How Great CEOs Lead | Jack & Suzy Welch

thank you all for joining tonight my name is Barry I'm a co-founder of Ivey and yeah it's tonight thank you thank you for being here so tonight is particularly important for me because huge part of the inspiration for Ivey initially where I met my co-founder Phillip was at the Harvard Business School where we're classmates we were great friends for a year and a half before we discuss anything to do with business even though it was Business School but that's sometimes how it goes there and one of the guest speakers one of the most powerful case studies we had was the Jack Welch case study and what I've always wondered growing up looking at history which has always been my favorite subjects has been with wonder thinking about how is it that some people in the same 24-hour day that we all have achieved so much affect so many lives and thousands are in their millions and what I've concluded over that time really thinking hard about leadership is that the best you can truly hope to be you know no matter how intelligent hard-working and so forth the best you can hope to be ultimately is to be a spark that gets other people moving in the right direction being motivated getting the most out of life and really achieving big things together and on that note I guess there's really no better example when we look at CEOs in the past several decades Jack Welch is definitely the greatest CEO of his generation in the years he ran General Electric when he took over it was 12 billion dollars in market cap and in 2012 it was 400 billion dollars so that's an extent growth hundreds and hundreds of acquisitions and an incredible management philosophy that's then they're impacted countless corporations across America and across the world so we have a lot to we've been learning a lot from Jack Welch and any case on tonight hopefully we're going to get a much more in-depth personal insight and we were also extremely fortunate to have his wife Suzie Walter with us she was the former chief editor of the Harvard Business Review and credibly accomplished individual who's had many leadership roles herself and also interact with the interacted with a ton of leaders to really distill key lessons that that are very much presented in their book which we're actually going to be having a book signing for later tonight the real-life MBA by Jack and Susie welt so the way the format is going to work tonight is I'm going to start it off with a few questions and then we're going to open it up to the audience and have a real very human in-depth conversation so without further ado let's give a huge round of applause to jack and Suzy watch by Barry thank you guys welcome so to get us started what would be great is if briefly both of you can talk about your personal story where you're from and specifically touch on one experience one very challenging experience that you would say made you who you are haha how about me yeah meeting each other that was one go ahead why did you go ahead with your personal well your and this yeah I mean well I I I'm from I'm from Portland Oregon that's the my beginning of my personal story is there anybody in this room from Oregon oh they he never get one neighbor might be a first you just about a twenty one city book tour that's about the first time I forgot it so I'm a journalist by trade and then I I was assigned in the middle of my career as a journalist when I was in it was not the middle but I was in my late 20s and I was assigned to cover business and I went to my first press conference with business and I did not understand a single word that was being said so I thought you maybe I should go to school for this and I ended up at Harvard Business School and then a life went on from there and I went to Bain and life bumped along and all was well and then I went to go interview the CEO of General Electric in my life took a very large left turn because I got canned when we ran off together but yeah true story and and and then we looked happily ever after after I picked myself off of off the floor and and we've been writing books together and columns and doing a whole bunch of other things since then it's all good and my Hobbit business school experience was buddy it was that you were there last year but 80 80 80 yeah sousou's name at the time was wet lava w/e and my daughter's name was w e welch tamriel CH and they sat next to each other when I came and spoke but little did we know little did we know that we ended up in this one and so that's that's the beginning of our 15-year relationship we've had I've been lucky as hell if I've one trait that just sir be well and I've won with is I've always thought of business as a game and the team with the best players wins nothing else going right strategy crap you can write all this stuff over and over again you get the best players you win it's no different than football baseball soccer you pick it and my whole life has been not always right but always trying to build the best team not always right by any means and if I have an attribute it's more than 60 CEOs today and G in the in the country that worked for me directly and they're out there running Boeing they're out there running Honeywell they're out there running Home Depot all kinds of companies big and small none of them are running Apple or Google though so I must admit that and so we're in it we're in a game where I really believe that who you surround yourself with Barry mentioned the Spock but who you surround yourself with the reflected glory of their work is what gets you promoted not your hand racing a pumping personally so you build a great team you'll win the game so on that note so we have a room full of young leaders here across a whole range of I thought this is dating site I didn't think but I didn't think it's something I met them on the way in got it viral in this age we will whom we never had a gimmick like you fun very yeah as soon as we thought we immediately texted our son who's 20 was immediately oh he's very good-looking alright it's not here yet yeah so it's a mother's chair there are members on average it's 31 so given the cities we're in that means 70% of them are single and then the other 30% relationships are married but the idea is you know obviously over time hopefully a lot of great matches happen whether that's in relationships or and black people meet each other okay so I'll give you a plug on that now we love what you do thank you so as I was saying we expected it to go oh perfect oh yeah so we have a room full of young leaders and whether it's a not-for-profit and entrepreneurship or internal leadership positions and I think one thing that we reflect on very regularly is you know if you really have to distill it you know what makes a great leader it's kind of like a cliche question but if you could define for us like what what how you see like that word leadership what does it mean if you have to pick three key factors of what makes a great leader what would you say they are oh well without question the biggest thing that I've found over the long time in sushi I have worked a lot on this subject we've read three books about it and we finally distilled it down to one of the great attributes is a generosity gene now think of who you've worked for all your life all of you you've worked for stingy Sons of Guns who've stolen your ideas you've worked the people who had your back who made you feel good in Seoul with praise and in the wallet with cash who really were with you and who would you go to war with it's those people so why wouldn't you be one of those people why wouldn't you always be out trying to be the best of who you work for that you've seen somebody generous of spirit with great empathy who really had your back and wanted you to grow and succeed I always thought the people who promoted others and who bragged about I got three of my people promoted with the Stars and that really is an enormous trait that if you listen to it I talked to these kids that wasn't having two weeks ago three weeks ago I don't know what the hell it was and I was a bit taller now and I was at MIT with ugliest kid today all we're going on interviewing now bear you got out ten years ago five years is up my rear net yeah it is very wise don't know it though it's our joint yourselves every religion but that I do things but every kid I taught you thought of himself as where are you working I'm working at Apple I'm working at Google I'm working at LinkedIn I'm going to here and there and it's almost peer pressure to come back with one of those brands right now and I asked them did you ask any questions about who are the last three people that got promoted there were my age five years plus what characteristics they have what character do they have with a loud-mouthed where were they empathetic were they good to their peers what would they like but nobody asked my question so how many of you asked that question so you're gonna have a degree you're an MBA did you ask about the culture no no no no cultures you well the culture of where you go counts a lot now some of your old up down and know that but coming out of school those kids not even looking at that but that is you want to hang out with people you like people that have fun people that are doing all that stuff with you not some stiffs over here somebody else over here that's being a horse's neck so on that's one characteristic generosity gene I'm Suzy were likely to start a gene we just don't know if it's a gene hey I think that along with the die so we call it the generosity gene because it is just this incredible propensity the way is when you have a gene that you're sort of programmed to be generous of spirit Lea promoting people wanting them to grow being really psyched when they succeed never feeling like them getting good is in any way diminishing to you and so I think that that's a really strong leadership that we identify and we talk about in the book but the other one is that we think that when you're a leader you have to think of yourself as a chief meaning officer a chief meaning officer and I think that it doesn't make any difference if you've got five people working for you or 50 or 500 the idea that part of your job is making sure that every person understands the meaning of their work the purpose of it how it fits into the whole and connects it to something bigger than just sort of you know a bunch of tasks and to really think yourself you know am i giving meaning to the people who work for me because I wonder I realized when I was hiring for HBR that the most powerful thing I could say when I really was trying to steal away the very best people was please come work with us and help us change the world and this is how we're doing it and just to give meaning so I think that's another - another quality of leaders let me actually the reason for that the reason why you need that today is a Gallup runs a poll every three months and they pull 12 thousand American professionals professional and they ask them how many of you are engaged in your work you like your work you're like you want to work you feel it's exciting it turns you on its pie it's integral part of your life well they get since the 2008 recession they don't get over 35% of feel that way about their job 65% are not engaged Manjula and every quarter it doesn't change much change is a point maybe or two but think if you got a football team or a baseball team you got 65 percent seems I'm not playing I'm not hanging out there what a hell of it probably you got winning and winning is the whole game winning is that the winnings very good all good things come from winning all good things come from winning better jobs better creation for other people all kinds of opportunity comes from winning and you can't do with 65% of your team lying on the sidelines that's why Suzy's point of giving meaning purpose to work is critical it's critical otherwise people are coming and getting a check and you're not getting that fun that camaraderie that winning with the winners locker room with the champagne or the losers locker room with the towel around your head wait wait where do you want to hang absolutely and so on this point we're IVs a small organization and so I'm obviously given what we do you know we love people we're all about you know being nice thinking about it like the the more positive aspects right one thing I've always reflected on and myself like since we're in a room full of friends here I can share very openly I've always wondered you know am I for example to nice because you know sometimes a business does take a certain level of ruthlessness it takes I'm forgiving this on certain different things so it's this dilemma where you know did you say what was this no no never takes that it never takes it yes sometimes when you look at different figures it seems like you know there are people who are you know for example it's not enough that they're winning they also want to crush the competition they want to eliminate them altogether and certain characteristics and internally - but those are bad people and and then they're and they don't go home and they don't belong in business and they'll wash out the end they should wash out I mean I think business requires a certain amount of candor about what the numbers are telling you and a lack of sentimentality like there is no last best deal I mean and and a certain amount of sort of facing reality in fact a lot of facing reality this person is simply not working out and we need to love them out the door we need to help them find you know and Lyle you got to love them on the way you love remember that don't ever forget that when you love them on the way and you got to love them on the way out help them find a new job but that kind of okay so you can call that ruthless the week we call that sort of loving candor and facing reality so but love them on the way out especially love them on the way you remember that one I remember that severance dollar is the cheapest dollar you'll ever spend you build a friend you build a customer you build a relationship builder all those things happen when you treat people on the way out the right way I mean we had to get rid of in G years ago B I'm now involved with 24 private equity companies but we use in G of the early days in the 80s we had to let a lot of people go but the one thing we had my predecessor left me with a big fat balance sheet so we could take that money and we could take care of people on the way out and that is what you you own it every person that leaves that works for you you own not something to eat even if you inherit them even if you get the job and somebody else had puts up there you own them and your job is to love them on the way out as much you're loved by the way in and severance dollars the cheapest dollar you'll ever spent have you ever seen us a newspaper headline that said happy whistleblower reports no it's always disgruntled employee got treated badly is there was a boy I mean all you do is cause trouble don't get near it absolutely so it's better so are you doing ice no probably not no I mean it's great it's good tears definitely inspiring to hear also coming from from YouTube to hear this because I do think that there are a lot of people here especially in this generation where like it's all about creating meaning the competition for talent isn't just about the dollars and pennies anymore but also much more about like everybody wants to make make a better world to really have a direct impact so as managers - it's good to hear that like the generosity gene is the first thing that you mentioned it's definitely very inspiring so there's one thing which is you know how to lead people and leadership but then there's the organizational dynamics so zooming out to a macro level so we talked about great leaders what about great organizations what are if you have to name three factors that set them apart they without question they have a well-defined culture culture cows I mean you're gonna look at spreadsheets for the rest you know why and they don't tell you how are you going to do it let's take it and the acquisition the numbers always look good who would ever show up with a number that didn't look great it's to deal I mean the residual value you change the number of the residual value and the deal looks great but you get a bunch of horses answers running the company and so you stuck count checking York the culture of the company you're buying has to fit your culture nothing is worth it I bought in 1991 a figure was a investment bank called Kidder Peabody for 17 months and I have their usage he at that time will share ideas boundary-less culture grow people create winners all these values that we had for our culture hate bureaucrats hate bureaucracy and the bureaucrats the practice if we had that infringed hate it hate those set books hate those po-boy slides that number is death all those things and yet we bought to the Peabody and it looked wonderful I had bought by by that time hundreds of companies and I was feeling like I was six foot four with hair so I was out I was out buying everything I bought this coming and the numbers look great until we get in there now the Kidder Peabody investment investment bankers are here because a blob of waving salt you ten people have admitted it good know and the best friend banking culture is generally my bonus my phonus my bonus and we couldn't manage it it was always somebody doing something not that their culture was wrong it just wasn't ours and so I got called for 17 months out of 24 months the dumbest guy in the world for buying Kuna Peabody we were in the front page we blew it up at times we sold it made a lot of money at the end but I wasn't worth 17 months of bad press and but it gets right to the heart of culture culture beats strategy everyday culture beats all these things if you've got a team that's really sharing ideas and making like if I could get the front row here I get the best of everything you knew and stick it in this head or in Suzy said we would end up so much smaller than we are right now so the challenge all of you is to get more people's brains in the game sharing more ideas and learning from each other like crazy and the thing is that some cultures encourage that and some don't and you know right now thinking about your own company whether or not that happens and I think going up to 20,000 feet again and thinking about great companies some companies are yes companies and some companies are no companies and again you know if you work in a yes company or no company where the answer to everything is no we don't do it that way no so-and-so won't allow it no die you know and then there's other companies where a new idea comes or or there's a different way of doing something and there's a and there's a propensity towards yes I mean that's also that is part of this culture that jack is talking about you know very well what defines your your culture it really does come down to what what behaviors are celebrated and what behaviors are or not I don't and the few were to kind of think about the past 20 years and I'm looking ahead 20 years what are some things that have that are definitely going to be changing and what are some things that will never ever change in your view when it comes to leadership organizations and everything's faster everything is more global disruptions occur at the snap of a finger there's going to be faster and what won't change is having an open candid culture where all these traits we just talked about comb fielding the best team I mean it's good I've got we've had 78 companies and I've been managing or last 15 years after G it's true out guarantee was true if you get the stars in place and you get an open culture we had no bus in the 2008 nine recession none of those and these were private equity governments that are broken when you buy them so you have to fix them from broken wheels but if you get a team in place that wants to play an open constructive way you can knock anything look what you guys have done you got you said your 10,000 members look what you've done in a couple of years and all about the team right I don't but the team I mean this is not brain surgery this really isn't this is about smelling good talent and good people is it just is it you know sometimes what happens is you care a person on your team especially if you're in a small company with small team and you carry somebody who's not great who's not caring his or her weight and you know you just you in most times people wait and wait and wait to ask those people to move along and find a place where they fit better and it really drags you down I mean they're thinking why are you so dumb no they uh everybody in this room can draw a curve of the best people the medium they okay people and the bad people that you work with everyone now you'll do it private you'll do in your kitchen you'll do it at night you'll do it in a bar yeah you'll do it anywhere but but and you wonder why the organization is carrying the people who are who are not carrying their weight and who are I knew and it's frustrating to you and you wonder about it but so that's why we're stressing the importance of people because it sounds so obvious and yet every organization carries people who everyone agrees are not not part of the team not helping not are not are not bringing you forward right and Jack you had the famous policy right twenty seventy Jen yeah would you like to talk about that yeah I mean and the funny thing is I was in Boston about again four weeks ago right and we have a discussion with the owner of the Red Sox and the head of the Boston Globe the end of the busing low and the subject was falling business which in my mind are the same and a guy from the back of the room gets up they love to do this somebody here might be ready to do this now tell me about the bottom 10% tell me why you focus on bump 10% I finally decided after 15 years of going through will you train them you show them you try and take them to the bottom Jeff why they're in the bottom 10th you give them a nice exit lump on the way out I said why the hell aren't you asking me about why the top 20 and 30 why aren't you focusing on the other end of the game I should have done that 15 years ago because I've been in there defensively talking with the bottom 10 why we one of the bottom can you don't think when you if you're a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fans you don't open up the page he's betting 160 let's keep them you don't train them in the morning you train them but what's different about that it's transparent because the newspaper shows you every morning what the batting average is what the ER a is what the football passing percentage is all those are transparent so we're all experts who should stay who should go is CC Sabathia done or is he still in the game is Alex a a-rod going to come back we can all talk about that we look at the numbers but at work don't ever do that don't ever think that's crazy it's absolutely crazy let everybody know with it well we're willing let's try it here how many people in this room raise your ham know exactly where you stand your business where what's your boss thinks about you what you think your career is where it's going you know exactly what's happening with you with your career with your career how many people know exactly where they raise your head we've done this all around the cut all around the world this is about right about 5% now imagine that now is that sinful or what you have you shamed yourself you imagine I've been shamed yourself you're leading people don't know where they stand we have a story about this so we really really strongly believe that if you're a boss I don't how many of you are bosses where you are in your careers if you're a boss it is your moral obligation to let your people know where they stand for better or for worse their candid conversations at least bare minimum twice a year where we say this is what is good about you and this is where you need to improve so our daughter who's 25 just about to be 26 goes out to LA to start her business her career in the entertainment business that she's going along she has a what it would sound to you like a great job at a big well-known company and she does not know house where she stands has no idea and she thinks she's doing well on some days when her boss is in a good mood but when her boss is in a bad mood we gonna call more calls than you know about so there's lots and lots of calls lots of texting and I don't know if it's me or if he's in a bad mood I don't know you know is he in a fight with husband art of what's going on with a bunch it you know rides the roller coaster of her boss's moods so a creek to last Christmas she calls us and she's completely ecstatic because she has received a raise in her pay stub okay so Jude I got a razor cut his gullet that's great in a pay stub okay stop okay John they don't tell her face she seizes the pay stub so we said her why'd you get did they tell you why you got the raise oh god no no no I was well you got to go in and you got to find out why you got a raise no no no no terrified to ask the boss why she got the raise because this is the kind of culture where you don't know where you stand so finally if you imagine having us as parents finally finally she goes in because she we knew we were not gonna let it go and she sneaks into his office and basically our God knows what it looked like to her head she asks him you know why did I um get this raise you know and he looks up at her and says Merritt what's ahead of you doing Merritt period period and she was okay thank you and then she calls us and she still to tell us the word is married and we said well you know that that's great dear so she since then has actually gotten a promotion so obviously she's doing something right but has no idea where what she is doing right and that's good I mean we're happy she loves her job in general she loves the business but it's when you know well as I upset her when you're a boss what does this teach you when you're a boss you must let your people know where they stand and she said I will I will I will and the line that's used as a cop-out my way too many managers I'm too kind to tell people one having when then I'm making it or they're not doing well I'm too kind you know I kind you're cruel coward that's a child cruel coward because you owe it to those people who get up every morning and come to work to know where they stand and what you think of them what the tree looks like with this your Gentry might be or not be it's the only way to lead an organization recurring themes I'm hearing it's all about the openness of great people and be open communicate Lots yep all right I'm going to open it up to the audience that's incredibly up they ask if you can stand and say her name before you ask the question and really speak up so everyone can hear like a little bit I get here yep Jack's fine yeah yeah I have a PhD in chemical engineering I work for a Nobel Prize winner so I have a incredibly glorious sort of technical career but I couldn't in I I could answer a thing today so we won't go there but I what it does is like no other it's like any other degree that you get advanced degrees it gives you confidence you got a checkbook you got a check mark it gives you confidence that you a critical thinker because when you get it sees this there's no answer to it so you could say that for 10 years doing your thesis and many do now I got out three is at one hour and and most people take five minimum but not because I was in Spanish because I was by no means the smartest in the school but I was driven so but it gave me an enormous ability to ask questions I had a small question anybody walking I may not know the answers but I'll get them if I keep pulling I'm like the dentist of the meeting I'm looking for the cavity so it played a big role gave me self comes but I wanted to be a hockey player all my life and I wasn't fast enough so that was the end of me right there in the orange oh yeah banks great Thanks good evening my name is Andy I have a question for both Jack and Susie you referenced culture several times in that culture beat strategy and I imagine every company from Lehman Brothers to Enron and others could argue that they had a great culture or have a great culture I'll just curious could you tell us what a great culture may look like perhaps like a reference of companies maybe even several traits that you believe can attract that that talent that you even reference in things I think you are so right that all these companies that collapsed and when themselves would have sat there boasting to you if you we came in for a job interview about their great culture it is just the you know it's you know I'm sure exactly right they would have said we value this and we value that and we really you know believed so you know I Jack has got a great four-quadrant description of what really makes a great culture and I hope he'll walk you through it but you know a great culture has some of these these traits and these behaviors because it really comes down to behaviors okay people call them values but then people the word values gets to be very politicized so we like the word behaviors better and that would be you know the sharing of ideas the promoting of people candor letting people know where they stand these are all very good values but there's one way to ensure a company has a very good value and it's this little device Jack uses which I love well if you excuse me if you put over on the left hand column values your behaviors as you just down line and you put along the bottom your performance and now we get to the bottom 10 argument again you drop four quadrants draw an X through that if you're well across in the upper right high performance high values right high behaviors is how you raise would you want you rank people put them up that Bach that's easy onward and upward sky's the limit lower left they don't give the numbers and they got a hustles dead personality and their culture is terrible easy to get them out then you go over to them to the top left of this box and you've got just the behaviors you want team players sharing ideas open to growth etc they're the upper left but they're having a lousy year or two in performance you got to give them a second to a chance because they're on your team they want to play they just start delivery right they might have a sick kid they might have any problems at home they might have anything you don't know give another chance but the one that kills every company the one that murders it is this one with the great numbers and the bad behaviors give me one more corner kissing up kissing down doing all those bad things to people that man but people keep tolerating that's the culture killer that's the culture killer that's the one that if they get the results we don't give a damn how you behave we don't give it that's the one that blows and their CEOs are up there puffing away on it on pooper buh-buh-buh-buh culture nothing give me a number and when you do that you bust the whole thing open so in the really good culture companies those people in that fourth quadrant that just jacked us talked about they do go the people who got the great performance but don't have the right behaviors they actually aleko we the ultimate test it took us years ago almost eight years to come to the point where we would stand up in front of 500 of our top managers we had seven we had five CEOs who ran companies ranging in size from five billion to 15 billion who we had removed during the year we didn't say they and they all had good results so it was a shock the whole place was shaking and we didn't say they went home to spend more time with the children we told them here's what they did I stood there fiber could have heard a pin drop this one could not be gender blind getting wouldn't promote women under any circumstance I'm not on another one yet excited to go get a passport in a global business didn't want to travel that much and that was a value that was a value that's growing global business we had one that absolutely was the most princely charming person to us and murdered the people on the backs of the people and which we said it we said there are good people they're all doing it there but they don't belong here but we did that culture Conlon but until we do that I think we were guilty probably of housing and puffing Joe this question please is this a one-night problem hi my belly up the budget a little bit we're that closer probably don't even need a mic my name is summer I just recently graduated with the Masters in organizational psychology so I'm really interested in culture leadership so I'm thank thank you all for forgiving this and really happy to be here so my question is around leadership I think you've talked about you know managers knowing you know I guess knowing where you stand and letting your people know where you stand but it seems to me that we're really depending putting a lot of dependency on having that good leader having that good manager so my question is you know in a world where it's dominated by social media when you have the power of people how can organizations leverage you know people so not just from the manager but also the direct reports the peers how can these people help in creating that culture and also identifying the talents that help organization grow well well obviously 360s work for a year or two once you get 360s going though the problem with the three are you familiar with 360 evaluations well they're basically frauds after two years because you're making deals I'll say nice things about you you say nice things about me that game is so in social memory you can't have people everywhere throw it in their opinions of other people I mean you'll have total chaos you have to bet on the people you pick it may not be what you want for an answer but you have to bet when you pick the right people now you may pick up jerks and the noise will eventually get to you but you gotta let the system do it the manager has to do it you cannot have sniping from all around the sides are you it's chaos it's chaos I think one of the things you touch on is you know the progress imagine the worldview that you know Jack and I have about how company should run is depend on the manager being good okay you know this all sort of falls apart when the manager is not good and we've all worked for bad managers but one of the great things about social media now is that companies have to be very alarmed about how many if they weren't already about bad managers I mean when Sun was off looking for jobs he ended up having three great offers and we were able to go to glass door and take a look at what people were saying about what that company was like you know and it was you know you really Stu hide anymore and that's great that's great that's a great way to but you cannot encourage sniping from the side and you just can't do it I mean you got a bet that you looked at three managers and then you pick the best one to go in there and hopefully you're right if you're wrong you'll pay for it you but the best way to look at it is I used to say this line I use a long time now in our companies we want you to love coming to work and being there and we want you ready to leave we want you to be ready to dump this place that puts pressure on managers if badges are jerks people leave whenever we had a union vote you could bet your life on a plan that was done you and unionized you could bet your life that the manager was a jerk absolutely and so people's reaction to bad managers is the best antidote and you've got to encourage people get out of if we're not good to live in you and energize exciting place we always Suzie toeing the line you want to make your place be the cool kids basement that's what you want to every day everybody wants to hangman everybody wants to be there everybody and you are creating that atmosphere but you're always telling them look if I'm not doing that I understand why you leave it so unless you add you since you've studied the subject more than we have probably now what would your theoretical answer to this all be given the mic if you would please the one might we have forget more think I think obviously the ideal scenario is to be able to select the best leader the best manager into this position so then we trust that they will hire the right people they will develop the people they will manage people the way that we want them to be that's inconsistent with the strategy of the organization but I think the reality is it doesn't really always happen but so I think you know giving power to the direct reports giving power to the peers to the colleagues that don't really have you know the ability to to compensate or to give bonuses I think that gives almost like a check and balance to you know I understand the last pot give bonuses and things while I'm saying is like the manager are the people that have the ability to reward to incentivize people in a in a I guess in a official way I guess but you know what your peers are your cop and/or your direct reports say about you are you know they can they can they can also reinforce and create those culture even though they don't have to official power to do itself does it make sense the power to leave that's the real power what use their feet that's the power it's like a boat in election either pull the lever you don't like it in the perfect way to look at this is the way Jeff Bezos and Amazon handles has shared us I ain't getting you a lot of earnings I'm growing this business if you want to stay on my bus vote for me if you don't want oh don't buy myself and when people start to leave an organization that's the cancer that explodes and then you go and deal with it but you can't have people all over the place recommending raises and things you're not saying that I you did I misunderstand you yeah I know where you're coming from but then I think that is based on the assumption that leaving it's a very easy option because I think a lot of time not everyone yeah so so you're saying well I can vote to leave or I can leave and that shows that the manager is not going to doing a good job and then that's see that's based on the assumption that people could just leave to steep roof system it's not pertinent there is no better no game but you gotta come up with a better system I am too - there is no perfect system it gotta give authority somewhere you can't have energy you mentioned Jeff Bezos sorry Bree ahead good um I don't have anything but what I guess it's just I think sorry yeah but I think it's based on - you know the basic assumption that just from what use and I come you know I agree with a lot of things that you say and I think it's the importance of having important individual individuals versus having a group of people that are that goes beyond that individual you know if you know what I'm saying I thought really about that all but okay we're all set thank you yeah thank you very much so seriously and there's no perfect system and I don't pretend it anyway what is Susie that we have one so it's the best one we know and I think the perfect system comes from having different system challenging each other and I think that's where the perfect system it's developed right yep Justin that since you mentioned Jeff Jesus I from the way you put that I assume you're a fan yes if you were to kind of give your thoughts both of you I'd love to hear and you know if the CEO's that are in the news most often so especially also like Mark Zuckerberg Elon Musk and so forth who do you think are doing a great job who do you think is like overrated no we would not gonna tell you is overrated are you kidding they're our friends but we are oh we love Jeff Bezos we think he's fantastic Jamie Dimon we think is a superlative leader great see an engine and we like Kevin Plank a lot at Under Armour's doing amazing things there's you know we have a great opportunity because of our work traveling and and and talking a lot of places and Jack's work to meet the CEOs of companies large and small and some of the best CEOs we've met arts small companies you know companies with a thousand people doing amazing things inventing leadership as they go and so of the ones that are in the newspaper there's a lot of great ones um but like as I said leadership great to use all different sized companies you know you may be a great CEO and you got 30 people yeah I like fun works I wager you are every day well I mean I think though the more important thing is that CEOs today compared to when I started as a CEO a much more engaged I mean they're in the trenches they get their hands dirty in my day in the early 80s I was a freak in my hands dirty and getting down in in there it was bureaucracy it was staffs giving you books to give presentations it was all kinds of stuff like that today you don't get away with that you got to be in the trenches you're going to be in the skin of the people you got to get them to believe you care about them that you're going to win with them and they're going to give their all to win with you that and it today it's much better we're much better society for it we seen some of the people you mentioned do you think there is a fundamental difference between a founder CEO who has to like from scratch build it up versus the professional CEOs that are kind of like moving around different companies yeah well I had the luxury of being a founder in a bank a big company so I was the first employee in the plastics business and we built a fifteen billion dollar business but I wasn't a real founder because a real pound is out in the garage with his wife cleaning toilets and everything else to try and get of cash to make the payroll right and and I'm I was in a whole different world why the bank gee and we were we I I the first employee the second employ the third employ in the plastics business so it's a different entrepreneurship from entrepreneur to manager is a tough job so it's a tough job more more people are doing it well jame than before you should see guys blow up all the time when they got to a certain size women and then blow up doesn't happen today the joint been erratic management in America today is so much better so much stronger do you think since you mention America specifically do you think this country will have a sustained competitive advantage given a lot of the values you mentioned around openness generosity yep and and and the one thing we have going bars that no other country in the world has is this collision of ideas and money so here I spoke at Southwest South by Southwest in Austin million people were there wild everybody pitching their deals to to venture capitalists then we went to one spot in Jacksonville Florida 250,000 now they're pitching to family officers $50,000 fundings $100,000 fundings their stages of people all over his rooms room after room of entrepreneurs pitching their deals most exciting The Odyssey you don't see that in France or Germany Japan of China you just don't see it then we went to Tyco on which is the has anybody been to take on it is the convention of Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley there were 48 hundred people in the room we could have 11 the energy was so it fabulously intense and these are people who are all starting businesses when they were in line and we got to talk to people during the book signing you know people say I'm on my sixth seventh company eighth company and just so much positive energy there's money for these great ideas so that is one thing that we uniquely have is a publisher put 2,000 books they're two hours later a room all around the building outside the building we ran out of books in two hours and there was a line a mile long these are sucking up energy and wanting to win and in the game and learn it's incredible no one else has that going you just don't see another country so it's very that it's enough to make you very very optimist about so we're big optimists on the future pretty good so we have time for two very quick questions and where's the microphone well that's someone actually back there please the gentleman on the right thank you very much mr. and mrs. Welch I have a question this theme of good managers has come up a lot in the Q&A so far and you mentioned the importance of having someone who has your back and obviously business needs change and sometimes you might end up with someone at a great company but not with someone as your direct boss who has your back so how do you recommend working through that situation to get there really invest in you or to identify others in the company who can invest better well I think without question and we just did a podcast this afternoon with John Steinberg the only way to approach a bad boss situation it's what that's what we're talking about generally if you win say look never face on never head-on never I should get more money I should do this I should do that it's like here's what I'm doing what could I do to improve can you help me work through where I'm at now and how I can improve I really want to help you win but I need your help in helping tell me so you command it that way you try and service the issues not confrontationally that's a losing game back to your argument you got a bad boss a bad boss you the only way to neutralize them is come that way and say help me help me get that option I'm doing this is what I've done is where I am I need your help tell me what you'd like to see another thing always remember every time you meet with your boss when you walk out of the room ask yourself is my boss smarter for having met with me what did I bring to the table can I come and answer a question know what perspective did I give my boss did my boss learn more for having that encounter was that encounter worth it look yourself right in the mirror and say I well I did was go ahead and show up and hope I didn't get slapped no I went in and gave him some coincidence I gave her new insights I taught her how to go do things so that's always the way never that way on the boss solutely I mean you can do anywhere you want but to the losing proposition okay one last question Oh y'all over here let's try and get fast answers yeah it's awful frightful uh my name is Chris thanks for having coming tonight you guys talked a lot about managing down word a lot of us are in the sort of middle point of earlier could you talk more about how do we effectively manage up yep to our bosses well I just gave you one and the other the major one is over deliver one of the problems that the education system does you go to through school and you're asked to do problems and you answer the questions or you do the paper and you submit it as you get a pat on the head or a nice note the corner but that's just responding to work your job as I said before is come in and give perspective so over deliver somebody wants to touch it tells you to go do this you do that but you give perspective to it you think through the problem in a bigger way so you're always making your boss smaller that's the winning strategy if your boss gains from the radiating positive vibes from you you win if all you are is a drag who the hell needs you so always think about that and give yourself that test give yourself that test is my boss smarter and she he or she learned something from my meeting today but I just have a routine eating saying all present sir mmm which one which was the meeting tomorrow when you're going to see somebody lose a boss think about that how do I make him smarter about the work we're doing where we're going how we're going to do it how we're going to get there see the mission tells you where you're going the value so the Indians tell you how you're going to get there and then the consequences fall from now so on that note but make your boss smarter so actually since there's so many questions I have a feeling that a lot of answers are probably in the book yeah we think so hope so we hope so since I got to be number one absolutely so do you want to maybe give a quick overview of like what was the vision behind the book what accomplishment you know yeah the vision behind the book you know look we were we wrote winning uh ten years ago and after we wrote that book warren buffett said no other business book will ever be needed and we were like yay and I was thinking great you know we can move right along now cuz we got a lot of their stuff to write and but the thing is in ten years the world really changed I mean it became faster it became more global more technical you know more technology driven as Jack said at the beginning and frankly you know we're very optimistic people we're very upbeat people but work is harder than it used to be it's really hard I mean I don't know how many of you follow the music industry or or in the music industry but I sort of followed that industry for sport you can't keep up with it is every single day it turns upside down and it's not the only industry I mean the players change the dynamics change I mean that's all of your industries and so the reason why and the vision behind the book was to give people a sense of what questions to ask so that you can frankly be successful and productive and not everybody can take two years off and go get an MBA at a leafy campus like we did and sometimes you and sometimes you you do go and get your MBA at a leafy campus and the world keeps changing so the vision behind the book was just to say here's your guidebook here's an MBA in a box basically and and and hope we hope you can use it to move your career along and we have another view another reason for writing it we started together an MBA program Jack Welch management student it's been going for four years we have thousand students from one of the largest MBA programs going on 100 percent online and we're changing the whole model seventy four percent of our people get promoted while they're in school the average range is eighteen percent they don't think needs the job we teach about a higher fire motivate lead all these things and guess what the faculty is not the customer the student is the customer we run with how many have been with NBS Net Promoter Score it's a customer satisfaction they we run that every semester with the students of the average age of the students thirty Azzo so we're asking them to make a judgment are you getting a value out of coming here a family member gets below of six one through ten twice gone no tenia ten years a four-letter word battery is not the boss the students the boss so they they're old enough to know when they're getting value they know how they're doing it and it's the most exciting thing we've ever done and the book the book is a lot based on what we've learned and from from our students and and and and and to sort of meet their needs as well so we we were really in the mix with them and so the book grew out that I just say one last thing cuz I know we can't keep poking people in forever is that that all the proceeds of the book go to charity so we are but we wanted to try scholarships go to inner-city scholarships so we have the books here at a subsidized rate and Jack and Susie will be signing them also after the event we'll also send an email to everyone here with details of the MBA program for anyone who is also interested in that yo that you look at themselves Jack Welch management so - its online you if you're interested it's a fun program but thank you very much Mary absolutely I'm before we close up I love you too of you to just quickly share with everybody very briefly you know how your own personal deaf mission of success has changed over time and one like parting piece of advice that you leave everyone here with before you leave Barry we're working our ass off drop a DW there on that note I love you very much but uh what about the advice that okay one last final piece of I said but um seek your area of destiny though that that intersection of what you're uniquely good at and what you love doing that would be mine over-deliver and always make your boss smarter all right jackass is he face over

Channel: IVY

Views: 36,992

Keywords: Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric, Suzy Welch, Harvard Business Review, Harvard, Ivy, Social, University, Entrepreneur

Id: bo4FDc2fqVw

Length: 60min 31sec (3631 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2016