Page 211 - The Bible On Leadership

Leadership Development 197

continuous leadership development, many of them among the most
successful companies in their industries. GE under Jack Welch (and also
undoubtedly under his successor, Jeffrey Immelt) was totally vigilant
that its officials not be ‘‘boys,’’ but rather fully developed leaders who
had undergone ‘‘trial by fire’’ and achieved the difficult goals set for
them.
‘‘I want a revolution, and I want it to start at Crotonville,’’ said
Welch, referring to GE’s famed Management Development Center,
begun in 1956 and recently renamed the Jack Welch Management De-
velopment Center. Crotonville has traditionally been the place where
GE’s new ideas and the battle plans for implementing them have been
generated.
Many CEOs pay ‘‘lip service’’ to their organization’s leadership de-
velopment efforts, perhaps connecting briefly by conference call or
sending a canned video message at the beginning of a session. But
Welch put his helicopter where his mouth was. He flew to Crotonville
every two weeks, where he engaged in freewheeling ‘‘learning experi-
ences’’ with his executives, and didn’t miss a session in his sixteen years
as chairman.
Many familiar with Jack Welch’s hard-nosed, bottom-line approach
initially doubted his commitment to executive development. At the be-
ginning of his tenure, many of his division heads were diverting funds
allocated for executive development to other areas of their budget, in-
cluding the ‘‘bottom line.’’ Welch made sure that executives who coop-
erated with the executive development efforts were rewarded and that
those who did not suffered consequences.
Although a cult of personality grew up around Welch, he realized
that GE’s success was largely due to careful executive development and
succession planning, with lots of good leaders in the pipeline in case
anything ever happened to him or another key player. The day after he
had suffered a heart attack, he was pleased that GE stock actually went
up $1. When the press intimated that he had no apparent successor, he
responded, ‘‘That is far from the truth . . . It’s like an obsession. I’m
always talking with Paolo Fresco (GE’s vice chairman), even when
we’re out for a drink. ‘What’s so-and-so like; can he take a balanced