Page 103 - Executive Warfare

Peers

What was Steve’s reward for loyalty? Why, his boss cut him loose before
the race was even decided. As Donald Trump would say, “You’re fired!”
He’d become a liability. Off the Ark and into the water.
Tensions inevitably run high in a
horserace like this. In Jack: Straight From
the Gut, the autobiography Jack Welch
MAKING ENEMIES
wrote with John A.Byrne,Welch describes
OF YOUR PEERS
the politics surrounding his own contest
OUT OF EXCESSIVE
for the chairmanship of General Electric
LOYALTY TO YOUR
as “thick.” He recounts the experience of
BOSS IS THE
one executive underneath him who
EQUIVALENT OF
backed a rival: “Paolo Fresco, then a vice
BUYING YOUR OWN
president, recalls being nearly physically
SIX-CHAMBER
confronted in a Fairfield hallway by an
REVOLVER AND
overzealous executive who reported to
PLAYING RUSSIAN
Burlingame yet supported me. Fresco
ROULETTE—ONLY
remembers being called a ‘jackass’ simply
WITH THE
because he was loyal to his own boss.”
PROPORTIONS
Fresco did indeed make a less-than-
REVERSED: FIVE
perceptive choice, and when Welch
BULLETS AND ONE
won, proffered his resignation. Welch
EMPTY CHAMBER.
refused to accept it, and Fresco went on
YOU ONLY SURVIVE
to become one of his most trusted exec-
IF YOUR BOSS
utives. But then Welch was a legendar-
RISES.
ily great recognizer of talent.You cannot
count on any such forgiving genius win-
ning control of your organization. And if you are the person roughing up
your peers in the hall—and your boss turns out not to be the Jack Welch
of the group—brace yourself.
The fact is, making enemies of your peers out of excessive loyalty to
your boss in a situation like this is the equivalent of buying your own six-
chamber revolver and playing Russian roulette—only with the propor-

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