The role of the professional manager is generally described
as one which provides greater balance among the traditional
six responsibility areas of management: finance, marketing,
human resources, administration, operations and research and
development. The traditional approach to executive selection
during much of the industry's past has been to hire executives
who had strong performance records in operations. However,
they were often limited in their experience and conceptual skills
with respect to what it takes to perform effectively in the other
five responsibility areas.