Management 321
Principles of Management
Management 321
 Survey of basic management principles and
practices
 Tuesday and Thursday 8-9:15 am
 Thurmond 413
Instructor
 Jim Olson, Executive in Residence
 Thurmond 126
Phone: 323-2466
olsonj@winthrop.edu
jimcashiers@aol.com
 Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday
9:30-11:30 am or by appointment
 Always welcome, but don’t waste your
breath and my time; know what you want
and come prepared to get it.
Who are you?
Stand up and speak up
> Name
> Home town
> Class (sophomore, junior, senior)
> Major
> Favorite activity
Who am I?
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1941: Born Cody, Wyoming
Lower middle-class/upper-poor family
1960: Graduated from Mount Hermon (MA) prep school
1964: Graduated from Stanford University
1964 to 1968: Active duty with the U.S. Navy – Viet Nam and San
Francisco
1969: Master’s degree from Northwestern University
35 years in the North American auto industry – 16 at Ford 19 at Toyota.
Final position: senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America in
New York City; retired 6/1/04
Oversaw Toyota’s government relations, public relations, stockholder
relations, corporate contributions, the Toyota-USA Foundation,
corporate advertising and motorsports; was a member of Toyota’s 12man North American executive committee
Married with one son (getting his Master’s here at Winthrop)
Hobbies: gardening, golf, reading, cooking, teaching, collecting
“sparklies”
Parkinson’s Disease
I have Parkinson’s disease
Don’t be distracted by symptoms
Two Required Textbooks
 Contemporary Management by G. R. Jones
and J. M. George (fifth edition)
 The Little Red Box of Management Tools by
Jim Olson
Recommended for Project
 The Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan
 Great by Choice Jim Collins and Morten T.
Hansen
 The Declaration of Independence
 The Bill of Rights
The Founders
What Am I?
 Introverted obsessive-compulsive,
perfectionist
 Therefore, I hate to have any student fail my
course. I will do everything I can to help you
get a passing grade, but you must earn it.
What I Expect From You
 Will use some homework, four tests, lecture
and STORIES. Lecturing only partly
effective, so will ask questions - a two-way
learning process requiring your participation
 “Managers In Training” – active learner
 Be on time, awake, attentive, prepared
 Dress neatly, act professionally
What Are Our Goals?
Two goals:
To familiarize you with the principles and
practices of management: Planning,
organizing, leading, controlling and using
money, manpower, material, morality and
information (the five business inputs) to
achieve organizational goals efficiently and
effectively
Goals?
To teach you how to use the principles to
manage well, to evade business threats,
and to exploit business opportunities.
This goal requires you to use critical
thinking.
CRITICAL WHAT?
Critical What?
Critical Thinking:
Rigorously analyzing, evaluating and
combining information continuously
gathered through observation, insight and
reflection to draw conclusions that form a
foundation for action
Critical Thinking
Many of the “beliefs” upon which we take
action are unexamined and untested. One
of my professors called them MURK –
Mostly Unexamined Received Knowledge.
Critical thinking -- the central skill of good
management -- examines information from
multiple sources before conclusions are
drawn, beliefs formed and action taken.
What I expect (hope for)
 Inform me in advance if you must miss a
class.
 Miss seven classes and you will be out.
 Read, consider and be prepared to discuss
the material in each chapter and any
supplemental materials during the class in
which presented.
Professional Behavior
 Papers should be computer-generated, not handwritten. Submit them to me at both computers
(office and home) as a file attached to or
incorporated into an e-mail. That way I can correct
your work electronically and return it to you more
quickly.
 Submit on time – one letter grade down for each
three days late.
 Cheating of any kind not worth potential
consequences; zero-tolerance policy.
Professional Behavior
“RESPECT”
 Respect your sources; no plagiarism
 Respect your colleagues; all comments welcome;
only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.
 Respect your obligations by doing team
assignments on time; no free riding. Your team
mates will review and grade your performance for
me.
 Respect common courtesy; no cell phones or
pagers during class. If pending emergency, give it
to me and I’ll monitor.
Class Web Site
All lecture power points will be available
before the class in which they are presented
on the course website:
http://faculty.winthrop.edu/olsonj
Students With Disabilities
Gena Smith on 323-3290 – form to me
outlining any special requirements
Office Hours
 As noted earlier, my office is in Thurmond
126.
 Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 9:30 to
11:30 am
 If above hours don’t work, please contact
me via e-mail or face-to-face and we’ll find a
mutually convenient time; prepare!
Team Project
 I will assign teams.
 Semester-long project – see schedule in syllabus
for team presentation days at end of term.
 Subject: Using course principles, explain:
> How General Motors went wrong
> Was it wise for the government to bail out GM?
> Will GM succeed over the long term?
> How you would try to return GM to fully
competitive condition if you were in charge.
Team Project
 Background package will be provided, but you will
need much more current information to become
current on the situation
 Grade will be based on quantity and quality of
research, power point quality and clarity,
persuasiveness of insights/recommendations,
linkage to course principles, presentation skills,
and team-skill ratings from your fellow team
members.
 Each team member must share in a power point
presentation of no more than 20 minutes
 Begin research right away!
Journal Project
 Keep a journal about this course, what you
are experiencing and learning at Winthrop,
future career plans, any relevant subject.
 Suggest you write for at least 15 minutes
once a week.
 Must be computer-generated. Submit to me
via e-mail when I ask for it.
 Grade based on honesty, self-insight, quality
of writing.
Grading Policy
 A extraordinary and significantly beyond
requirements
 B+ almost…
 B above-average and exceeding requirements
 C+ almost…
 C average and meeting requirements
 D below-average but with some promise
 F inadequate and not meeting requirements
Grading Policy
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Three Interim Exams:
Final Exam:
Team Project:
Journal:
Homework, participation,
showing up:
30%
25%
25%
10%
10%
Extra Credit Questions
Two-track Approach
At the end of each of the three sectional
examinations, there will be a few questions drawn
from any supplemental material I hand out or the
recommended material mentioned in the syllabus.
Those of you with enough energy and curiosity to
read and think about this extra material can gain
extra credit by correctly answering them. Failing
to answer them will not penalize those too busy (or
too lazy) to take advantage of this opportunity.
Pre-Exam Reviews
Notice in the tentative schedule attached to
the printed course syllabus that there will be
a classroom review before each exam.
Don’t miss these sessions because they
provide a huge advantage!
What You Should Get From This
Course
 The evolution of management theory is not the most
important subject in this course. Nor are the many matters
addressed in the other chapters.
 What I really want you to take away is a practical toolbox of
ideas and examples of how to manage so that – after
graduation -- you won’t freeze like a deer in headlights
when you have to do it.
 Because it is where I received my best training and
experience, much of this practical stuff will come from
Toyota and the rest of the auto industry. I apologize in
advance for using the “I” work so much and talking so often
about the fascinating business I was so long a part of. But
I’m not an academic, armchair expert, I actually did this
stuff, so my lectures are very personal narratives.
Management
Easy to Understand
Hard to Do
We will discuss effectiveness, efficiency,
innovation, discipline, strategy, the
competitive power of money, zero-based
budgeting, kaizen, nemawashi, genchi
genbutsu, PDCA, BHAGs, KPIs, TGW
versus TGR, and sustainable competitive
advantage – among other business
concepts and practices.
Management…
Many of these are not in the primary text,
but rather in my book or from my personal
experience. All are meant to convey a
practical “toolbox” approach. In this respect,
this course is significantly different from the
other sections of MGMT 321. Think of
yourself as either blessed or cursed.
The Fifth Element
MORALITY
 Morality is the fifth business input not
mentioned in any other definition of
management I’ve seen.
 It is vital because business requires a
transaction, which cannot happen without
trust, which can’t exist without morality.
What is Business
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Energy and insight…
Smarts and stamina…
Discipline and integrity…
Courage and commitment…
Dreaming and doing and creating the value
that is the foundation of the American
lifestyle!
Final Lesson
“The most valuable lesson I can teach you is to
become your own teacher.”
Socrates
People who don’t learn don’t thrive.
Companies that don’t learn don’t survive.
Nine days from now...
(That’s Thursday, January 19)
Bring me this…
HOMEWORK #2
AVERAGE HUMAN HOURS
 According to an article I read, the average
American man now lives to the age of 73. The
average American woman lives to more than 79.
 For the man, that’s about 639,000 hours. For the
woman, about 692,000.
 The average student in this class already has
used up about 184,000 hours.
 What will you do to maximize the value of your
remaining 455,000 to 508,000 hours?
Homework #2
Possible Content
Who am I?
– Where born?
– Where been?
– What do my parents do?
– Do they pay my way or am I already my own?
– Significant job experience to date?
– Significant skills (What are you good at?),
hobbies and outside interests?
– What do I most like to do?
Homework #2
Where am I going? How will I spend my remaining
hours of life?
– Graduate school? What subject?
– If job, what would you most like to do?
– Where (preferred industry, company, geographical
area)?
– What do you think is most important about selecting an
employer? What should you look for in a company?
What do you think they will look for in you?
– Most important career goal?
– MOST IMPORTANT LIFE GOAL?
– What do you want people to say about you at your
funeral?
Homework #2
 What else do you want to add?
 Be creative, but think and write clearly.
 Respect the power of language by choosing your words
carefully. Not the “nearly right” word, but the “exactly right”
word. PROOFREAD! I know you’re busy, but please take
time to show me your best capability.
 No more than two single-spaced, computer-generated
pages because brevity forces selectivity, enhancing clarity.
Less always is best!
 Submit via e-mail. Due Thursday, September 1 – nine
days from today.
Homework #1
Next time (this Thursday, January 12) bring
me this:
 No more than one page
 What do the Salamanca Scholastics have to
do with Capitalism?
 Hint: “Leave us be!”
SIT STILL! Not Done Yet
 A baseline quiz designed to give me some
idea of what’s in your collective head.
 Five minutes.
 DO NOT SIGN YOUR NAME.