A lot of MBA students show an interest in General Management and make that their career goal. Fact is though, not everyone has the correct notion of what General Management is all about, so they don’t know how to prepare for it. Sometimes, it is mixed up with Strategy Development. At other times it is thought of as being in an advisory position where the hassles of the daily business affairs are left to others.
As I teach at a business school, many of these questions and debates reach me and students often ask for my view. So here is what I think.
This is definitely the correct time to be thinking about the subject. If you are a First Year MBA student then you are likely nearing the end of your first term. Summer Placement is either over or imminent and you need to think about your summer internship as a platform to achieve your career goals. Second year students on the other hand are now, much like a long jumper or pole vaulter, hurtling along at cosmic speed before they launch themselves into the great unknown. Whether your audience reacts with a Yessss or a Noooo depends on that run up to the launch pad.
Let me explain.
To begin with, let’s try and agree on what General Management is and what it is not.
In a General Management role, you will likely be heading a business unit, division or a company and would be accountable for the broad business results defined as Sales, Profit, Operating Expenses, Market Share, Headcount, Overheads, EPS, Market Cap, etc. The list is usually longer. To achieve these results, you would have oversight of all the functional areas like Marketing, Sales, Operations, HR, Finance, R&D, etc. and the Heads of these functions will be reporting to you. Irrespective of your primary specialization at Business School, here you are taking full accountability for all functional areas and it is expected that you will drive the results and add value to all the functional experts.
So, to be clear General Management is not only about blue sky thinking, planning for the future and setting direction. It certainly involves that too, but the main emphasis will be on ensuring that all the functions work seamlessly together and deliver results, quarter after quarter. If you want to be the General whom soldiers respect, then you have to know first-hand what it feels like to be shot at.
I say all this so you can start your preparations from the very first term of your MBA. Students who intend to specialize in, say, Marketing or Analytics, sometimes ignore courses in Sales, Finance or HR. Sure, you must excel in your chosen specialization, but don’t miss the chance to understand the basics of all functional areas. And please don’t assume that you will learn them once you start working. A solid appreciation of the core concepts and important drivers of every department will get you off to a faster start and help you build strong cross-functional relationships at work. That’s the first step to the GM’s desk.
By the second year of the MBA, your academic focus will be on electives in your chosen area of study. If you missed the cross-functional learning bus in your first year, there is still some way to go. Start by reading about company quarterly results. Grab a newspaper and read a few reports on the published results, choosing those companies that interest you. Read these news articles from end to end. Usually, the analysis will cover multiple business issues that impacted results such as intensified competition (Marketing), price erosion (Sales), commodity price inflation (Finance, Cost of Goods), dollar-rupee exchange rate (Finance, currency fluctuations), higher employee costs (HR, Finance) and so on. These are only a few examples and I’m sure you get the drift of my argument. Demonstrating a high level of comfort with diverse issues and dimensions that impact a firm’s results and outlook will improve the odds of being remembered by your interview panel at day’s end when those heart-breaking lists of names are drawn up. Think of this learning as the speed and concentration in the pole vault or long jump run-up I referred to earlier. It most often produces a winner.
The question about your career plans will inevitably be asked during the Placement interview. Merely saying you want to be in General Management will not be enough to impress your interview panel. Company executives can quickly sense that you haven’t thought about it or worse that you don’t know what is involved. A few probing questions like “What do you think are the skills needed to be successful in General Management” and you will be on the mat. Students who can only articulate the role as being “Strategic” or “Long-Term” will show up on the panel’s radar like a red flag.
I’ve heard some say “Fake it till you make it”.
There is a better way, though. It will mean working harder, learning broader and deeper while on campus and taking on those hardship and grunt roles in Sales, Customer Support, Logistics and other seemingly “unsexy” areas once you start working. The best way to prep for these is by consciously learning about the areas you don’t regard as core to your specialization while you are on campus. That’s the opportunity a program like an MBA gives you.
Your efforts will eventually filter into your conversations with prospective recruiters. A Finance candidate who has a customer centric perspective will stand head and shoulders above the rest. As will a Marketing applicant who enjoys discussing the profit impact of plant location as much as brand equity and advertising campaigns.
That’s why I believe that the longest road to the General Management suite is the shortest one. Longest, because you will have invested much more time and energy in preparing yourself for success when you get there. Shortest, because this is in fact the only road that gets you to your chosen destination. All other roads will reach you somewhere, but not necessarily to the place you want to be.
Now get moving.