| The problem. This study analyzed successful and less successful behaviors of corporate general managers in managing a firm's portfolio of strategic business areas.;Method. The data for the statistical analyses were collected through personal, semi-structured interviews with 31 corporate general managers of well-known German business firms.;Results. The statistically validated findings of this study indicated that successful corporate general managers: (1) exhibit a high level of trust for one another; (2) proactively search for relevant strategic information before making a decision; (3) make sure that all relevant information is used in the decision-making process; (4) participate actively in the development and analysis of decision alternatives, and make decisions based on this analysis; (5) do not make final decisions by selecting one of several alternatives developed by corporate staff; (6) employ the "portfolio optimization" approach to portfolio management when they are interested in establishing synergies among the firm's SBUs; (7) employ the "portfolio optimization" approach to portfolio management when the firm's portfolio contains strategic business areas at discontinuous levels of environmental turbulence; (8) share a description of the future environment, identifying the central issues, which the firm must address in the future; (9) are committed to an explicitly stated corporate mission, defining the scope of the firm's activities in terms of customer types, geographic regions, and societal needs served by the firm, as well as technologies used by the firm to serve these needs; (10) are committed to explicitly stated corporate objectives, defining yardsticks by whic h the present and future performance of the firm as a whole is measured; and (11) are committed to an explicitly stated corporate strategy, defining the logic of evolution of markets, products, services, and technologies of the firm as a whole. |
