by Jack Welch
In Good To Great, Jim Collins discusses companies' Hedgehog Ideas, their core, driving business: what can we be the best in the world at, that we love to do? GE posed a particular problem for him. It didn't enter a market where it couldn't be first or second, and nevertheless it was in a tremendous number of different markets. Collins finally decided that GE's core business was developing CEOs, and indeed, GE alumni are all over the country's executive suites.
Given that, you expect a lot from a management book by the CEO of CEOs, Jack Welch, who ran GE for over 20 years. Given that, Winning is surprisingly uneven, yet still manages to deliver a fair amount of wisdom to the aspiring executive.
Welch divides the book into four parts: the underlying company attitude, managing people, managing organizations, and managing yourself - your career. He argues that the company's attitude is defined by three things: its mission, its values, and candor coming from the top. Too often companies confusion vision with mission, and the mission statement either doesn't say enough or drifts off over time. A good mission statement needs to be concrete, usually inspiring with ideals, while giving concrete behaviors to follow. The same is true of the values statement.
But Welch's passion really comes through when he's discussion candor - and nobody can doubt he means it. Welch was an engineer by training, and clear-cut straight talk is indispensible when discussing what chemicals will or won't do the job. Remember also that the clearest thinkers are also usually the clearest speakers, whether or not you agree with them. You know when someone's giving you a line, and so do their employees. In addition, candor is the only thing that will get people involved in those contentious debates over strategy, budgeting, and the million other decisions you want all your employees contributing to. And an executive who's committed to speaking candidly will find it easier to act decisively, rather than becoming a politician who's more interested in splitting differences.
The sections on hiring and firing, mergers, and budgeting also stood out. Welch never got an MBA, so his concern with mergers focused much more on dealmaking and corporate culture than on accounting. As a result, his list of red flags is a must-read for those looking to merge or grow by acquisition. Most of these deals fail, and while Deals From Hell covers the ground in more detail, Welch outlines it nicely here.
As for career management, Welch doens't cut any corners, especially when discussing work-life balance. Some of us moved out West for a better balance, but Welch makes it clear that no matter how understanding the company, it's really up to the employee to make that work. My guess is that he's right when he says that efficient workers probably also set up efficient processes at home, so they're less likely to need special dispensations, and more likely to get them.
What does come through is the tremendous joy that Welch got from business. He clearly loved coming in, solving problems, dealing with people, making the business work. While Welch doesn't harp on it, the fact is that dealing with these problems cheerfully rather than grumpily is half the battle.
One of the more disappointing sections in on strategy. "Figure out what to do, and then implement the heck out of it," is about as far as he gets. One gets the feeling that this was a publisher-driven, rather than an author-driven chapter. It's not like this is a neglected subject - my personal favorites are Jim Collins and Michael Porter, but that's hardly an excuse.
Winning is not Jack Welch's autobiography, but not surprisingly it does draw extensively from personal and second-hand experience running GE. Welch manages to come across as supremely self-assured without being a jerk. Probably half the stories are about mistakes that he made as he learned the ropes - in order to show what those mistakes cost him and the organization. But an equal number are about successes, and GE is a tremendously successful company.
Don't believe the jacket blurb - there will be other management books needed. Still, there are a lot worse places to start.
