Why General Management Club at HEC?

I have been asked, on numerous occasions, what the General Management Club (GMAC) is all about. Many people say that after an MBA you can't immediately get a General Management job. So why have a club focusing on it? Well, I beg to differ.

General Management is, many a times, restrictively viewed as the sole responsibility of the CEO or President of a company. Guess what? This is a very narrow view of General management roles currently available in the market. For example, in the consumer goods industry the general management responsibilities are also shouldered by the Brand Manager, Product Manager and Category manager to name a few. Managers who lead business development activities, of the likes of a Country Manager or Account Manager, are key executors of general management tasks within a company.

There is another perspective I want to share. Irrespective of the next job we take up post-MBA, most of us want to have a general management career in the long run. Thus, general management may not be the next job but it will surely be the chosen career path of most MBA participants.

With this background in mind, GMAC intends to reinforce leadership education at HEC and support participants aspiring to pursue careers in General Management, Business Development and Strategy functions within a company. The first step, however, is to anchor the young club within and outside the HEC community.