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coloradokim edited this page Sep 6, 2017 · 4 revisions

How I Remade GE and What I Learned Along the Way

by Jeffrey R. Immelt

Harvard Business Review September-October 2017

Be Disciplined

  • As your company launches new initiatives, your job is to make sure they are aligned with one another.

"Stay away from ideas that don't fit"

Soak

  • Be curious
    • About customers
    • About your employees

"Every month I spent six or eight days out of the country and two days in the field in the United States, sitting down with our sales teams and the people in customer organizations who were making the decisions to purchase our products and services."

  • In meetings, be willing to say "I've got half an idea, anyone wanna grab it?"

  • You've got to be convinced to make the change because you'll have to work with people who are skeptical.

Make it Existential

  • When you are leading a big change, let your teams know that it is a matter of life and death for the organization.
  • Saying or writing it once is not enough (teachers know this)

Be All In

  • Half measures won't bring transformation

"You won't get there if you're a wuss."

Be Resilient

  • Be gritty
  • (If you can) give it time

Be Willing to Pivot

  • Your strategy will not be perfect the first time you use it.
  • Apply the Lean Startup Method

Embrace New Kinds of Talent

  • Promote people from within and hire new people

"Process is the means to methodically achieving great ideas at scale; it's important, but it's not an end itself. Companies get into trouble when process-- not outcomes for customers-- becomes the endgame."

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