Thread: Winning with Jack Welch

I've been reading a lot of really awful business books these days, so Winning was a good break from disappointment.

Jack Welch, as most of you know, ran GE (General Electric) for a lot of years -- and ran it very well. Jack is an old guy who knows what he's talking about. He learned from experience and from some of the best tutors in the world.

Jack is a straight shooter. The book is a distillation of decades of practical business wisdom. There is no spin in this tome, just solid advice on how to manage your career and your business.

The book is a bit too focused on working in large organizations, but that's Jack's background. Even with that though, there is plenty of content for small business entrepreneurs.

Overall, I wish I had read this book when I was 18. It might have saved me from learning a few lessons the hard way.

Getting ready with few nights and the Winning on mind... Thanks

It's on paperback. Jack Welch is a smart guy. Should be an interesting read.

He is an interesting read, not sure I subscribe to a couple of his theories -

• play your top 2 succession candidates off against each other and get rid of the loser
• Drop the bottom 10% performers from your workforce

Surely there are better ways to do this!

Originally Posted by chatterbox

He is an interesting read, not sure I subscribe to a couple of his theories -

• play your top 2 succession candidates off against each other and get rid of the loser
• Drop the bottom 10% performers from your workforce

Surely there are better ways to do this!

These same ideas are used by Donald Trump and many other successful business people. If you have two top performers, it might not be a good idea to dump one, but getting rid of 10% of the dead weight at the bottom is a very good idea. From my experience working with several major corporations, the amount of dead weight is sometimes a lot larger than 10%. But the idea is that dumping 10% can motivate the rest.

The larger a company becomes, the harder it is to motivate people. Although no one likes it, fear is still the best motivator in big business. Fear creates competition to be the best.

You see this type of competition in sports. If you are in the bottom 10%, no one will renew your contract. Perfomance is all that matters.

I think I will check out the book store here in Downtown for that book, and start reading a book for once

Will, it would be cool if you would recommend more books like this that you wish you read when you were 18, if there are more.

Originally Posted by dmi

Will, it would be cool if you would recommend more books like this that you wish you read when you were 18, if there are more.

How about a book review and recommendation sub forum ?

Originally Posted by Loko

How about a book review and recommendation sub forum ?

I'd like to keep them sorted by topic area.

For example, this was a business book so I put the review in the Business forum. I'm reading a couple of books on community building and I'll review them in the Community Building forum.

If I review some of the fiction I've read recently, I'll post that to General Chat.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

These same ideas are used by Donald Trump and many other successful business people. If you have two top performers, it might not be a good idea to dump one, but getting rid of 10% of the dead weight at the bottom is a very good idea. From my experience working with several major corporations, the amount of dead weight is sometimes a lot larger than 10%. But the idea is that dumping 10% can motivate the rest.

The larger a company becomes, the harder it is to motivate people. Although no one likes it, fear is still the best motivator in big business. Fear creates competition to be the best.

You see this type of competition in sports. If you are in the bottom 10%, no one will renew your contract. Perfomance is all that matters.

The Romans would decimate a legion when it failed in battle. The word decimation is derived from the Latin decimatio.