Winning Advice--Jack Welch
At the time of this interview from
BusinessWeek TV, Jack Welch had
recently authored his book, Winning.
Several questions are asked of
Welch: (1) How do you lead, hire,
and get ahead? The answer, according
to Welch, is to look for individuals who
are smarter than you are, who have high levels of
energy, who are action oriented, and get the job
done. (2) How are managers distributed in the company?
According to Welch, there are three tiers--the
top 20 percent, the middle 70 percent, and the bottom
10 percent. The job is to grow individuals--try to
move the middle 70 percent up and to try to encourage
the bottom 10 percent to move on. He says that
all employees should know where they stand in the
company. It is the manager's responsibility to ensure
that all employees know this. Welch says that when
you become a manager it becomes all about your
employees, not about you.
Discussion Questions
How might you relate the finance concept of risk
to that of hiring a talented executive?
What is the most difficult thing about being in
management, according to Welch?
What is the best thing about being a manager,
according to Welch?
