Developing Managerial Abilities of Top Managers

Developing Managerial Abilities of Top Managers

This article has argued that the application of individual “rationality”, or judgement, has a pivotal part to play in any model of what management is about. So, the ability to exercise sound judgement is a vital skill for all top managers, including those with responsibility for marketing. It has also argued that at very senior levels the nature of the management job is driven more by organization-wide issues than those more technical issues germane to, say, the marketing function. This might mean that the job of top marketing managers has more in common with the job of top financial, or operations managers, than it does with brand, or even marketing managers.

There seems to be good reason to suppose that, when managers transfer from one firm to another, they are unlikely to be effective until they learn the dominant way of seeing things, the recipe, or the dominant competence, of their new organization: when to see the emperor’s new clothes, and when to see his nudity. They will be successful at this to the extent that they have learned how to learn and are open to the preconceptions, or taken-for- granted notions of other executives. They will build up close relationships with those who are able to help them gain this insight, perhaps from being involved in the kind of projects that expose the newcomer to contexts and experiences from which he or she gain the necessary insights through learning. In this way they are likely to learn to exercise influence in their new context.

So top marketing managers need to be able to resolve uncertainty through the ability to exercise sound judgement. But what else do they need? On the basis of studying the responsibilities of managers in particular jobs, several writers on management have developed specific lists of the activities of managers and have used them to arrive at profiles of the qualities of successful managers. The management development work of Burgoyne and Stuart has led them to the following list of qualities, or attributes, which forms the basis of their recipe for successful management:

·         command of the basic facts;

·         relevant professional knowledge;

·         continuing sensitivity to events;

·         analytical, problem-solving, decision/ judgement-making skills;

·         social skills and abilities;

·         emotional resilience;

·         proactivity;

·         creativity;

·         mental agility;

·         balanced learning habits and skills; and

·         self-knowledge

Some marketing writers have studied the responsibilities of marketing managers as a way of profiling the skills that marketing managers must possess to discharge successfully their duties and responsibilities. Thomas lists these skills as:

·         planning skills;

·         environmental awareness;

·         organizational ability;

·         segmentation – product development skills;

·         behaviour analysis skills;

·         market research-commissioning skills;

·         information analysis skills;

·         innovative management skills;

·         strategic thinking skills;

·         sales and advertising management and productivity;

·         management skills;

·         marketing mix optimization skills;

·         interdepartmental co-operation and conflict resolution skills;

·         financial management skills;

·         systems thinking skills;

·         ability to comprehend the long-term interests of the firm;

·         ability to market “marketing” enthusiastically.

Where do these skills come from? Can marketing managers acquire good judgement or do they have to be born with it? There are no conclusive answers to these questions, just as there are no answers to similar questions about philosophers, football wizards or financiers; although those of us involved in sales and marketing training will readily recall painful episodes spent trying to dispell the myth, widely held among novices, that great salespeople and super-marketers are born, not made. To the newcomer the skill of the successful marketer might seem to be the decisions he or she takes; i.e. the outcomes of some process. The real skill, i.e. the judgements that he or she makes, is as invisible to the casual observer as that of the concert pianist.

Yet, most conscientious management and marketing teachers believe that something useful can be achieved through development and training. On the other hand, the research of Mangham and Silver leads them to argue that management performance is not simply related to training and that companies doing no training are as likely to be successful as those doing a great deal. Can we escape the implications of this research?

For many years, since the time of the ancient Greeks, there has been the feeling that experience is a better teacher of the practical arts of living than study. Is management about living and coping with life, or about applying specific professional knowledge? An airline captain has a detailed knowledge of navigation, aeronautics, weather, route-planning procedures, airport traffic conventions, etc. Learning to fly is largely a matter of experience, but it is not the same as taking a full Boeing 747 out over the Atlantic hoping to find America. There is also a flight-deck and a cabin staff to control. Clearly flying skills must be tempered with detailed knowledge. But how are managerial abilities developed?

Writers on management development and training agree that top managers develop on the job, facing the job’s specific difficulties, in ways that cannot be matched by what happens to them while they are on training or development courses. But what does experience teach? Does study produce the same effect, but less efficiently? These questions probe the what, when and how of management development in ways that become extremely serious at very senior marketing levels.