首页 新闻 搜索 短信 分类 聊天 导航


新浪首页 > 教育天地 > 杰克·韦尔奇:全球第一CEO

General Electric is Like a Grocery Store
http://www.sina.com.cn 2002/03/22 10:00  《英语学习》

  By John A. Byrne

  容若 选注

  被《财富》杂志誉为“世纪经理”的杰克·韦尔奇不仅领导通用电气公司成为世界上最大的多元化公司,他本人的自传也在最近创造了美国出版业的奇迹:以高达700万美元的天价卖给了时代华纳贸易出版公司,创美国自传体版权收入历史之最。杰克·韦尔奇是如何成为全球众多企业家心中的偶像的?

  As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, he has built its market cap<注1> by more than billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation.<注2> At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy.<注3>

  Starting at GE in 1960 as an engineer earning ,500, Jack learned the need for "getting out of the pile"<注4> when his first raise was the same as everyone else's. He stayed out of the corporate bureaucracy while running a billion collection of GE businesses—in a sweater and blue jeans—out of a Hilton, Massachusetts.

  After avoiding GE's headquarters in Connecticut for years, Jack was eventually summoned by then Chairman Reg Jones. Through his dark-horse struggle, he made it to the CEO's chair and started the GE transformation.

  Welch was ever called "Neutron Jack". During those years, GE's employment rolls fell by more than 100,000 as part of a strategy to "fix, sell, or close" each department<注5>—and he used the purchase of RCA<注6> to provide a foundation for the company's future earnings. There were mistakes, too—and Jack confronts them openly. He describes one of the biggest blunders: the purchase of Kidder Peabody, which ran counter to GE's culture.<注7>In fact when you see Jack in person, he is not so much as the celebrated chairman and chief executive of GE, the company he has made the most valuable in the world, but rather as Professor Welch, coach and teacher to 71 high-potential managers attending a three-week development course.<注8> ''You can't grow long-term if you can't eat short-term,'' he states flatly. ''Anybody can manage short. Anybody can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.''

  If leadership is an art, then surely Welch has proved himself a master painter. Few have personified corporate leadership more dramatically. Fewer still have made so splendid achievements based on that leadership. For 17 years, while big companies and their chieftains tumbled like dominoes in an unforgiving global economy, Welch has led GE to one revenue and earnings record after another.<注9>

  ''The two greatest corporate leaders of this century are Alfred Sloan of General Motors (GM) and Jack Welch of GE,'' says Noel Tichy, a longtime GE observer and University of Michigan management professor. ''And Welch would be the greater of the two because he set a new, contemporary paradigm<注10> for the corporation that is the model for the 21st century.''

  It is a model that has delivered extraordinary growth, increasing the market value of GE from just billion in 1981 to about billion today. No one, not Microsoft's (MSFT) William H. Gates III or Intel's (INTC) Andrew S. Grove, not even the late Coca-Cola (KO) chieftain Roberto C. Goizueta or the late Wal-Mart (WMT)<注11> founder Sam Walton has created more shareholder value than Jack Welch. So giddy<注12> are some Wall Street analysts at GE's prospects that they believe that owing to Welch, GE's stock could trade at to a share, up from now, and the company could be worth billion to billion.

  Welch likes to call General Electric the ''grocery store.'' The metaphor, however quirky for such a colossus, allows Welch to mentally roll up his sleeves, slip into an apron, and get behind the counter.<注13> There, he can get to know every employee and serve every customer. ''What's important at the grocery store is just as important in engines or medical systems,'' says Welch. ''If the customer isn't satisfied, if the stuff is getting stale, if the shelf isn't right, or if the offerings aren't right, it's the same thing. You manage it like a small organization. You can manage better gradually.?''We're pebbles in an ocean, but he knows about us,'' says Brian Nailor, a marketing manager. ''He's able to get people to give more of themselves because of who he is. He lives the American dream. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He didn't just show up.''

  As for what Welch will do next after his retirement, he doesn't hesitate to answer the question. While he will consider teaching an occasional business course, he has no intention of amassing corporate directorships. Instead, he intends to play golf with his second wife, Jane. Clearly, he will miss the job, the action, and the fun. ''A lot,'' he says, '' but succession is part of the rebirth of an organization. I'm not going to be around.<注14> I am not going to be near the board. It's a free swing for a new team.'' But can anyone ever run this company with the power and influence of a Jack Welch? Who knows.




发表评论】【关闭窗口
 相关链接
摩天大楼的故事(2002/03/21/ 08:30)
太空狗(2002/03/21/ 08:14)
来自天堂的玫瑰(2002/03/20/ 10:50)
古代邮票(2002/03/20/ 10:46)
爱普国际英语测试(APIEL)简介(2002/03/19/ 13:07)
《英语学习》2002年2期 专题

Annotation

1. cap=capacity:生产量,生产力。

2.他的那些诸如6Σ品质、全球化、电子商务等出类拔萃的创意已经为现代公司的定义作了很好的诠释。Six Sigma是通用电气公司特有的、强调产品与服务不断接近完美的高度纪律性的过程,Sigma则是一个衡量失误与完美之间差距的统计术语。

3.同时他也是一个胆识过人的老板,他创立了一套独特的处事理念和管理系统,其管理系统的基点是想法“无限”分享、人本意识以及开放平等的风格,没有丝毫官僚习气。bureaucracy/bj%2#r=kr2si/:官僚作风。

4. get out of the pile:从繁冗的事务中解脱出来。

5.韦尔奇曾经被称为“中子弹杰克”,在那个时期,通用电气的雇员人数减少了10万之多,这是针对公司所有部门的“整顿、出售,或关闭”战略的一个部分。"Neutron Jack":杰克·韦尔奇大刀阔斧进行改革的举动使人们觉得他作风比较强悍,所以称之为“中子弹杰克”。

6. RCA:指the Radio Corporation of America,成立于1919年10月,在美国无线通讯方面首屈一指。

7. blunder: (由于无知、粗心等造成的)大错;Kidder Peabody:华尔街一家一度很出名的经纪公司,1994年由于股票交易丑闻而倒闭;run counter to:违反,反对。

8.与其称他为由其亲手缔造的世界上最有价值公司的知名董事长和首席执政官,还不如说他是韦尔奇教授,是71位参加了为期三周的培训课程的高潜质经理的教练和老师。

9. 17年来,许多大公司及其领导者在无情的全球经济大潮中像多米诺骨牌般次第垮掉,GE却在韦尔奇的带领下,在岁入和利润上连创新高。

10. paradigm:范例,样式。

11.上述公司分别是全球知名的微软、英特尔、可口可乐和沃尔玛公司。

12. giddy:这里是眼花缭乱的意思。

13.这个比方用来形容GE这样一个大公司说来很古怪,但却能使韦尔奇在“心理上”卷起袖子,扎上围裙,走到柜台后面。意思是说韦尔奇将GE看作杂货店,而他也正是以管理杂货店的方式去管理GE的。colossus:大公司。

14.更新换代是一个组织再生的必要步骤,我不想再继续活跃(在GE)。succession:继承,接替。"The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well."


新闻查询帮助



文化教育意见反馈留言板电话:010-62630930-3336 欢迎批评指正

网站简介 | 用户注册 | 广告服务 | 招聘信息 | 中文阅读 | Richwin | 联系方式 | 帮助信息

Copyright © 1996 - 2002 SINA.com, Stone Rich Sight. All Rights Reserved

版权所有 四通利方 新浪网

本网站由北京信息港提供网络支持