Winning - Jack Welch [125]
I’m not talking here about motherhood and apple pie, or trying to sound like the typical annual report. This is how good business really works. Winning companies give back and everyone wins.
This question came from the reporter who moderated my Q & A session at a management conference for about three thousand people in London:
Do you plan to enter politics?
In a word—never.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate government. We’re all grateful to the public servants who have made national security and the eradication of terrorism their lifework. On top of that, government provides other services that are vital to a thriving society—schools, hospitals, and police, to name just three.
But government, for all the good it does, is filled with all the problems that business has, but nobody seems to have the latitude to fix them.
Basically, government is riddled with bureaucracy, waste, and inefficiency. In a company, you can clean those up, and you have to. In government, they’re forever.
Why? For one, because it’s difficult to move people up or out based on merit. Most government agencies have no differentiation to speak of. You can work for forty years, never excel or make a dent in results, and still get an annual raise. For another, you just cannot speak or act candidly in government without getting nailed. It is a world filled with compromise, patronage, and quid pro quo.
Yes, all these behaviors exist in business, but managers can rally against them on their own, or join a company that does so as a matter of course.
Finally, governments can afford to be bureaucratic because they don’t compete. During the last election season, the governor of Indiana created a big hoopla around the fact that he was going to withdraw the state from an outsourcing project that one of its departments had started in India. There was much cheering him on as a role model of patriotism. It had to make you laugh. It was easy for the governor to withdraw from India—in the public sector you don’t have to provide the highest value products or find the lowest cost solutions in order to create revenue. You can just keep raising taxes to pay for everything.
So, as important as government is, it’s just not for me. This book makes the point that it is always better to do something you love.
I’ve taken my own advice on this one.
I’ve received this question everywhere:
How’s your golf game?
Wow, do people love golf! Everywhere I go, perhaps because I stuck a chapter on golf in my last book, people ask about my handicap and whether it’s improved since I retired.
The answer is, I don’t play anymore.
And, believe it or not, I don’t miss it all that much.
My obsession with golf lasted almost sixty years, from my first days playing and caddying at age ten until my first back operation in 2002. I’ve had two more back operations since then, and thankfully, my back is better now. But I’m sure not inclined to test that proposition with a golf swing. If you’ve had back problems, you probably understand where I’m coming from.
But in the absence of golf, a whole world of new interests has opened up to me. You can’t believe how much time is available when you’re not on the golf course all the time! I’ve loved consulting with several companies and their CEOs. I’ve also found I’m crazy about modern art, and I’m getting to live out my lifelong devotion to the Red Sox by attending as many home games as I can. I’ve been able to travel around the world with my wife and four stepchildren and enjoy the sights beyond conference rooms and factories, and been able to meet the many interesting people whose questions grew into this book.
I have always loved new stuff. Looking forward, learning, and growing have always felt good to me. Golf was wonderful. It gave me great friends that I’ve enjoyed for decades and always