responsible for the overall operation of an individual hotel establishment including financial profitability. The general manager holds ultimate managerial authority over the hotel operation and usually reports directly to a regional vice president, corporate office, and/or hotel ownership/investors. Some of the common duties of a general manager include are hiring and the

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includ ...

of an executive team, which consists of individual department heads, who oversee various hotel departments and functions, budgeting and

financial management Financial management is the business function concerned with profitability, expenses, cash and credit, so that the "organization may have the means to carry out its objective as satisfactorily as possible;" the latter often defined as maximizin ...

; creating and enforcing hotel business objectives and goals;

sales management Sales management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. It is an important business function as net sales through the sale of products and ...

;

marketing management Marketing management is the organizational discipline which focuses on the practical application of marketing orientation, techniques and methods inside enterprises and organizations and on the management of a firm's marketing resources and ac ...

;

revenue management Revenue management is the application of disciplined analytics that predict consumer behaviour at the micro-market levels and optimize product availability, leveraging price elasticity to maximize revenue growth and thereby, profit. The primary ...

;

project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...

; contract management; handling of emergencies and other major issues involving guests, employees, or the facility;

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

;

labor relations Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work in its broadest ...

; local government relations; and maintaining business partnerships. The extent of duties of an individual hotel general manager vary significantly depending on the size of the hotel and company organization; for example, general managers of smaller boutique-type hotels may be directly responsible for additional administrative duties such as accounting, human resources, payroll, purchasing, and other duties that would normally be handled by other subordinate managers or entire departments and divisions in a larger hotel operation.

Sports teams

In most

professional sports In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought l ...

, the general manager is the 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 and firing the head coach of the team. For many years in U.S. professional sports,

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

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. This intensified contract negotiations to ensure that player contracts are in accordance with salary caps, as well as being consistent with the desires of the team’s ownership and its ability to pay. General Managers are usually responsible for the selection of players in player

drafts Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

and work with the coaching staff and

scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...

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 football, where the position of manager or coach is used instead to refer to the managing/coaching position. The position of

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

might be the most similar position on many

European football UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...

clubs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:General Manager Management occupations

Industry-specific usages

Hotels

Sports teams

See also

References