The New General Manager's
Performance Cockpit

Spring 2007

Dear Executive,

Are you a general manager or do you plan to be one soon? Are you frustrated because of the many challenges you face? Do you identify with some of the questions below?

• Do you experience so much pressure that you feel lost at times? Does it look like everything is important and needs to be done by yesterday?

• Do people resist your ideas just for the sake of resisting, causing delays in the execution of your plans?

• Do you feel confused and energy-drained at times by everything you have to do in a limited amount of time?

• Are the various functions of your unit moving at different speeds? Are some projects lagging behind while others are running ahead of schedule?

• How can you accurately predict the sales from a new investment idea? When do you stop investing in a low-performing project? Is there such a thing as perfect balance in resource allocation?

If you identify with several of the above questions, you are not alone.The challenges are not without an answer.

Help is on the way, and it’s called
The Performance Cockpit.

The objectives of The Performance Cockpit are to address the challenges you face; to take complexity out of the job and to guide you through beating the challenges; to provide you with the skills and tools necessary for a strong, long lasting, successful career; to help you become “best in class.” The Performance Cockpit contains strategies and systems for convincing, motivating, and aligning individuals and teams behind your strategy.

You Will be Able to:

	Win over individuals and teams to your strategy, beliefs, and direction.
	Increase focus on what really counts and avoid losing valuable time on routine things and minor issues.
	Exceed company expectations and do it consistently.
	Run a tight ship and increase performance by focusing efforts on what really counts for achieving your financial targets.
	Avoid management traps by having proactive and sustainable plans in place for each major financial area.
	Beat the rest of your competitors by understanding the trends and beating them.

Would you Like to be Best in Class and Stay There?

In this book, The New General Manager’s Performance Cockpit, you will learn how to become “best in class” and stay there.

The Performance Cockpit is a systems-based approach to success. The concepts contained are the important foundations of good management practice, providing you extraordinary insight into the pitfalls that general managers face and showing you how to avoid them.

This book is not the same old song. You will find no jargon, no pseudo-science, no strained bites, no general theories. Rather, you will experience profound ideas and practical insights with ready-to-implement methods.

This book clearly demonstrates systems for bringing together the critical elements of any organization – its people, strategies, and execution. The concepts discussed include the important foundations of good management practice that are often misunderstood, misinterpreted, or ignored, with consequent damage.

Who will benefit from this book?

The Performance Cockpit is for all general managers and aspiring executives who are genuinely concerned about adding values, strength, sustainability, and good corporate governance to their businesses.

It is for all managers who are struggling to make it happen, to identify and fix problems, and then to deliver results.

It shows you how to transform concepts into winning strategies and produce great and sustainable results.

The Performance Cockpit is a valuable and practical guide, a must-read for anyone who cares about business.


You will Discover how …

	To become a systems master and how to be flexible, adaptable, and expandable in applying these systems to various situations and cultures.
	To excel in the art of focus and to identify and prioritize what really counts. In the process, you will learn how to avoid wasting valuable time on routine matters and minor issues.
	To stand out from the crowd and advance your career faster by consistently outperforming your objectives and competitors and the rest of your organization through understanding and acting on trends sooner.

Want the Experience of 30 Practicing General Managers?

The Performance Cockpit contains ideas, concepts, systems, and notions that have been developed through the proactive approaches of practicing general managers who are still active in those roles.

It comes from 30 experienced, practicing general managers across the world, across five different industries -- telecommunications, banking, fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, and logistics/distribution. These gifted general managers have been in situations like the ones you might be facing now and they have dealt with them. They give you they practices and systems they have applied successfully across geographies, cultures, and industries. They stop you from losing time re-inventing the wheel.

Everything in this book has been implemented, tried and tested, and proven to work.

From personal experience, Christos demonstrates how you can take complex strategic and operational challenges and distill them into tangible points of execution that ultimately drive success. There is no substitute for a track record. Steve Walter Vice President IMS Health Consulting and Services, Asia Pacific

Q. "I've seen in your book that systems are a critical link between theory and execution. Can you expand on this?”

A. “I like this seemingly innocent but very important point. Systems provide a common corporate language and culture while they simplify corporate, inter-unit, and inter-function communication. Systems provide the necessary links between vision, strategy, and execution. Leadership can “lead,” but it cannot achieve major organizational success without sound systems. Systems alone cannot do the job either without good leadership.”

Q. “Mr Kartalis, several companies seem to fail because their processes are not well integrated or successful with people, the human factor. How can systems help?"

A. “Critical question indeed. Well established and deeply rooted systems create discipline; discipline creates trust. Trust in business is not only a personal thing. For trust to be long-lived it needs to be integrated into policies, processes, and systems."

Q. "I'd like to move to the top quicker than others. I believe I have the mindset and capabilities for it. What can systems do for me?"

A. “Jerome, systems can maximize your career potential. If you are good, with systems you can become very good, If you are very good, with systems you are going to become great.
What do you think? Are you ready for the challenge”

Jerome: “Yes. I know that there will be obstacles, but I am confident that with the roadmap you are proposing I will succeed, faster than others, consistently!

Regards,

Christos Kartalis