My mentor "Jack Welch"

Jack Welch, a past manager I admired very much and learned the most, passed away the other day.

I have never met or talked to him, but he is undeniably my management mentor.

With my condolences, I would like to write on my blog what I learned from him about management.

The story of when I first became a business owner

In 2006, two years after being stationed in Germany, I became the CEO for the first time in my life when the department I was in was spun off (turned into a separate company).

I was 35 years old at the time.

For the first two years, there was a German general manager in that department, and I was working in his assistant position.

From having no management experience at all, I suddenly became the head of a new company, created a system including human resources, and was in a position to lead business growth, although there were only 20 people.

Virtual Mentor

I was a trading company man, and I wanted to run a company someday, so I had been reading management books since I was in my 20s.

In terms of Japanese managers, I have read many books about managers, such as Konosuke Matsushita (Panasonic), Soichiro Honda (Honda), Kazuo Inamori (Kyocera), Andy Glove (Intel), Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Carlos Ghosn (Renault, Nissan), etc.

Among the authors of such books, the one I admired as my (virtual) mentor was Jack Welch.

Jack Welch is the president of GE (General Electric), who not only led the company to success, but also left behind many aphorisms and books on management.

John Francis "Jack" Welch Jr.

November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American businessman. From 1981 to 2001, he served as the chief executive officer of General Electric, where he was called a "legendary manager" because of his management skills.

From Wikipedia

He was also a person who carried out bold restructuring, and in a sense, he was also a person who carried out ruthless management, such as unconditionally firing the bottom 10% of performers every year.

I have a philosophy that "if you are committed to growth, you will definitely create a place" (the idea that those who are motivated will definitely survive).

In this way, his way of thinking about people was different from mine, but I learned a lot from his book in terms of leadership.

A book that gives you a super overview of Jack Welch's management methods

Among his famous books, "Straight from the gut" and "Winning" are "Straight from the gut", but there is a simple mook book, which was my favorite.

It is a book called "25 Lessons from Jack Welch" that is less than 1 cm thick.

There are 25 teachings of Jack Welch in a very simple way.

I moved several times and it disappeared, but there are many items that I remember vividly and still guide my leadership.

First, the title of the first page is as follows:

Lead→〇 Manage→X (Don't manage, lead)

Guts! Isn't it time?

I will write about Jack Welch next time.