Jack Wilch

INTRODUCTION

“Every Day,There Is a New Question”

1

UNDERNEATH IT ALL

1. MISSION AND VALUES

So Much Hot Air About Something So Real

13

2. CANDOR

The Biggest Dirty Little Secret in Business

25

3. DIFFERENTIATION

Cruel and Darwinian? Try Fair and Effective

37

4. VOICE AND DIGNITY

Every Brain in the Game

53

—v—

CONTENTS

YOUR COMPANY

5. LEADERSHIP

It’s Not Just About You 61

6. HIRING

What Winners Are Made Of 81

7. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

You’ve Got the Right Players. Now What? 97

8. PARTING WAYS

Letting Go Is Hard to Do 119

9. CHANGE

Mountains Do Move 133

10.CRISIS MANAGEMENT

From Oh-God-No to Yes-We’re-Fine 147

YOUR COMPETITION

11. STRATEGY

It’s All in the Sauce

165

12.BUDGETING

Reinventing the Ritual

189

13. ORGANIC GROWTH

So You Want to Start Something New

205

14. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Deal Heat and Other Deadly Sins

217

15. SIX SIGMA

Better Than a Trip to the Dentist

245

— vi —

CONTENTS

YOUR CAREER

16. THE RIGHT JOB

Find It and You’ll Never Really Work Again 255

17. GETTING PROMOTED

Sorry, No Shortcuts 277

18. HARD SPOTS

That Damn Boss 299

19.WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Having It All (But Were Afraid to Hear) 313

TYING UP LOOSE ENDS

20.HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE

The Questions That Almost Got Away 339

Acknowledgments 360

Index 363

— vii —

About the Author Other Books by Jack Welch

Credits

Cover

Copyright

About the Publisher

Introduction

“EVERY DAY, THERE IS A NEW QUESTION”

AFTER I FINISHED my autobiography—a fun but crazily intense grind that I wedged into the corners of my real job at the time—I swore I’d never write another book again.

But I guess I did.

My excuse, if there is one, is that I didn’t actually come up with the idea for this book.

It was given to me.

It was a retirement present, if you will, from the tens of thousands of terrific people I have met since I left GE—the energized, curious, gutsy, and ambitious men and women who have loved business enough to ask me every possible question you could imagine. In order to answer them, all I had to do was figure out what I knew, sort it out, codify it, and borrow their stories—and this book was off and running.

The questions I’m referring to first started during the promotional tour for my autobiography in late 2001 and through much of 2002, when I was overwhelmed by the emotional attachment

— 1 —

INTRODUCTION

people seemed to have to GE. From coast to coast, and in many countries around the world, people told me touching stories about their experiences working for the company, or what happened when their sister, dad, aunt, or grandfather did.

But with these stories, I was also surprised to hear how much more people wanted to know about getting business right.

Radio call-in guests pressed me to explain GE’s system of differentiation, which separates employees into three performance categories and manages them up or out accordingly. People attending book-signing events wanted to know if I really meant it when I said the head of human resources at every company should be at least as important as the CFO. (I did!) At a visit to the University of Chicago business school, an MBA from India asked me to explain more fully what a really good performance appraisal should sound like.

The questions didn’t stop after the book tour. They contin-ued—in airports, restaurants, and elevators. Once a guy swam over to me in the surf off Miami Beach to ask me what I thought about a certain franchise opportunity he was considering. But mainly they’ve come at the 150 or so Q & A sessions I have participated in over the past three years, in cities around the world from New York to Shanghai, from Milan to Mexico City. In these sessions, which have ranged from thirty to five thousand audience members, I sit on a stage with a moderator, usually a business journalist, and I try to answer anything the audience wants to throw at me.

And throw they have—questions about everything from coping with Chinese competition, to managing talented but difficult people, to finding the perfect job, to implementing Six Sigma, to hiring the right team, to leading in uncertain times, to surviving mergers and acquisitions, to devising a killer strategy.

What should I do, I’ve heard, if I deliver great results but I work for a jerk who doesn’t seem to care, or if I’m the only person in my

— 2 —

INTRODUCTION

company who thinks change is necessary, or if the budget process in my company is full of sandbagging, or I’m about to launch a great new product and headquarters doesn’t want to give me the autonomy and resources I need?

What can I do, people have asked, if managers in my company don’t really tell it like it is, or I have to let go of an employee I really like but who just can’t hack it, or I have to help lead my organization through the crisis we’ve been trying to deal with for a year?

There have been questions about juggling the colliding demands of kids, career, and all that other stuff you want to do, like play golf, renovate your house, or raise money in a walkathon. There have been questions about landing the promotion of your dreams—without making any enemies. There have been questions about macroeconomic trends, emerging industries, and currency fluctuations.

There have been literally thousands of questions. But most of them come down to this:

What does it take to win?

And that is what this book is about—winning. Probably no other topic could have made me want to write again!

Because I think winning is great. Not good—great.

Winning in business is great because when companies win, people thrive and grow. There are more jobs and more opportunities everywhere and for everyone. People feel upbeat about the future; they have the resources to send their kids to college, get better health care, buy vacation homes, and secure a comfortable retirement. And winning affords them the opportunity to

literally thousands of to this: take to win? I have been asked questions. But most of them come down What does it

— 3 —

INTRODUCTION

I think winning is great. Because when are more jobs and more great. Not good— companies win, people thrive and grow. There opportunities. give back to society in hugely important ways beyond just paying more taxes—they can donate time and money to charities and mentor in inner-city schools, to name just two. Winning lifts everyone it touches—it just makes the world a better place.

When companies are losing, on the other hand, everyone takes a hit. People feel scared. They have less financial security and limited time or

money to do anything for anyone else. All they do is worry and upset their families, and in the meantime, if they’re out of work, they pay little, if any, taxes.

Let’s talk about taxes for a minute. In fact, let’s talk about government in general.

Obviously, government is a vital part of society. First and foremost, it does nothing less than protect us all from the insidious and persistent challenges to national security that are with us now and for the foreseeable future. But government provides much more: the justice system, education, police and fire protection, highways and ports, welfare and hospitals. The list could go on and on.

But even with the virtues of government, it is critical to remember that all of its services come from some form of tax revenue. Government makes no money of its own. And in that way, government is the support for the engine of the economy, it is not the engine itself.

Winning companies and the people who work for them are the engine of a healthy economy, and in providing the revenues for government, they are the foundation of a free and democratic society.

— 4 —

INTRODUCTION

That’s why winning is great.

Now, it goes without saying that you have to win the right way—cleanly and by the rules. That’s a given. Companies and people that don’t compete fairly don’t deserve to win, and thanks to well-honed internal company processes and government regulatory agencies, the bad guys are usually found and kicked out of the game.

But companies and people in business that are honest—and that’s the vast, vast majority—must find the way to win.

This book offers a road map.

It is not, incidentally, a road map just for senior level managers and CEOs. If this book helps them, terrific. I hope it does. But this book is also very much for people on the front lines: business owners, middle managers, people running factories, line workers, college graduates looking at their first jobs, MBAs considering new careers, and entrepreneurs. My main goal with this book is to help the people with ambition in their eyes and passion running through their veins, wherever they are in an organization.

You will meet a lot of people in this book. Some may remind you of yourself, some may just seem very familiar:

There’s the CEO who presents the company with a list of noble values—say, quality, customer service, and respect—but

...