No living person is more closely linked with the concept of business leadership than Jack Welch. Even for those who have never put a foot on the corporate ladder, who couldn’t tell Six Sigma from Six Flags, Welch’s name is instantly recognizable. During his time as CEO of GE — a two-decade span that started in 1981 — he took it from a $14 billion company that was thought of mostly as fine but lumbering to a $500 billion one that was fast, full of talent and willing to take risks (though GE is now unwinding some of those big bets).
Fourteen years later, Welch’s business lessons are still followed and debated: That management has to ruthlessly weed out mediocre employees (“not removing [the] bottom 10% early in their careers is not only a management failure, but…a form of cruelty,” he declared in one annual report); that if you’re not No. 1 or No. 2 in your industry there’s no point in being in it; that problems can be solved in rank-defying, public “work outs” vs closed-door, hierarchical meetings. His LinkedIn posts, co-written with his wife, former HBR editor Suzy Welch, almost always become instant hits. What they write about is what professionals are wrestling with every day: How to get better, how to move faster, how to stay relevant.
One way? Skip the traditional MBA.
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Great lesson from Jack Welch! Hope that LinkedIn people really listen to this! 'cause they say small languages, countries, businesses are not in their interest. And forget that no company started as big.