Immelt: Jack Welch managed large institutions better than anyone else
Jeff Immelt · #116 Jeff Immelt: Leadership In A Crisis · Jul 27, 2021 · at 9:34
Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt reflects on the management lessons he learned from his predecessor, legendary GE CEO Jack Welch.
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“What Jack did as a masterclass was how to lead at scale. He created an aura. He had a voice for 300,000 people. He had a voice for 500 people. He had a voice for 20 people. He had a voice for one person. He could change octaves in how he spoke. He knew how to measure people to create success, so he knew how to instrument. He was a great communicator, and he, more than anything else, put human resources on the map. You know, HR was a backwater, kind of stooge-ish function in the 19 seventies and eighties. Everybody that got ahead in HR had been in union relations at a moment in time when, you know, professional workforces were exploding. And he really put, he really cared about people and the human resource side. And so you add all those things up, he could manage big institutions. I think better than anybody I've ever seen before or after.”
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