John Francis “Jack” Welch, Jr. (b.1935) is an American business executive, author and chemical engineer. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. During his tenure at GE, the company’s value rose 4000%. In 2006, Welch’s net worth was estimated at $720 million. When he retired from GE he took a severance payment of $417 million, the largest such payment in history.
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You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.
—Jack Welch
Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. After you become a leader, success is about growing others.
—Jack Welch
Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy.
—Jack Welch
An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.
—Jack Welch
Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today’s world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.
—Jack Welch
The best way to support dreams and stretch is to set apart small ideas with big potential, then give people positive role models and the resources to turn small projects into big businesses.
—Jack Welch
Business success is less a function of grandiose predictions than it is a result of being able to respond rapidly to real changes as they occur.
—Jack Welch
If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don’t have to manage them.
—Jack Welch
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn’t have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
—Jack Welch
I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.
—Jack Welch
The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders—people who not only have enormous amounts of energy, but who can energise those whom they lead.
—Jack Welch
Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.
—Jack Welch
Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one’s sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open — to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confident people aren’t afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.
—Jack Welch
Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.
—Jack Welch
Topics: Money
The people who get into trouble in our company are those who carry around the anchor of the past.
—Jack Welch
Topics: The Past, Past
Getting every employee’s mind into the game is a huge part of what a CEO job is all about. Taking everyone’s best ideas and transferring them to others is the secret. There’s nothing more important.
—Jack Welch
Change before you have to.
—Jack Welch
Change has no constituency — and a perceived revolution has even less.
—Jack Welch
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