Comments on "Winning" by Jack Welch

This is a very down to earth book; with lots of advices that are sensible and convincing. Also, this book is suitable for even job-starters. In fact, I think it is particularly valuable for our kids because it prepare them for what the real world looks like and what they should do in order to succeed (not just to climb the corporate ladder but to achieve job satisfaction).

For instance, it points out quite a number of key problems with most Chinese companies: no clear company vision, lack of candor, lack of differentiation, and lack of respect for the workers, to name just a few.

I highly recommend this book to MBA students because unlike other management books that usually sound theoretical, this book explores the real work environment and hence can stimulate a lot of real-life discussion. To stimulate your sharing during the bridge session, here are some questions that you can find some advices in the book:

1.tWhat happened at Arthur Andersen and Enron that caused their demise?
2.tHow can any business-person in China practice candor and differentiation when “only the voice of the boss is allowed”?
3.tWhat does a leader really do?
4.tCan you be introverted, quiet, or just plain shy and still get results out of your people?
5.tWhat is the one thing you should ask in an interview to help you decide whom to hire?
6.tThe budgeting process in my company is too entrenched to change. What can I do?
7.tI am in manufacturing, but I want to move into marketing. Will I ever get out of the factory?
8.tHow should I deal with my bad boss?
9.tMy company is getting killed by China. How can we stay alive?

Good book with awesome advices, lot's of lessons for executive management and leadership, Jack brings in his profound 20 years experience as CEO of GE which are practical and gives a lot of insight on leadership, boardroom politics and business strategy.

A good book to invest your time on if you want to see how organizations are run from the top.

كتاب جيد التبويب، والتقسيم، يهتم بوضع ملخص لكل محور وفقرة، يهتم بالجانب العملي، والذي هو أساس العمل.

I was really surprised about how much I enjoyed this book. Straight forward, practical, no bs management book. Covers everything from leading people to setting budgets.

He isn’t afraid to disagree with contemporary corporate fluff, which takes a bit to adjust to—but you gain an appreciation for it. His primary philosophy is that organisations should be a meritocracy and cuts out anything that interferes with that.

Rating - 7.3

Decent enough business read that validates some of my own style but much like many before & after it, suffers from cross-chapter repetition & mild egoism; Chapter on WLB is not in touch w 2012 Gen Y

Gobbled up the first eighty pages quite easily & then hit a wall w the constant patronage of GE superstars; A little humour would make for more personality & the advice would take on a little more life

Interesting Thoughts
Never let profit centre conflicts get in the way of doing what’s right for the customer

Always look to what makes it easier to do business with

Communicate daily w your customers – if they are talking to you, they are not talking to someone else

Don’t forget to say thank you

Strive for candor – it gets people into the conversation, it generates speed and it cuts costs

In the 20-70-10, you need to focus on the 70 and keep them engaged and motivated

Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, make sure that people see and live the vision, exude positive energy, establish trust w candor, transparency and credit, make unpopular decisions, probe and push w a curiosity that borders on skepticism, inspire risk taking and celebrate

Evaluate, coach and build self-confidence is where the majority of a leader’s time is spent

In hiring, you want to test people for integrity, intelligence and maturity. Beyond that look for people w energy, the ability to energize, edge (tough decisions), execution and passion

Leaders require authenticity, anticipate market changes, possess resilience and surround themselves w smarter people than themselves

Successful companies elevate HR to a position of power, use a rigorous evaluation system, create effective mechanisms to motivate and retain, treat the middle 70 percent as the heart and soul of the organization and design the org chart to be as flat w clear reporting relationships and responsibilities

A rigorous evaluation system is clear and simple, measure relevant criteria based on individual-performance, evaluates twice per year and includes a professional development component

Change initiatives need to be attached w a clear purpose or goal, employs positive energy types and ferrets out resistors

To beat the competition, a company needs to come up w a big aha, puts the right people in the right positions and seeks out best practices to do the a-ha the best

Strategy is resource allocation on how best to compete

Slide One – What the Playing Field Looks Like Now?
Who are the competition – large, small, new and old
Who has what share, globally and in each market – where do we fit in
What are the characteristics of this business – commodity vs high-value, growth curve, profit drivers
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How much do they spend on R&D?
Who are the businesses main customers and how do they buy?

Slide Two – What the Competition is Doing?
What has each competitor done in the last year to change the playing field?
Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, technologies or a distribution channel?
Are there any new entrants and what have they been doing?

Slide 3 – What Have We Been Doing?
What have we done in the last year to change the playing field?
Have we gained or lost any competitive advantages?

Slide 4 – What’s Around the Corner?
What scares you the most in the year ahead?
What new products or technologies are your competitors launching?
What M&A would knock you off your feet?

Slide 5 – What’s Your Winning Move?
What can you do that changes the playing field – product development, acquisition
What can make your customer relationships stickier?

Mergers & Acquisitions
There is no such thing as a merger of equals
Cultural fit is more important than strategic fit
Do not end up in a reverse hostage situation
Integrate aggressively
Integrate don’t dominate
Do not pay so much that you cannot recoup the premium

Work-life balance is the responsibility of the employee not the organization

In one of the last books I read, Jim Collins' Built to Last, they researched the particular characteristics that differentiate a good company from a visionary one. One of those characteristics was pretty simple: Promote from within, develop the internal talent for leadership positions; those people will be most likely to promote and follow the core vision and values better than the best external hire. In fact one of the visionary companies referenced in that point was G.E., and they spoke how one of the best examples of the value of internal talent was Jack Welch, who became CEO after 21 years of working for them.

Welch has become a mythical figure in the business world, during his tenure as CEO, he took an already huge company and increased its value for 4000%. However in "Winning" he took it upon himself to prove that he isn't some kind of business wizard, he just worked hard, followed and promoted the company's culture, and let the results speak for themselves. By providing age old advises that most people take for granted, he proved how he was able to achieve such growth and diversification of G.E. without ever questioning its values or mission.

He gives many useful advices about leadership and the more operative aspects of the organization. However, I have to admit that as a psychologist, one of the things that most stuck with me. was the huge importance he gave to human resources, and how he says one of the biggest mistakes most companies make is make it a "support area", when in fact it should be front and center. After all, he writes a lot about strategy and culture alignment, and how that can only be accomplished by recognizing the most loyal and best talent, developing and promoting them. Making them day-to-day ambassadors of the greatness of the company, thus ensuring the growth of the company after his retirement (just like Collins said in his book).

I've worked in companies that pride themselves of putting people first while at the same time showing lack of transparency and ignorance of the strategic role that human resources should have in an organization, but I guess that's the reason not all companies can achieve what G.E. has, and not all leaders achieve Welch's mythical status.

(Although a bit dated) This book is a good read on how to deal with -nearly- everything regarding business life. The author, being an experienced and also a well-known business leader, shares a ton of advice on corporate matters.

It was in 2006 when I first read this book, taking pages and pages of personal notes at the time. Today, I've passed through those notes (22 pages of personal notes in total -- I could not believe myself for those fabulous notes). In addition, I've made some partial reading from the book on topics that are relevant to my current business conditions.

Every company should have a vision and a mission clarified to the employees of the company and not just add it to the brochure or website of the company.

Values also are one of the most important ways you add to the company. Invest in the people, their education, and their improvement.

Honesty, and how to make honesty one of the most important things you make.




Mission and Values

According to the author Jack Welch in his book "Winning", the first step for those who want to win is to have their mission well defined, it must encompass exactly how you will win the challenge. Having clearly defined the path to be taken, decision-making becomes faster and more accurate.

In addition to the mission, another point needs to be well defined, the values. They are the necessary and acceptable behaviours for the established mission to be achieved.

Thus defined, both your mission and values must be able to impact all members of your team. With that, it is necessary to recognize those who are engaged and it is even the case to dismiss those who do not buy the idea.
Frankness

For Jack Welch, frankness is considered the biggest secret to success.

Well, let's explain why it's so important.

In order to achieve success, your company must have great ideas, right? But do you agree that it can't just come from leaders and directors?

It has to come from everyone in the organization. According to the word "Winning":

"Lack of openness blocks smart ideas slows down quick action and prevents capable people from contributing to their full potential. It is devastating."

Thus, when it is part of our business, it is possible to give people the freedom to say what they really believe, making them contribute to the development of the organization.

The 3 key points that frankness contributes to are:

Bring more people to talk, making ideas clearer and richer;
Increase speed;
Reduce costs.

Great! But how can we achieve frankness?

Jack explains:

"To be frank, it is necessary to praise, reward and talk about it. Above all, it is important to demonstrate it in an exuberant and even exaggerated way."

Keep in mind that consolidating these behaviours is quite profound, making the process difficult and time-consuming.
Differentiation

All human beings are different, and so are your employees. Thus, in order to reach the best of your team, it is necessary to be different from them too.

Thus, one of the solutions found by the author was to use the meritocracy system, adhering to the 20-70-10 management model. It consists of the every year:

Reward 20% of employees (those with high performance);
Keep 70% of employees (those with average performance);
Dismiss 10% of employees (those with the worst performance).

According to Jack Welch in "Winning", this is not the perfect system, but it is the one that generated the greatest results throughout his journey.
Overview: Your Company
Leadership

When you take a leadership role, your attitudes and behaviours are required to be transformed. After all, success now depends on the growth of others, and you are responsible for bringing it to them.

For you to manage your team, there is no cake recipe. Because each leader has a different way of leading his team, each one has a list of leadership rules that works.

So the author Jack Welch tells you to build your rules and stick to them. During his experiences with GE, he used 8 rules and says that he believed it was the right way to lead in all his contexts. The rules are:

Leaders are relentless in improving the team, using all meetings as opportunities to assess, train and reinforce self-confidence;
Leaders strive to make people not only understand the vision but also experience and breathe it;
Leaders put themselves in everyone's shoes, exuding positive energy and optimism;
Leaders earn trust with frankness, transparency, and recognition of the merits of others;
Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and act on instinct;
The leaders question and instigate, by means of a constant curiosity that approaches skepticism, striving for their questions to be answered with action;
Leaders inspire risk-taking and constant learning, setting an example;
Leaders celebrate.

Staff Selection

In this part, we will understand how to put the right players on the pitch.

Know that friendship and experience are not enough to make you successful. Many other attributes are needed, after all it is an extremely important stage and presents a high degree of difficulty.

The author Jack Welch tells us in his book "Winning" that, in order to get great people in certain roles, he used two strategies:

The first strategy is called "The evidence of the nine":

Integrity test: people with integrity tell the truth and keep their promises. They take responsibility for their past actions, admit their mistakes and are corrected;
Intelligence test: the candidate must be endowed with a strong intellectual curiosity, with sufficient knowledge to work in the desired sector;
Maturity test: the ability to face situations of suffocation, to deal with stress and setbacks and, in the opposite direction, in those wonderful moments of enjoying success with the same dose of pride and humility.

The second strategy is based on the 4-E (and 1-P) model:

Energy: they are optimistic and positive people, they have a taste for life and work;
Energization: they have the capacity to inspire the team and accept great challenges;
Edge: they have the courage to make difficult decisions, even with low resources;
Execution: people who finish their tasks effectively and withstand any obstacle on the way;
Passion: they are people with great interest in your company and are happy and motivated with the team's achievements and learning in general.

People Management

Now that you have the right players on the field, it's time to manage them in order to get a winning team. With that, the author Jack Welch presents us with some people management practices, which are:

Raise HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization and ensure that HR personnel have special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers;
Use rigorous, non-bureaucratic assessment systems that emphasize, above all, personal integrity, with high rigor;
Create effective mechanisms (money, recognition and training) to motivate and retain staff;
Facing difficult relationships - with unions, with stars, with decadents and with troublemakers;
Fight gravity, and instead of treating 70% of the environment as a mass that follows the current, consider them the heart and soul of the organization;
Draw organization charts as horizontally as possible, with blinding clarity in subordinate relationships and assignment definitions.

Taking advantage of the fact that we are talking about hiring, let's talk about the reverse now, the layoffs. Do you know when to and how to properly resign?

Jack suggests in his book "Winning" that employees who are incompetent, perform poorly and violate company rules should not be part of the team.

The termination announcement should come as no surprise, as you will have already given the employee several feedbacks.
Change

Change is something that creates confusion and some disagreements, but it is essential for your business to be a winner.

To this end, the author Jack Welch says that everyone should understand the real reason for the change. In addition, in order for this process to become simplified, he revealed the 4 practices he uses:

Tie all change initiatives to a clear purpose or objective. Change just for the sake of transformation is stupid and irritating;
Hire and promote only convinced believers and types willing to change;
Eradicate and discard opponents, even if their performance is satisfactory;
Keep an eye out for road accidents (seize opportunities and learn from others' failures).

Overview: The Competitors
Strategy

Have you ever stopped to think about what a strategy really is?

Well, author Jack Welch tell us that:

"It means making clear choices about how to compete. You can't be everything for everyone, no matter the size of the business or the depth of your side."

Therefore, it can be understood as a real game, which must be fast and full of life. And for you to be victorious in this game, see the 3 steps covered in the book "Winning" that Jack uses to develop his strategies:

Create a great business idea, one that is smart, realistic and has a quick competitive advantage;
Selecting the right people for each function, this combination will speed up your idea;
Adopt the best practices to execute the idea and adapt them to the current internal and external context of the company.

In short, the strategy consists of finding the idea and creating the complete track, having the best people on your team, having one execution after another and finally, always focusing on continuous improvement.
Organic Growth

Growth is important in any business and at any time, especially when carried out organically.

For this, you will only be successful if you choose the best people and not those who are unoccupied, in addition to being motivated and grabbing this opportunity tooth and nail.

Remember too that you must provide all the necessary resources for growth to occur.

Finally, I leave with you the 3 guidelines presented by author Jack Welch and that contribute to this stage:

Spend enough at the beginning and assign the most capable, hungry and passionate people to leadership roles;
Exaggerate in the exaltation about the potential and importance of the new enterprise;
To err for excess of freedom; do not stay at the foot of the enterprise.

Overview: Your Career
The Right Job

Finding the right job is very satisfying, after all, doing what you like ends up not being a job, but a fun one.

However, according to the book "Winning", to find the ideal job, you will spend a lot of time and effort, as you need to qualify for your role.

Thus, it is necessary to strive and give your best, after all, the better you are, the greater the chance of finding the job you dreamed of.
Get Promoted

For you to be successful, you must want, and want a lot! After all, there is no such thing as "luck", you are the one who creates your opportunities.

See which practices you should start to perform and which ones you should abolish from your routine, so that you reach the desired position, based on the perspective of Jack Welch in his work "Winning":

Produce sensational results, well beyond expectations, and in every opportunity expand your position beyond the established borders;
Do not induce your boss to use political capital to boost you;
Manage your relationships with subordinates with the same care that you manage your relationships with your boss;
Have positive attitudes and spread them around you;
Do not allow obstacles to impede your progress;
Look for and enjoy the contributions of many mentors;
Be one of the first defenders of the company's main projects and initiatives.

Work-life Balance

One of the most difficult things in today's world is time management and staying focused, isn't it?

In your daily life, there will be thousands of distractions and various time saboteurs.

But you need to know how to allocate your family and work time well, time at work has to be 100% focused on it, and family time has to be 100% focused on family, that is, we have to keep focused in the game we're in right now.

Another point explained by the author Jack Welch in the book "Winning" is having enough capacity to say "no" to everything that doesn't fit your work-life purpose, after all, there are many things that just want to divert you from your objectives and add nothing.

Getting it to achieve all that balance is a time-consuming process and continuous repetition. Finally, remember that this balance must contribute to your happiness.
What do other authors say about it?

In the book "Sonho Grande", Cristiane Correa complements the idea of strategic planning and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a process of continuous improvement to achieve goals.

These ideas were inspired by the visions of the trio of wealthiest entrepreneurs in Brazil. In addition, the trio considers that risks are essential to achieve extraordinary results, they already said that the greatest risk is not taking any risks.

In the book "Managing Tomorrow", the authors Sandro Magaldi and José Salibi Neto suggest that we use two engines of growth. Engine 1 is responsible for day to day and billing, making the company focus on its current operation. Engine 2 is what drives the company to focus on the future.

With this, we intend to align the continuous improvement of engine 1 with the disruptive innovation of engine 2.

Finally, in the bestseller "Good to Great", renowned author Jim Collins also addresses the importance of putting the right people in the right places.

Like Jack Welch, he believes that it is necessary to bring together the skilled people first and only then to formulate the right strategy. In addition, he says the right people are a company's greatest asset.
Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

At this point, you already have the key insights needed to win. In this journey in search of success, it is essential that you keep your goal clear, with a lot of focus and persistence.

To recap the purposes of Jack Welch, for you to achieve victory, it is necessary that you understand:

Your mission tells you how you can win, and your values demonstrate what you have to get there;
Try different jobs until you find the one that most fits with your goals;
Deliver excellent results, do not be a rock in your boss's shoe;
Understand that crises can happen. Take the worst problem and try to get the best lesson.

Good one, just not for me. Yet.

I have really enjoyed this book. Great read for just about anyone. Especially if you are in a leadership role.
This book offers the reader a distinct opportunity to 'read and learn' directly from someone who sacrificed, fought through major personal challenges, and not only made a tremendous impact on a company, but also had tremendous impact on a countless of personal careers, not to mention, made a fortune by applying his fierce management strategies.If you desire a prosperous career, make this book part of your arsenal of knowledge.

Winning is an attitude, it is preparation, it is application, and then, managing and doing what is necessary to succeed. This is such a powerful book of information, motivation, and most of all, business knowledge.

Old fashioned but still true

There are just a few places in the book I wouldn't agree with. Mainly it is a very wise summary of Jack's experience. It's worth to take into consideration.

A few pages into the book I was shocked at how American this book is. If employees don't deliver, get rid of them is one of the messages. If business units don't deliver (are number 1 or 2 in their sectors), shut them down. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this advice, it's just very difficult to implement. Not that I've had to, as of yet. Anywhow, Welch has been very succesful throughout his career and this book is his concise take on business. There is definitely constructive input to be had from this book, even for Scandinavians.