Book summary and Outline from

Jack Welch’s book, “Winning”

Chapter 1: Mission & Values
My Comments

Jack uses mission like Joel Barker uses vision; as a

focal point for everything the organization does.
Recognized as Entrepreneur of the Century.Welch
obviously was adept at integrating culture (values and
mission) and business strategy to create a focused
effort. His book is easy reading, direct and practical
so any entrepreneur or business manager can integrate
his concepts into their business. If you get a chance to
see him live do so.

On Mission

In my experience, an effective mission statement basically answers one question: How do

we intend to win in this business?
GE’s Mission

To be “the most competitive enterprise in the world” by being No. 1 or No. 2 in every
market – fixing, selling, or closing every underperforming business that couldn’t get
there.
Setting The Mission

Setting the mission is top management’s responsibility. A mission cannot, and must not,
be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it.
Values

Create values: People must be able to use them as marching orders because they are the
how of the mission, the means to the end – winning. In contrast to the creation of a
mission, everyone in a company should have something to say about values.
Integrating Mission & Values

A concrete mission is great. And values that describe specific behaviors are too. But for
a company’s mission and values to truly work together as a winning proposition, they
have to be mutually reinforcing.
Chapter 2: On Candor

The lack of candor is business’ dirty little secret.

Candor works because it de-clutters.

Candor leads to winning in 3 ways:

A. Gets more people in conversation.

B. It generates speed.

C. It cuts cost….a lot.

Chapter 3: Differentiation
Differentiation Defined

Basically, differentiation holds that a company has two parts, software and hardware.
Software is simple—it’s your people. Hardware depends. If you are a large company,
your hardware is made up of the different businesses in your portfolio. If you are
smaller, your hardware is your product lines.
Managing the People

It’s a process that requires managers to assess their employees and separate their
performance into three categories: top 20 percent, middle 70, and bottom 10. Then—and
this is the key—it requires managers to act on that distinction. I emphasize the word
“act” because all managers naturally differentiate—in their heads. But very few make it
real. Differentiation is about managers looking at the middle 70, identifying people with
potential to move up, and cultivating them. But everyone in the middle needs to be
motivated and made to feel as if they truly belong. You do not want to lose the vast
majority of your middle 70—you want to improve them. As for the bottom 10 percent,
and there is no sugarcoating this—they have to go.

I didn’t invent differentiation! I learned it on the playground when I was a kid.

When people differentiation is real, the top 20 percent of employees are showered with
bonuses, stock options, praise, love, training and a variety of rewards. There can be no
mistaking the stars at a company that differentiates. They are the best and are treated that
way.

Chapter 4: Voice and Dignity

Every person in the world wants voice and dignity, and every person deserves them.

Chapter 5: Leadership: It’s Not Just About You

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a
leader, success is all about growing others.
What Leaders Do: Jack’s 8 Rules

Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to

evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.
Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their
questions are answered with action.
Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.
Leaders celebrate.
As a leader, emphasize the company’s vision and direction so everyone knows it in their
sleep. Talk about it with everyone until you become sick of hearing yourself talk. Tie it
into money, bonuses, security and promotions.

Chapter 6: What Winners Are Made Of

Nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people on the field.
The Acid Tests

The first test is for integrity.

The second test is for intelligence.
The third test is for maturity.
The 4-E (And 1-P) Framework

The first E is positive energy.

The second E is the ability to energize others.
The third E is edge, the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions.
Which leads us to the fourth E-execute-the ability to get the job done.
If a candidate has the four E’s, then you look for that final P-passion.
Hiring For The Top

The first characteristic is authenticity.

The second characteristic is the ability to see around corners.
The third characteristic is a strong penchant to surround themselves with people better
and smarter than they are.
The fourth characteristic is heavy-duty resilience.
Chapter 7: People Management – You’ve Got The Right Players.
Now What?

People management covers a wide range of activities, but it really comes down to six
fundamental practices.

1. Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization, and make sure
HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers.
In fact, the best HR types are a combination of pastor and parent in the same
package.
2. Use a rigorous, non-bureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with
the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.
3. Create effective mechanisms—read: money, recognition, and training—to
motivate and retain.
4. Face straight into charged relationships—with unions, stars, sliders, and
disrupters.
5. Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70 percent for granted, treat them
like the heart and soul of the organization.
6. Design the organization chart to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear
reporting relationships and responsibilities.

Chapter 9: Change – Mountains Do Move

It comes down to embracing four practices:

1. Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change for change’s
sake is stupid and enervating.
2. Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types.
3. Ferret out and get rid of resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory.
4. Look at car wrecks.
5. With all the noise out there about change, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and
confused.

Chapter 10: Crisis Management – From Oh-God-No to Yes-We’re Fine

5 Things to Assume.

1. First, assume the problem is worse than it appears.

2. Second, assume there are no secrets in the world and that everyone will eventually
find out everything.
3. Third, assume you and your organization’s handling of the crisis will be portrayed
in the worst possible light.
4. Fourth, assume there will be changes in processes and people. Almost no crisis
ends without blood on the floor.
5. Fifth, assume your organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what
happened.
A Way To Prevent Crisis

Create a culture of integrity, meaning a culture of honesty, transparency, fairness, and

strict adherence to rules and regulations. In such cultures there can be no head fakes or
winks. People who break the rules do not leave the company for “personal reasons”.
They are hanged—publicly—and the reasons are made painfully clear to everyone.

Chapter 11: Strategy – It’s All In The Sauce

Strategy is a living, breathing, totally dynamic game. It’s fun—and fast. And it’s alive.
In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and
implement like hell.

First, come up with a big aha for your business—a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to
gain a sustainable competitive advantage.
Second, put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward.
Third, relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or
out, adapt them, and continually improve them.
Strategy, then, is simply finding the big aha, setting a broad direction, putting the right
people behind it and then executing with an unyielding emphasis on continual
improvement. I couldn’t make it more complicated that that if I tried.
Making Strategy Real: 5 Points

o What the Playing Field Looks Like Now

o What the competition has been up to
o What you’ve been up to
o What’s around the corner
o What’s your winning move
The Right People

Any strategy, no matter how smart, is dead on arrival unless a company brings it to life
with people—the right people.
Budgeting –Jack’s Way

Q: How can we beat last year’s performance?

Q: What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?

But there are really just four practices that matter:

Communicate a sound rationale for every change.

Have the right people at your side.
Get rid of the resisters.
Seize every single opportunity, even those from someone else’s misfortune.
That’s it.
Don’t get all caught up in your knickers over change – you just don’t need to.

Mergers & Acquisitions - Fast way to grow

Six Sigma

Nothing compares to the effectiveness of Six Sigma when it comes to improving a

company’s operational efficiency, raising its productivity, and lowering its costs. Six
Sigma is a quality program that, when all is said and done, improves your customers’
experience, lowers your costs, and builds better leaders. Six Sigma accomplishes that by
reducing waste and inefficiency and by designing a company’s products and internal
processes so that customers get what they want, when they want it, and when you
promised it. Make no mistake: Six Sigma is not for every corner of a company.

The Right Job

Work-Life Balance

While work-life balance was increasingly front and center during the 1990’s. The debate
about it has only intensified since my retirement in 2006. Today, no CEO or company
can ignore it.

Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but
only inasmuch as it helps the company win.
Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you
have earned it with performance. The key word here is: “if”.
Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for
recruiting purposes and that real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the
context of a supportive culture, not in the context of “But the company says….!”
People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the
company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted or
incompetent—or all of the above.
Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to
solve. In fact, most know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do
that, and they wish you would use them.

*Jack Welch’s “Winning” book image courtesy of Amazon Bookstores