395 Quotes by Jack Welch

The third way is less common and certainly less of a layup – 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” or to “spend more time with their families.” They are hanged – publicly – and the reasons are made painfully clear to everyone.

In every company, differentiation is never more important than it is in times of trouble, and that’s the time when everyone tends to go to the well and equalize rather than differentiate.

If we don’t create private sector jobs and just – just creating public sector jobs, we’re going nowhere. This is a bad game. You’ve got to have innovation. You’ve got to have tax policies that support innovation.

Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one’s sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence.

I don’t think environmentalists have the slightest reason to be concerned about globalization because every time you move a plant to a new place you upgrade the neighborhood. You put in global standards. You put in modern plants. And all the plants around it get improved.

When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room. Every conversation you have about a decision, a proposal, or a piece of market information has to be filled with you saying, “What if?” and “Why not?” and “How come?

If you get the best people on your team, you’ve got plenty of time to do the things you like to do and can add more value to.

Strategy is simply resource allocation. When you strip away all the noise, that’s what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.

People aren’t the same. Business is, in my opinion, all about the team that fields the best players. It’s not about an idea. An idea goes away. Somebody catches up with it. It’s not about a widget.