Straight from the Gut…

December 29, 2006 by gbrown

The prospect of a 13 hour long haul with an infant is surely only savoured by sadists. However, flying Virgin always makes the experience more bearable (see notes below on “What are you?” mind).

I was actually looking forward to the flight this time round. I charged up the Ipod and packed it with “mental protein” to try to make full use of what would be otherwise lost hours.

So, what was on the audio booklist for the flight? For this post, I’m sharing insights into Jack Welch’s autobiography…
Jack Welch - Straight from the Gut. The more I read about Jack, the more I’ve come to admire him. GE was never a sexy prospect, but it’s performance in the 90s despite being a non dot.com stock is nothing short of remarkable. Jack’s philosophy is very simple - “culture matters” and his vision to drive home this message whilst at the same time shed 100,000 jobs has always been a subject of controversy. Welch shared many of the challenges faced by Gerstner in reforming IBM in the 90s. Whilst both were successful, Gerstner dealt with the bureaucracy but failed to address the deeper challenge of people and culture. There are 2 takeaways from the audiobook that I’m putting into daily practise:

1) 95% of your value as a leader is in selecting the right people

2) Getting the right people in the right job is more important than choosing the right strategy

Jack had a reputation for being a toughnosed straightshooter loved by his people and at the same time deferring all the glory to those who made it happen. His role, he describes as being one of managing the corporate culture , setting the tone and supporting his “stars”.

What I found particularly poignant was his closing remarks where he shared his goal for GE - “to create a company where people can stretch beyond their limits” . I love this goal - it’s atypical of the usual management gumf we here - “to be the leading supplier of X by 200X” (who cares?).

It’s refreshing to hear the view of somebody who really knew what he was talking about when he said business was all about people.