Customer Reviews

Winning Intl

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Jack Welch's candid, direct voice speaks from these pages to advocate "winning" in business by focusing on year-over-year growth and besting competitors.

To define a winning strategy, Welch advises to determine a "realistic, relatively rapid" way to gain a competitive advantage, often based on cost, quality, or service. He reinforces the importance of placing the right people in the right roles, and applying best practices from inside and outside the organization. He offers "five slides" of questions to thoroughly analyze the competitors' products, position, track record, threats, and vulnerabilities.

He counsels to select candidates for employment who demonstrate the assumed table stakes of integrity, intelligence, and maturity as well as "the four Es and one P" (positive energy, ability to energize others, "edge" or making and implementing difficult decisions, execution, and passion for the work). Leaders in the organization should embody these characteristics as well as authenticity, "ability to see around corners", selecting "better, smarter people" than themselves, and resilience.

Welch advocates a meritocracy based on performance "differentiation" evaluated by regular (twice yearly) performance reviews. At GE, employees were sorted into three categories: top performers (20%), core performers (70%) and lowest performers who must be removed (10%). During each performance review, employees were asked to nominate two people who could replace them. Rewards, perks, recognitions, and advancement are distributed commensurate with the performance evaluation.

He simplifies change management by emphasizing that communicating the purpose and progress of the change is as essential as removing change resistors and learning from failed change efforts inside and outside the company.

To manage inevitable crises in which the company's reputation may be compromised, he advises to assume that the situation is worse than it appears and that "everyone will found out everything." As a result, he states that candor is the best approach in deal ing with the media, which will inevitably portray the organization and individuals "in the worst possible light." He cautions that people and processes will change, and "there will be blood on the floor."

Welch demystifies Six Sigma by defining it as "a quality program that improves customers' experience, lowers costs and builds better leaders" by reducing waste, errors, inefficiency, and variance in products and customer experience.

He notes that each manager's responsibility is competitiveness. In contrast, each employee's responsibility is to perform as well as possible to earn the credibility and right ("chits") to fulfill personal "work-life balance" priorities.

Welch admits his mistakes and regrets (including those at GE, as well as his two failed marriages, and his hands-off parenting style with his four children). He recognizes that career setbacks occur and advocates demonstrating a positive attitude, and redoubled performance to avoid feeling and acting like a victim.

This is an accessible, opinionated summary of Welch's lessons learned from his forty years at GE.

Jack Welch is one of my favorite authors - I love all the illustrations he packs into his writing along with his wealth of knowledge. He keeps the reader engaged and communicates his ideas quickly and simply, in a conversational style. This book is like a summary of what would make a winner. His focus on being the best or getting out of a business is legendary! This is a good summary of his book: [...]