Jack Welch is one of the most successful business leaders in the world. He spent 40 years at General Electric. He retired in 2001 after spending 21 years as chairman and chief executive officer. His nickname at GE was Neutron Jack, because of the fact that 118,000 people left the company in his first 5 years at chief executive officer. Since he retired from General Electric in 2001, he has traveled the world giving speeches and lectures to business audiences. In his book, Winning, Jack Welch tells his story on how to win in business. Jack Welch wrote Winning after speaking to audiences all over the world. He summarizes the most frequently asked questions he has received over the years. The book is broken out into 5 main sections; Underneath It All, Your Company, Your Competition, Your Career, and Tying Up Loose Ends. In the first section, Underneath It All, Jack Welch talks about mission and values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity. Throughout his book, he talks about how other companies operate. One of them is Bank One. One of their values is “We treat customers the way we would want to be treated.” They identified some behaviors that made the value come to life. Some of them are:
• Never let profit center conflicts get in the way of doing what is right for the customer.
• Give customers a good, fair deal. Great customer relationships take time. Do not try to maximize short-term profits at the expense of building those enduring relationships.
• Always look for ways to make it easier to do business with us.
• Communicate daily with your customers. If they are talking about you, they can’t be talking to a competitor.
• Don’t forget to say thank you.
By following these behaviors Bank One was able to achieve their values. Jack believes “the biggest dirty little secret in business” is lack of candor. Lack of candor blocks ideas,