University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Get Better or Get Beaten
Book

Get Better or Get Beaten

29 Leadership Secrets from GE's Jack Welch

Robert Slater
McGraw-Hill, 2001
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

The best thing about this book is that it quotes extensively and piquantly from the writings and speeches of Jack Welch. The intriguing list of "29 leadership secrets" (which could have been reduced to ten) is more selective than secret, given that Welch has been preaching them loudly from a very prominent platform for more than 20 years. However, the book will be valuable to Welch neophytes and to fans who want more Jack, or the essence of Jack. Author Robert Slater assumes a certain familiarity with GE’s history and initiatives, and sometimes refers to them without explanation. Welch long ago transcended management to become sort of a leadership prophet, and his utterances are sometimes paradoxical, if not contradictory. He says nurture people, but downsize; he says cut bureaucracy, but implement a paperwork intensive Six Sigma program. getAbstract.com promises that somewhere in here, you’ll find a managerial principle to fit almost any occasion. What more can you ask of a handbook?

Summary

Jack Welch’s GE Triumph

When Jack Welch started as chairman and CEO of General Electric in 1981, GE had $25 billion in sales and $1.5 billion in profits. By the time he left in November, 2000, sales had more than quadrupled (to more than $112 billion) and profits had multiplied dramatically ($11 billion). He says his success was based on a few succinct principles, including:

Embrace Change

Most business leaders prefer the status quo, but Welch thrived on change. GE changed because its environment was shifting: technology, international markets, finance, all the things that mattered to its business. So Welch pushed hard for change. He urged his executives to, "start each day as if it were their first day on the job," with no preconceptions, prejudices or habits. He said GE should strive to be number one or number two in any business it entered, and that the company should leave a business if it couldn’t quickly reach that status. Resisting change is easier than embracing it, but Welch urged his employees to accept and master change.

Face Facts; Act Fast

One of Welch’s favorite maxims is "face reality." In the 1980s, long before "re-structuring" ...

About the Author

Robert Slater is a journalist with more than 25 years of experience with TIME, Newsweek and UPI. He has written two books on GE: Jack Welch and the GE Way and The GE Way Fieldbook.

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