General Management - George David Essay Example for Free

General Management George David seekGeorge David has been CEO of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) for more than a decade. During that time he has received numerous accolades and awards for his process as a CEO. Under his leadership UTC, a $343 billion conglomerate whose operating units include manufacturers of elevators (Otis Elevator), aerospace products (including Pratt Whitney spurt engines and Sikorsky helicopters), air conditioning systems, and fire and security systems, has seen earnings grow at 1014 share annuallyimpressive numbers for any company but particularly for a manufacturing enterprise. According to David, a key to United Technologies success has been sustained improvements in productivity and product quality. The story goes back to the mid-eighties when David was running the international operations of Otis Elevator. There he encountered a Japanese engineer, Yuzuru Ito, who had been brought in to resolve why a new elevator product was performing poor ly. David was impressed with Itos methods for identifying quality problems and meliorate performance.When he was promoted to CEO, David realized that he had to lower the costs and improve the quality of UTCs products. atomic number 53 of the first things he did was persuade Ito to work for him at UTC. Under David, Ito girded a program for alter product quality and productivity, known as Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE), which was subsequently rolled out across UTC. The ACE program has been one of drivers of productivity improvements at UTC ever since. Early in his promote as CEO, David also radically reorganized UTC.He dramatically cut the size of the head duty and decentralized decision making to business divisions. He also directed his accounting staff to develop a new financial reporting system that would give him good information about how well(p) each division was doing and make it easier to hold divisional general managers accountable for the performance of the u nits under them. He then gave them demanding goals for earnings and sales growth and pushed them to improve processes within their units by implementing the ACE program.At the equal time David has always stressed that management is about more than goal setting and holding quite a little accountable. Values are also important. David has insisted that UTC employees adhere to the highest ethical standards, that the company produce that have token(prenominal) environmental impact, and that employee safety remain the top consideration in the work-place. When asked what his greatest achievement as a manager has been, David refers to UTCs worldwide employee scholarship program.Implemented in 1996 and considered the hall-mark of UTCs perpetration to employee development, the program pays the entire cost of an employees college or graduate school education, allows employees to pursue any lawsuit at an accredited school, provides paid study time, and awards UTC stock (up to $10,000 wort h in the United States) for terminate degrees. Explaining the program, David states, One of the obligations that an employer has is to give employees opportunities to better themselves.And we feel its also very good business for us because it generates a better workforce that stays longer. David states that one of his central tasks has been to build a management team up that functions smoothly over the long term. People come to rely upon each other, he says. You have the same trusting relationships. You know people they know you. You can predict them they can predict you.All of that engaging of begins to work, and it accelerates over the tenure of a CEO. If you have people bouncing in and out every both to three years, thats not good. According to Sandy Weill, former chairman of Citicorp and a UTC card member, David has the right mix of toughness and sensitivity. When somebody cant do the argumentation hell try to stand by but if that person is not going to make it work, tha t person wont be on the job forever. At the same time Weill says, He does a lot of things that employees respect him for, I think he is a very good manager. Even though David is demanding, he can also listenhe has a receive mode as well as a send mode.