Jack ’57 and Suzy Welch Visit the Isenberg School of Management: Insights from the Welch Way

Tue., Sep 16, 2008
“Doing great in school—graduating with high grades—is extremely important. Your chances of launching a successful career go way up the curve,” emphasized Jack Welch ’57 to a packed Isenberg School classroom of 85 student overachievers on September 15. Jack and Suzy Welch—his wife and coauthor—were on the UMass Amherst campus to visit with Jack Welch Scholars from the Isenberg School and the College of Engineering. The Welch Scholarships provide full funding for their recipients throughout their undergraduate years. The former chairman and CEO of General Electric also met with students from Salem High School—recipients of the John and Grace Welch Scholarships, which Jack established in memory of his parents. Members of the Isenberg School’s honor societies also attended the question-and-answer session with the Welches.

Hallmarks of Success and Leadership. “At work, be sure to overdeliver,” Jack Welch told the students. “Give your boss new insights; make your boss look smarter.” Be authentic; be yourself, he continued. And because you’re going to work harder than anyone else, find work that you are passionate about—work that you will remain committed to.

Effective leaders, Welch continued, have abundant energy and the ability to energize others. They are decisive and bring things to completion. They also have personal resilience, emphasized Suzy Welch. Success requires a willingness to risk and rebound from failure. Ironically, fear of letting yourself fail is an obstacle to success.

As a leader, you need to relentlessly upgrade your team—to differentiate it by its strengths, observed Welch. To that end, regular and frank evaluation of employees is crucial. Reward and motivate good performers in the middle; eliminate the worst; and upgrade the best. “At GE my job was to find out who the real leaders were—to identify the 750 top performers and move them into leadership positions. Promising employee leaders identified by Welch could find themselves deployed to any part of the larger GE organization. “I used to tell managers in charge of different GE businesses, “You rent those employees; I own them.”

It is counterproductive to dwell on the so-called work-life balance, Jack Welch insisted. Instead, be clear about work-life choices and accept their consequences, Jack and Suzy both agreed. “You need to know what you’re getting into,” Suzy continued. “I have always worked full time; It is something that I need to do. I also have four kids. When you have children, you work that much harder.” Next spring, Suzy will author 10-10-10 (Scribner), a book that will help its readers tackle difficult decisions by viewing the implications of choices over ten-minute, ten-month, and ten-year time horizons. Viewing decisions in terms of those different time-based perspectives, noted Suzy, can yield very different outcomes and choices.

A Watershed Day on Wall Street. The Welches’ campus visit coincided with a momentous day on Wall Street. That morning, the investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection. The night before the Bank of America had made a commitment to purchase the ailing investment giant Merrill Lynch. The international insurance firm AIG also struggled on the ropes. “Only two of the major investment banks are left. We are witnessing a fundamental change where commercial and investment banking are coming together,” emphasized Welch. Who would have thought this likely six months ago?”

According to Welch, Merrill Lynch employees cannot look back: they must move quickly to embrace the values and culture of their new employer, Bank of America. “They must perform like hell; they must love their employer,” observed Welch. Being acquired can be like a death to employees; you have to adapt to someone else’s rules and regulations. You have to look forward. A firm’s culture really counts when you make an acquisition. Lehman employees, on the other hand, will face a different challenge—they’ll be out on the streets.

Ultimately, a company cannot benefit society unless that business is itself successful. “As a company, you are basically responsible for winning,” emphasized Welch. “There’s a book on that,” he quipped, referring obliquely to his best seller with Suzy, Winning (HarperCollins). “When you win everybody wins, you pay taxes and you give back to your community. But first, you must create healthy, growing jobs.”

View the video clip.

Visit the official web site of Jack and Suzy Welch.