Jack Welch: Leader of the Century
Leadership Analysis Report

Business Leadership Analysis Report
Jack Welch

Introduction Jack Welch, regarded as the leader of the century by Fortune Magazine, has an amazing effect on the concept of leadership in North America. Born and raised in a working class family in Massachusetts, Jack had earned both his Masters of Science and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois by 1960 and then began his career in General Electric. It was in 1981 that Jack became the CEO of General Electric; during his twenty-year tenure at General Electric the company’s value rose four thousand percent.

Analysis Jack Welch is a typical example of a leader represent the company. During his twenty years’ duration, Jack reframed the structure and culture of GE. He built the company into a winning organization through more lead rather than manage.

1. Lead through vision

Jack says “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” He calls the overall success of his leadership strategy winning. He was a task-oriented leader with clear goals and visions in how the company would be. He created the vision not only in his own mind but step by step to convey this vision to the whole organization.

Vision about how things can be done better

Manager lead with vision and they must persuade others through the force of vision.

Set out only a few clear and general goals consistent with company values and create values consistent with vision.

2. Build a learning organization culture

Having established the vision in organizational level, Jack Welch had further nurtured a culture of learning at General Electric. He has done so by setting forth a set of key values, assumptions, understandings, and norms and encouraging all of the members of the organization to participate in his vision. He initiated this culture by knocking down the boundaries of communication and including all levels of the organization in idea sharing. After making everyone a part of the conversation at General electric Jack then started to implement the best ideas that he could find. Lastly, Jack would consistently follow-up to ensure that the ideas have been implemented properly. In addition to sharing ideas, Jack also took the time to answer the questions of his followers. Having a leader with such an admiring attitude towards his followers will helps to create the culture of respect and learning. These things combined make each employee feel responsible for the success of the company, which was Jack’s intention, to turn workers into figurative owners.
3. Face and deal with changes Jack Welch had an uncommon view on change. While most business leaders take the contingency approach and deal with events as they happen, Jack’s goal was to anticipate the ups and downs of the business and make the necessary changes before they would be forced to. Jack says business leaders need to accept change because change is inevitable. Jack also thought that it was important to involve the employees in recognizing change so that employees would begin to see changes as opportunities instead of roadblocks. The most common quote from Jack Welch is “change before you have to,” His great courage and the approach to change had contributed greatly to capturing a great percentage of the market for every product that General Electric produced.
4. Be a candid communicator Jack Welch seems to almost have an obsession with the word candor; he adamantly believes that candor is “the biggest little secret in business.” First, he believes encouraging a candid business environment increases the sharing of ideas. Second, a candid environment makes communication happen quickly. Third, the open communication that a candid environment provides will eliminate bureaucracy. Jack Welch