WINNING: The Answers

Jack and Suzy Welch published the best-selling "WINNING" business book in April of 2005. This fall they published a sequel to the book called, "WINNING: The Answers." Well, its not really a sequel. Instead, its a compilation of articles the couple has written answering questions from interested readers. If you are a BusinessWeek subscriber then you're probably familiar with their Q&A column which appears in the back of the magazine. This book includes many of those columns as well as other Q&A columns published elsewhere.

Inside "WINNING: The Answers" ... you'll find lots of sharp business wisdom straight from the guts of Jack and Suzy. I've distilled snippets of their business into another Money Quotes from Business Books slideshare presentation. Enjoy.

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Comments

[Steve Liberati]

Maybe we can ask Mr. Corporate America what he thinks of his nickname "Neutron Jack." How he got his nickname b/c of his brutal and sudden firings responsible for eliminating over 170,000 jobs in America during his days at GE. Most sent home without warning, the personal effects of the families shipped home by UPS. Or we can ask him about his other wrongdoings that never made it to CNBC. Namely how GE cheated the Army, Air Force, and Navy on defense contracts. How they were convicted for criminal activities and had its contracts suspended by the Pentagon. How its has been convicted of bribery in Puerto Rico, accused of insider trading, and paid civil fines for discrimination against customers as well as employees. According to Paul Hawken in "The Ecology of Commerce," GE has more Superfund sites for toxic pollution (forty-seven) than any other company in America. Astonishing right? Or how they operated the Hanford nuclear reservation in the State of Washington which has created sufficient radioactive pollution to create the Nagasaki-size bombs. Or how and when they polluted Florida with nuclear waste and the Hudson River with PCB's.

Maybe he'll go down in the business world as one of the toughest bosses in America, responsible for raising company profits and lavishly rewarding shareholders in the process with huge returns....but let's also not forget the list of abuses he is accountable for during his reign and his blatant disregard for the health, environment and safety of the community at large.

After all, is the definition of "winning" and "success" based solely on profits, market share, and popularity?

I really hope not. Because if it is, we have a lot to be worried about as a society.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Steve ... did you read slides #22 and #23? Go back and take a look, you might like how Welch defines winning having more to do with achievement than profits.

Welch has his detractors and his admirers. Personally, I'm not fond of his rigid performance evaluation practice of firing "C"-level employees.

I'm not wanting to debate the merit of Welch's business practices. I'm just wanting to share a few quotes from his book which have given me insight on how to be a better business leader. (Notice, I didn't share any quotes relating to his rigid performance evaluation practice.)

[Steve Liberati]

John nothing on you man...I was just telling the other side of the story as we typically only hear the one side of it all from the popular media. You personally did a fine job as always in evaluating the book. I think there is some valuable lessons we can take away from his book and you manage to find it for us. Thanks.

Your blog is never short of being insightful.

[Tom Asacker]

Great call out Steve. Books are books, and slides are slides (great job John, btw), but Jack was certainly NOT what he put in print.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Echoing Tom's comment ... whenever I read Jack Welch's words, I think to myself that what he writes in books probably doesn't jibe exactly with his actions at work.

Nevertheless, Welch's books have an aspirational managerial quality to them that this businessperson finds inspiring.

[Lewis Green]

John,

Thank you for sharing but like so many others, I am not a Jack Welch fan. During his tenure, he built GE through mergers and acquisitions, a historically failed strategy that today's GE is dealing with, as they rid themselves of unprofitable units.

Furthermore, I seriously doubt he cares much about people, especially his employees, as his actions indicated success is about short-term results and profits, as he states in "Winning."

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

I hear ya Lewis ... but taken alone and not attached to Welch, these aspirational managerial lessons are something every business professional should strive to achieve. To me, it's not about Welch. It's about finding inspiration and information from a variety of sources to make me a better manager. Yeah know, I can learn something to apply to business from Al Dunlap just as I can from Carlos Ghosn. Maybe it’s just me, but I can separate the sources from the resources. Dig?

[Lewis Green]

John,

I'm with you all the way regarding learning from anyone. You are right, and I have read "Winning" from cover to cover. But to separate the sources from the resources, I feel better if I know something about those sources, and I bet you do, too.

[David Brown]

Amazing string of comments - I agree that it is a good idea to look at both sides.

I have quite a few GE books on the shelf one of them is "At Any Cost" which highlights many of the negative things about GE.

One thing to note is that I don't think many businesses of any size that has been around for a while could ever say that all their actions, by all team members were always good.

I believe that all people and companies have good and bad traits - they make good and bad decisions - they all have done things they regret or would do over.

Just thoughts - not a defense in any way. By the way - the "At Any Cost" book had a ton of great business lessons as well.