What is a General Manager?

What is a General Manager?

🔥NEW A General Manager (GM) is an executive / senior role within a company, overseeing most or all of a firm's functions. Contrary to functional managers, GMs have a broad, overall responsibility for profit and loss in a company (or a major part of it), and they manage across all or at least multiple functions (i.e., finance, marketing, operations).

DEFINITION OF A GENERAL MANAGER
A general manager is a person who has a broad, overall, general management responsibility for a particular business or organization or some substantial area of it.

JOB TITLES of GENERAL MANAGERS
Persons having a general management responsibility may be called in various ways and hold many different job titles, including (but not limited to):

• President
• Senior Vice-President (SVP)
• Vice-President (VP)
• Regional Vice-President (Regional VP)
• CEO
• Senior Partner
• Partner
• Managing Director (MD)
• Director
• General Manager (GM)
• Manager
• Country Manager
• Segment Manager
• Regional Manager
• District Manager
• Branch Manager
• Etc.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GENERAL MANAGERS
People performing the above mentioned jobs are all general managers. What sets a GM apart is that he or she has a broad, overall, general management responsibility for a particular area of a business or organization. Unlike a functional manager who has a responsibility just for a particular function, like HR, Logistics, Finance, Marketing, etc.

Another thing what distinguishes a GM is that he or she is typically a generalist, while a functional manager is typically a specialist.

A generic management education like business administration, business economics or business law, and/or a broad experience with multiple functions in the company are a typical background.

Typically a GM ranks higher and has a higher salary than functional managers when they are in the same part of the organization. On the other hand, a CFO with the finance responsibility for an entire multinational ranks higher and earns more than the GM of the Italian subsidiary of that firm.

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		1 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	Should a GM be Paid Equal on Par with CFO? As a generalist a general manager motivates people and makes people work to their potential and in s... Sign up

		3 Blondeel Consultant, Morocco
	What is the Key Role of a General Manager A general manager is indeed all what you write. In my opinion you forgot however the most important... Sign up

		4 Loh Tean Hin CxO / Board, Indonesia
	Renumeration of General Manager Role Remuneration for a GM should be higher when turning around an organisation from loss to gain. Especi... Sign up

		1 Mark Buzan Canada
	Use of Term GM in Non-profit Organizations? I wonder if others could comment on this distinction in the nonprofit or association world? In parti... Sign up

		0 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	The Function of General Regardless of the actual job title, all managers are managers of functions; whether at: Supervisor l... Sign up