AlanAbar.com

Winning!

by Jack Welsh and Suzy Welsh

This book is excellent, especially for those that want to know the secret to winning! Here are the key lessons I learned from this book by the former CEO of GE.

Mission and Values

A good mission statement and a good set of values are required for any successfully company / team
The mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there
An effective mission statement basically answers one question: “How do we intend to win in this business?”
This question requires companies to make choices about people, investments, other resources, and it prevents them from falling into the common trap of asserting they will be all things to all people all the time.
An effective mission statement balance the possible and the impossible
Setting the mission is top management’s responsibility. A mission cannot be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it.
Values are just behaviors, and the actual process of creating values has to be interactive.
The behaviors require explanation, and should be specific / descriptive that it leaves little to imagination.
Clarifty around values and behaviors much be backed up with reward to those who exhibit them, and “punishment” to those who don’t.
For a company’s mission and values to truly work together as a winning proposition, they have to be mutually reinforcing.