Title: GEs TwoDecade Transformation: Jack Welchs Leadership
1GEs Two-Decade Transformation Jack Welchs
Leadership
- Amanda Rodriguez
- Patricia Robledo
- Brittany Culberson
- Yue Jiang
2Leader or Manager?
- 1. TRUE or FALSE I think more about immediate
results than I do about mentoring others. - 2. TRUE or FALSE People will be motivated if
you pay them enough. - 3. TRUE or FALSE Its nice to know about
peoples long-term goals, but not necessary to
get the job done. - 4. TRUE or FALSE If you have a consistent
recognition system that rewards everyone in the
same way, then that is enough. - 5. TRUE or FALSE The best way to build a team
is to set a group goal that is highly
challenging, maybe even crazy. - 6. TRUE or FALSE My greatest pleasure in my job
comes from making the work process more
effective. - 7. TRUE or FALSE I spend more of my time and
attention on my weaker performers than I do on my
top performers, who basically take care of
themselves. - 8. TRUE or FALSE Its better not to know
anything about the personal lives and interests
of the people who report to me. - 9. TRUE or FALSE Sometimes, its almost as if
Im a collector of people because Im always
recruiting and getting to know new people. - 10. TRUE or FALSE I like to surround myself
with people who are better at what they do than I
am. - 11. TRUE or FALSE I am a lifelong student of
what makes other people tick. - 12. TRUE or FALSE People talk about mission
too much its best just to let people do their
work and not try to bring values into the
conversation. - 13. TRUE or FALSE Its my job to know
everything that goes on in my area.
3What it takes to be a Leader
- Drive
- Leadership motivation
- Integrity
- Self-Confidence
- Knowledge of the business
- Ability to perceive the needs and goals of others
and to adjust ones personal leadership approach
accordingly
4Leaders Managers
Key Behaviors
- Deal with ongoing day-to-day
- Planning and budgeting routines
5Followers
- Capable of independent thinking
- Are actively committed to organizational goals
instead of their own interests - Willingness to tell the truth
- Hold performance standards higher than required
6Leaders, Managers, Followers
- An individual can exemplify both processes
(leadership, management), one or the other or
neither - It is vital for a company to have both, leaders
and effective managers - How well followers follow is also key for success
7InnovationImagination
8Six businesses, each with a number of business
units aligned for growth
Infrastructure
Commercial Finance
Industrial
Healthcare
NBC Universal
Consumer Finance
9 GE Global Research First Industrial
Lab in the U.S.
- Began in Schenectady, New York in 1900
- Founded with the focus to improve businesses
through technology - One of the worlds most diverse industries
- Cornerstone of GEs commitment to technology
1900
2006
10A History of Innovation
1909 Ductile Tungsten 1913 Medical
X-Ray 1932 Langmuir Nobel Prize in
Chemistry 1942 First US Jet Engine 1952 LEXANTM
Polycarbonate 1955 Man-Made Diamonds 1973 Giaever
Nobel Prize in Physics 1983 Magnetic Resonance
Imaging 1995 GE90, The Worlds Most Powerful
Jet Engine 1999 Digital X-Ray 2003 H Turbine
11Innovation-Key of GE culture
- At GE, we consider our culture to be among our
innovations. Over decades our leaders have built
GEs culture into what it is today a place for
creating and bringing big ideas to life. Today,
that culture is the unifying force for our many
business units around the world-GE - How important is innovation for leadership? If
leaders dont have innovation, what happens to
the company?
12GE a Bellwether of American Management Practices
- 1930s, highly centralized, tightly controlled
corporate form - 1950s, decentralization
- 1960s, strengthen its corporate staff and develop
sophisticated planning systems - 1970s, SBU-based structure and sophisticated
planning processes - 1980s-2001, three waves in Welchs period
13 Reg Jones -1970s
- Strategy-SBU based structure and planning
processes - 10 groups, 46 divisions, 190 departments, and 43
strategic business units - Develop a constructive business-government
dialogue - Wall Street Journal proclaimed him as a
management legend - Success
- Sales more than doubled (10 billion to 22
billion) and earnings grew even faster (572
million to 1.4 billion) - A major thrust into international markets
- Expansion of world trade and restoration of U.S.
competitiveness
14Questions
- Shareholders What are your concerns regarding
the new leadership and the financial success of
GE? - Employees What are your concerns regarding the
culture, benefits, work environment under a new
leader? - Potential CEO What challenges do you see coming
into a successful corporation?
15Who is Jack Welch?
- 1935 born in Salem, Massachusetts
- 1957 BS in Chemical Engineering
- 1960 MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering
16Jack Welch and GE
- 1960 Joined GE as a chemical engineer
- 1972 Elected GEs youngest VP
- 1979 Vice Chairman
- April 1, 1981 Became the 8th Chairman and CEO
of General Electric
17Taking Over GE
- Challenges from outside of GE
- Economic recession
- High interest rates
- Highest unemployment rate since the depression
- Challenges from GE
- Massive information and inefficient
macro-business - What is Welchs reaction to these Challenges?
18Welchs Vision
A decade from now, I would like General Electric
to be perceived as a Unique, high-spirited,
Entrepreneurial enterprisethe most profitable,
highly diversified company on the earth, with
world quality leadership in every one of its
product lines. -- Jack Welch
Three-Circle Vision for GE
19Restructuring the Hard Drive
- Challenged everyone to be better than the best
- Sold more than 200 businesses and made over 370
acquisitions - Insisted GE become more lean and agile
resulting - Delayering elimination of the sector level
- Downsizing elimination of about 123,450 jobs
- Divestiture elimination of an additional 122,700
jobs - Replaced 12 of his 14 business heads
Willingness to change is a strength, even if it
means plunging part of the company into total
confusion for a while. Jack Welch
20Initiatives - Objective
- Work-Out
- Best Practices
- Going Global
- Boundaryless Behavior
- Six Sigma
- E-Business
We bring together the best ideas turning the
meetings of our top managers into intellectual
orgies. Jack Welch
21Did it work?
22Jack Welch
- 1999 Named Manager of the Century by Fortune
- named one of the three most admired business
leaders in the world by Financial Times - September 7, 2001 Retired as CEO
- Published autobiography, Jack, Straight from the
Gut
23Leadership Styles
- Autocratic
- Makes decisions alone
- Yields higher performance
- Democratic
- Solicits input from group for decisions
- Yields positive attitude
- Laissez Fair
- Absence of managerial decision making
- Yields negative attitudes
24Type of Power
- Authority
- Legitimate Power
- Was CEO Position to tell others what to do
- Reward Power
- Control over Rewards
- Performance reviews, pay increases, bonus
- Coercive Power
- Control over punishment
- Implementation of policies and administration of
disciplinary action - Expert Power
- Has expertise or knowledge over the business
- Had been with the company for 20 years when he
became CEO
-foxnews.com
25Followership
- Success depends on how
- well followers follow
- Not just Jacks Company
GEs 100-year-plus track record is simply about
having the very best people at every single
position. That is its number one core competency.
No one has better people. When you get the best
people, you dont have to worry about execution,
because they make it happen. -Larry Johnston,
CEO of Albertsons Former CEO of GE Appliances
(1991-2001)
26Passing the Torch
- Retirement September 2001
- Lengthy process of succession
- Internal candidates only
- Never named candidates
- No strategic vision
- No common measure for candidates
- Long list of candidates
27The New Guy
- Jeff Immelt
- GE Corporate Marketing - 1982
- Plastics, Appliance, Medical
- President CEO, GE Capital Board - 2000
-ge.com
GE hit a home run with Welch and wanted to try
again. More profoundly, Immelt demonstrated a
superior capacity to grow, which was the most
important criterion in the choiceThey just knew
he would have to rethink and reinvent GE
-Geoffrey Colvin
(Fortune)
28The End of an Era
- Reg Jones era (1981)
- Built up immense financial strength
- Saw profits and growth
- Jack Welch era (1981-2001)
- Superior leadership
- Profitable and immense growth
29Challenges for Immelt?
Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt -USA Today
30Whole New Levels
- New Values
- Imagine
- Solve
- Build
- Lead
- New Businesses
- Energy
- Customized Medicine
-rollingstone.com
31GE Now
- Operates in 100 countries worldwide
- 300,000 employees worldwide
- 2006 revenue - 163.4 billion
- 2006 earnings - 20.8 billion
- One of original six companies still listed on Dow
Jones index
32Success Continues
- Continually finding ways to improve
- Accountability of managers
- Developing leaders
- Rewarding leaders
33Leadership Continues
- At the top, we dont run GE like a big
company. We run it like a big partnership, where
every leader can make a contribution not just to
their job, but to the entire Company. - -Jeff Immelt, CEO
- Letter to
Investors - 2005 Annual Report
34Bibliography
- http//www.schulersolutions.com/leadership_self_te
st_answers.html - http//money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_arc
hive/1989/03/27/7183/index.htm - http//www.ge.com
- http//money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_arc
hive/2001/01/08/294478/index.htm - http//www.cnnmoney.com
- http//www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/FR/TNKS/TNKSHM/welch/i
ndex.html - Abetti, P,(2006), Creativity and innovation
Managerment, Case study Jack Welvhs Creative
revolutionary Tranformation of General Electric
and Thermidorea Reaction (1981-2004), V15 no.1,
p74.