Ch6-Management

Ch6 — Management Fundamentals — Lesson & Tracker

Progress Tracker

Concept	Attempts	Correct	Last Tested	Status
ManagementProcess	1	1	2026-04-18	🟢
StrategicManagement	2	1	2026-04-18	🟢
ManagerTypes	1	1	2026-04-18	🟢

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Your Weak Points

Gap	What you did	What you need
Strategy Levels vs. Plan Types	Mixed them up — answered Corporate/Business/Functional with Strategic/Tactical/Operational	These are two separate Ch6 frameworks — do not conflate them
CEO’s decision	Called it “Business strategy”	It’s Corporate strategy — which industries to compete in

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Concept Map — Weak → Strong Connections

graph TD
    subgraph SL["STRATEGY LEVELS — the WHAT"]
        CORP["Corporate: Which industry?"]
        BUS["Business: How to win in it?"]
        FUNC["Functional: How each dept supports?"]
        CORP --> BUS --> FUNC
    end
    subgraph PT["PLAN TYPES — the WHEN"]
        STRAT["✅ Strategic: Long-term, Top Mgmt"]
        TAC["✅ Tactical: Medium-term, Middle Mgmt"]
        OPS["✅ Operational: Short-term, First-Line"]
        STRAT --> TAC --> OPS
    end
    CORP -.->|"produces"| STRAT
    FUNC -.->|"produces"| OPS
    WARN["⚠️ CEO decision = Corporate Level<br/>NOT Business level"]

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Two Frameworks — Keep Them Separate

Source: StrategicManagement, ManagementProcess, ManagerTypes

Framework 1 — Strategy Levels (the “what” of decisions)

Level	The Question	Who Makes It	Example
Corporate	Which industries/markets should we compete in?	CEO / Top Management	”We’re exiting snack food and focusing on beverages”
Business (Competitive)	How do we beat rivals within this specific market?	Division / SBU heads	”We’ll compete on lowest price in beverages”
Functional	How does each department support the business plan?	Dept. managers (marketing, HR, finance)	“HR launches a customer service training program”

Corporate = which game to play. Business = how to win the game. Functional = how each department contributes.

Framework 2 — Plan Types (the “when” of plans)

Plan Type	Time Horizon	Who Creates It	Scope
Strategic	Long-term (years)	Top Managers	Company-wide priorities
Tactical	Medium-term (months)	Middle Managers	Implementing pieces of the strategic plan
Operational	Short-term (daily/weekly)	First-Line Managers	Day-to-day tasks and targets

These two frameworks align but are not the same thing. Corporate strategy produces strategic plans. Functional strategy produces operational plans. Don’t answer a “which level of strategy?” question with plan-type terminology.

POLC — The Management Process

Function	Core Question	Exam Trap
Planning	What do we want and how do we get there?	—
Organizing	Who does what with which resources?	—
Leading	How do we get people to execute?	—
Controlling	Are we on track?	Controlling ≠ just monitoring. It requires corrective action when results miss targets.

Organizing + Leading together = planning implementation. The cycle repeats — Controlling feeds back into Planning.

Manager Types — Two Dimensions

By Level:

Level	Focus	Plans They Make	Key Skill
Top	Long-range direction, external stakeholders	Strategic	Conceptual
Middle	Translate strategy into action; bridge top and first-line	Tactical	Human relations
First-Line	Supervise day-to-day employee work	Operational	Technical

Exam trap: Middle managers don’t supervise employees — that’s first-line. Middle managers translate strategy downward and results upward.

By Area: Marketing · Finance · Operations · Human Resources · Information

Every real manager has both a level and an area (e.g., Middle Manager in Marketing).

SWOT — Internal vs. External (never mix these up)

Internal (firm controls it)	External (firm cannot control it)
Strengths	Opportunities
Weaknesses	Threats

S and W are about the organization. O and T are about the environment (competitors, economy, regulation, technology).