by Jack Welch
If they’re headed in the right direction and are broad enough, strategies don’t really need to change all that often.
Strategy also means matching people with jobs—a match that often depends on where a business is on the commodity continuum.
Companies and their people love to share success stories. All you have to do is ask.
The right budgeting process can change how a company functions—and reinventing the ritual makes winning so much easier, you can’t afford not to try.
The people in the field are operating with one simple goal, albeit unstated: to minimize their risk and maximize their bonus.
At this point, you might be thinking, “Yeah, yeah, this approach sounds great, but what about my bonus?”
What good is beating targets you set in a windowless room?
While most people take to reinvented budgeting with enthusiasm, there are always a few diehards who try to undermine it.
Companies have a habit of sending expendable bodies to run new ventures. It’s nuts. For a new business to succeed, it has to have the best people in charge, not the most available.
New ventures should report at least two levels higher than sales would justify. If possible, they should report directly to the CEO.
You will find you are not getting enough money from the mother ship, nor are you getting the best people. Fight like hell—even throw a few elbows.
You are always going to want more autonomy than you get. Your best shot is to earn it.
Deal heat is completely human, and even the most experienced people fall under its sway.
A merger can feel like a death. Everything you’ve worked for, every relationship you’ve forged—they’re suddenly null and void.
Technically, we owned the company, but for all intents and purposes, it was running the show.
It is uncertainty that causes organizations to descend into fear and inertia. The objective should be full integration within ninety days of the deal’s close.
Fight the conqueror syndrome. Think of a merger as a huge talent grab.
If you miss a merger on price, life goes on. There is no last best deal.
Resisting a deal, no matter how scared, confused, or angry you are is usually suicidal to your career, not to mention your emotional well-being.
Done right, Six Sigma is energizing and incredibly rewarding. It can even be fun.
A huge part of making your customers sticky is meeting or exceeding their expectations, which is exactly what Six Sigma helps you do.
“We’re off to a good start. We’ve hired several statisticians, and we’re looking for more.” I thought to myself: This poor guy has really drunk the Kool-Aid!
You need to find “your people,” the earlier in your career the better. No job is ideal without the presence of shared sensibilities.
Any new job should feel like a stretch, not a layup.
Working for some companies is like winning an Olympic medal. For the rest of your career, you are associated with great performance.
Every job you take is a gamble that could increase your options or shut them down.
Working to fulfill someone else’s needs or dreams almost always catches up with you.
If a job doesn’t excite you on some level—just because of the stuff of it—don’t settle.
Authenticity may be the best selling point you’ve got.
The goal, if you’ve been let go, is to stay out of what I refer to as “the vortex of defeat,” in which you let yourself spiral into inertia and despair.
Every manager in the world knows what “I resigned” or “I left for personal reasons” really means.
All careers, no matter how scripted they appear, are shaped by some element of pure chance.
The most reliable way to sabotage yourself is to be a thorn in your organization’s rear end.
Eventually, he had to leave the company. In the end, there wasn’t a person left with any desire to spend political capital on him.
Career lust shows itself in tearing down the people around you, insulting or disparaging them in order to make your own candle burn brighter.
The boss-subordinate relationship is easy to neglect. Your boss is in your face, and your peers are on your mind, while your subordinates do what you say.
There is no one right mentor. There are many right mentors.
Business is like any game, with players, a language, rules, controversies, and a rhythm. The media covers it all.
You can win without being upbeat—if every other star is aligned—but why would you want to try?
The world has jerks. Some of them get to be bosses.
In any bad boss situation, you cannot let yourself be a victim.
Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect, and need. Think hard about your performance.
What an awful feeling when your boss is not on your side.
There is a reason why kids don’t tattle on bullies. Unfortunately, the same principle applies in the office.
Work-life balance is a swap—a deal you’ve made with yourself about what you keep and what you give up.
“I chose to put my career first,” she said, “and I cannot blame anyone for my happiness or lack thereof.”
It’s not that bosses want you to give up your family or your hobbies. They’re just driven by the desire to capture all of your energy and harness it for the company.
If you want real work-life balance, find a company that accommodates it as part of its everyday business.
If you don’t fulfill your own joy with your work-life plan, one day you’ll wake up in a special kind of hell, where everyone is happy but you.
First and most obvious, bring out the three old warhorses of competition—cost, quality, and service—and drive them to new levels.
You can look at China and feel victimized. Or you can look at it and be excited about conquering the challenges and opportunities it presents.
The only quota that I ever thought worked was the exposure quota.
The paralyzing weight of socialism will gradually give way, and the EU will move steadily forward.
Board members cannot get into an us-versus-them dynamic with the very people they are supposed to help.