Jack Welch and the Ge Way

Evaluating his approach to bringing about change in his organization. Comparing his approach with that of Jack Welch.

Please read Case Study: The Jack Welch Era at General Electric in Chapter 5 and answer questions 1 & 3. Please submit the answers by the end of week #3. At least one page is required.

A leader is a person who has a vision (Owen, 2002). A leader has drive and is committed to achieving their goals and vision. Leaders focus their attention on problems that need to be fixed, and will tackle the situation at hand. Leaders are determined, motivated, careful planners and effective communicators. Leaders are positive and do not waste time and effort with negativity. Effective communication is more than just being able to speak and write. An effective leader's communication encourages people to work toward their goals. A leader is

West’s personal definition of the word leader, she highlights, “A great leader inspires confidence in other people and moves them to action. A great leader is an excellent follower. A good leader must be a good follower. For me, being the leader of my three areas (Insurance verifier, Central Scheduling, and Referral coordinator), I have to take direction from my leader, the manager. A leader is one who knows, understands, and believes in the company’s vision and goals. In addition, a good leader plays an active part in achieving those goals by building a team that is focused on achieving those goals as well” (n.p.).

* Technical Leadership – Immelt identified technology as a key driver of GE’s future growth and emphasized the need to speed up the diffusion of new technologies within GE and turn the corporate R&D into an intellectual house.

A variety of leadership characteristics, traits, and behaviors of the chosen leaders are examined especially as designed during the reign of the two CEOs. An analysis of the reign of both Jack Welch Period (1981–2001) and Jeff Immelt (2001-2008) and their sweeping radical changes into the organizational culture and leadership provide an over view in relation to the management of the change process. The changes were at the heart of a magnificent transformation of the strategy of GE. The strategies employed triggered enhanced and more efficient performance on the managerial level as well as internal operations, (Aghion, & Durlauf, 2005).

Follow through: A leader should do the work according to his/her sayings. If he/she doesn’t, it will spoil his/her image into the employees mind and they won’t be managed by him easily.

This report’s objective is to provide analysis of the leadership challenge that General Electric (GE) is currently facing, and to recommend solutions. The primary problem is determining what kind of candidate is required to replace retiring CEO Jack Welch. This has left GE to question how much does the company want to change policy over the previous era, and where does the company want to be in future?

As the figureheads of their business, leaders must have a vision that is the root of their business?s mission and goals and is the main force that drives the business forward. The vision is essentially a dream that the business leader has that the business acts to make it a reality. The people running the business, or the team of workers under the business leader?s leadership, are the ones who are going to help turn that vision, or dream, into a reality, so it is imperative to the success of that vision?and therefore, the business?for the business? leader to share that vision with his workers.

Analysis - GE has likely been so successful over the years because of its ability to foresee major trends and capitalize upon them. In the 1960s, for instance, GE was one of the eight major computer companies. Even recently, since 1986, GE has continued to acquire several organizations; portions of NBC, wind manufacturing, universe pictures, aerospace industries, international firms, software and hardware manufacturing, even oil companies abroad. The company culture describes itself as not one company, but many each unit a vast and complex enterprise in and of itself, with a corporate

When one thinks of General Electric (GE) they envision a well diversified, elite, global corporation. GE employs more than 300,000 people worldwide and serves customers in 160 countries. GE 's culture is well defined by its mission, vision and values. This company has become recognized for its unparallel training and career development as well as for its significant organizational processes. These practices have enabled GE to provide the utmost quality while maintaining their aggressive commitment to leadership

The culture at General Electric, before Jack Welch assumed his role as CEO in 1981, was highly decentralized, where significant emphasis on strategic planning was levied on 43 Strategic Business Units. However, Jack’s vision of changing the culture of the company was a priority to him.

Executive Summary Team Globalization has conducted an in depth analysis on General Electric's (GE) two decade transformation achieved by the company’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jack Welch. This report consists of a reflective examination performed by the team, incorporating perspective gained through professional experience and key concepts gleaned from selected course reading selections. As CEO of GE, Jack Welch's

As we move to the 1980s, GE was led by the ‘legendary’ Jack Welsh, who made it clear that he wanted every one of GE’s business to become in the top 1 or 2 ranking of their respective industries or close the business. Even though he focused on cutting costs, he still made it a top priority to continue to develop managers within

Jack Welch’s vision of what GE was possible of gave the company a vision for twenty years while he was the CEO and chairman. He states, “leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.” (Winning, pg 67) He not only allowed for employees to stretch, but demanded it. In teaching workers to stretch Welch knew that workers “may fail. In fact, they probably will fail. But stretching, and stretching the business, is going to improve performance results.” (Jack Welch on Leadership, pg 105) He also states that “only by setting the performance bar high did it become possible to discover people’s capabilities.” Jack Welch’s emphasis on candor and breaking the bureaucracy of modern business separated him from his contemporaries. He excited others of the possibility of being the biggest and best company in the world and rewarding his best employees that shared the values of GE. According to FORTUNE Editorial Director Geoffrey Colvin In "The Ultimate Manager, Welch leads the annals of management history not for anticipating the new world's changes ahead, but for acting on them: "His great achievement is that having seen it, he faced up to the huge, painful changes it demanded, and made them faster and more emphatically than anyone else in business. He led managers into this new world, which we still inhabit, and just as important, he showed business