Matthew Levatich
Matt Levatich is an accomplished CEO and experienced Board Member with a 30-year track record of leadership, transformation and increasing shareholder value for Fortune 500 and privately held companies. Matt has deep experience with global, branded, and consumer-durable companies and brings unique insights to strategic growth, risk and corporate governance matters across a broad base of corporate functions.
Matt serves on the Board of Emerson Electric (2012) and on its Audit and Finance committees, having rotated to the Finance Committee after 8 years on the Compensation Committee. Matt also serves on the Board of AriensCo (a closely-held private company in the power equipment business) where he is on the Governance and Compensation Committee.
Matt’s 26-year career with Harley-Davidson (H-D) culminated with 5 years as President and CEO after serving the prior 6 years as President and COO. Along with leadership of key functions and business units, his experience also included two separate overseas roles – in the UK (3 years) and Italy (1 year); each in market and business development. The headwinds facing H-D across its 90+ global markets required significant re-tooling of the strategy, culture and capabilities of the company to become as skilled at building riders as it was at building products. Matt identified the issues and faced them with his typical creativity and determination – leveraging every facet of his experience and leadership strength to accelerate the needed shifts.
Matt is an accomplished speaker on leadership and strategy. He has been a featured speaker at Recode and has appeared regularly on CNBC and Fox Business, among others. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA and MS in Engineering Management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg and McCormick Schools. He is currently serving in his second term as a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties where he serves on the Governance Committee.
Matt is motivated by four guiding themes – in play throughout his life and career: Deep curiosity, Determination for progress, Passion for pinnacle products and Uncompromising Integrity. He has strong and nuanced leadership capability. Connecting and influencing at a human level has been a core ingredient in Matt’s ability to advance his leadership impact as he progressed in his scope and responsibility. The issues Matt has tackled throughout his career have evolved to be some of the most strategic challenges facing organizations and their Boards.
Matt seeks to be affiliated only with people and organizational cultures exemplifying the utmost in ethical character – those for whom integrity is uncompromising. He is looking to apply his significant experience to provide the highest level of stewardship and governance to help companies grow and prosper for their stakeholders.
The Rookie General Manager (OPNS-925-5)
Transitioning to General Management is one of the more difficult and important steps in one’s career, and there are techniques that can ease the learning curve and help assure new general managers make the right impact for an organization and their team quickly and successfully. Success in the first General Management role sets the stage for further growth and advancement, so preparing and getting it right is a valuable investment in a successful career. This course provides you with a thorough understanding of the role and its requirements and challenges. It provides helpful techniques for transitioning to and becoming a successful new general manager. It should help you gain a broad, integrated perspective of general management, including the need to manage up, down, across and outside the organization. Through the use of case studies, you will inhabit the characters and live the challenges of several ‘rookie general managers’ as they face a variety of challenges across various settings. Patterns and themes will emerge that will help you be a better leader and team member. You will strengthen your ability to identify which tools and techniques are common and what unique actions might be appropriate for each situation. This repetition, like most learning, will exercise and develop your skills. Fortunately, it turns out that many the techniques that are effective for a GM transition are also relevant for a transition to a functional manager position, so the lessons from this course can be applied and practiced immediately as you embark on your career after Kellogg. NOTE: This class is restricted to second-year students.
The Rookie General Manager - Black Diamond (OPNS-925-0)
As the course title suggests, this class goes beyond the introductory. It contains all the core elements of the 5-week course but will expand and deepen your knowledge about what it takes to be successful in a General Management role. Like the 5-week course, we will cover the key attributes of successful GM's. We will cover the elements of successful transitions. We will use case studies and in-depth class discussion and repetition to embed your understanding. We will do all these things more deeply and thoughtfully, so your understanding is more nuanced and crystalized. Importantly, the 10-week format will allow us to move beyond 'what' makes for a successful GM and get into and exercise the 'how'. Some of this will come from additional cases, some from additional readings, and some from guest speakers. A lot of it will come from us dedicating more time in-class to plying the contours of the case protagonists' decision-making and actions. If you’ve ever down-hill skied, you understand a 'Black Diamond' designation for a mountain trail means 'most difficult'. Enjoyment on these ski runs comes only when one has a certain mastery of skill – being able to ply the contours of a steeper down-hill run successfully and confidently. This is the goal of this 10-week immersive course in becoming a successful General Manager.
