Inspirational Jack Welch Quotes

Jack Welch is a retired American company executive, chemical engineer as well as writer. He was the chairperson as well as CEO of General Electric. He is world’s one of the celebrated as well as respected CEOs. Below are some of the inspiring quotes by Jack Welch.

1. “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” - Jack Welch
2. “Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.” - Jack Welch
3. “I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.” - Jack Welch
4. “The team with the best players wins.” - Jack Welch
5. “Control your own destiny or someone else will.” - Jack Welch
6. “It’s [the internet] like the flu - it just spreads like crazy.” - Jack Welch
7. “Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.” - Jack Welch
8. “Not good — great.” - Jack Welch
9. “We’ve only been wealthy in this country for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained?” - Jack Welch
10. “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” - Jack Welch
11. “This shows you are never too old to get surprised,” - Jack Welch
12. “My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.” - Jack Welch
13. “I guarantee you it will not be anyone from the outside.” - Jack Welch
14. “Change before you have to.” - Jack Welch
15. “I think the move by Mr. Greenspan was welcomed by everyone here.” - Jack Welch
16. “The Internet is the Viagra of big business.” - Jack Welch
17. “Drucker said: ‘If you weren’t already in this business, would you enter it today? And if not, what are you going to do about it?’ … Simple, right? But incredibly powerful.” - Jack Welch
18. “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” - Jack Welch
19. “We bring together the best ideas - turning the meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies.” - Jack Welch
20. “GE’s businesses turned in a terrific first quarter. Our products and services are being well received in unusually robust global markets.” - Jack Welch
21. “Don’t manage - lead change before you have to.” - Jack Welch
22. “We have the brand, and we have the fulfillment capability. Now we had to get the Net, and that’s the easiest part of the game,” - Jack Welch
23. “If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don’t have to manage them.” - Jack Welch
24. “No one is guaranteed a job in this.” - Jack Welch                                                                                                    
25. “Be candid with everyone.” - Jack Welch
26. “An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn’t have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people” - Jack Welch
27. “(Wright is) a visionary with a great strategic mind, and he’s a strong business leader with outstanding people skills, … He’s a terrific guy and will be a key force in guiding the company’s future growth.” - Jack Welch
28. “The world of the 1990s and beyond will not belong to ‘managers’ or those who can make the numbers dance. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders - people who not only have enormous amounts of energy but who can energize those whom they le” - Jack Welch
29. “I was afraid of the internet… because I couldn’t type.” - Jack Welch
30. “The record results for the third quarter once again demonstrate the ability of GE’s diverse mix of leading global businesses to deliver top-line growth, increased margins and strong cash generation.” - Jack Welch
31. “Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today’s world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.” - Jack Welch
32. “Number one, cash is king… number two, communicate… number three, buy or bury the competition.” - Jack Welch
33. “If change is happening on the outside faster than on the inside the end is in sight.” - Jack Welch
34. “We have built a company with a business mix and operating system that will allow us to deliver record results in any foreseeable economic climate, … We have just completed a very successful management transition and I’ve never been more confident about the company’s future.” - Jack Welch
35. “They were making a deal for a property that clearly was a property that we wanted to own, so we had to act, and act as quickly as we could, and make the offer more attractive,” - Jack Welch
36. “I actually think that the economy has got some positives. It’s got the market. It’s got consumer confidence and it’s got banks throwing - I mean central bankers throwing money at it around the world.” - Jack Welch
37. “If GE’s strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the future of this company for the next century.” - Jack Welch
38. “Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.” - Jack Welch
39. “You can’t grow long-term if you can’t eat short-term. Anybody can manage short. Anybody can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.” - Jack Welch
40. “Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world’s best talents and greatest ideas.” - Jack Welch
41. “Public hangings are teaching moments. Every company has to do it. A teaching moment is worth a thousand CEO speeches. CEOs can talk and blab each day about culture, but the employees all know who the jerks are. They could name the jerks for you. It’s just cultural. People just don’t want to do it.” - Jack Welch
42. “What the Commission is seeking cuts the heart out of the strategic rationale of our deal, ” - Jack Welch
43. “The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well. I don’t like to use the word efficiency. It’s creativity. It’s a belief that every person counts.” - Jack Welch
44. “I was afraid of it [the internet]… because I couldn’t type.” - Jack Welch
45. “Give me a highly successful unionized industry.” - Jack Welch
46. “If you have a reputation as a big, stiff bureaucracy, you’re stuck.” - Jack Welch
47. “You’ve got to eat while you dream. You’ve got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.” - Jack Welch
48. “Culture drives great results.” - Jack Welch
49. “The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.” - Jack Welch
50. “Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.” - Jack Welch
51. “One of the jobs of a manager is to instill confidence, pump confidence into your people. And when you’ve got somebody who’s raring to go and you can smell it and feel it, give ’em that shot.” - Jack Welch
52. “Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later.” - Jack Welch
53. “The biggest cowards are managers who don’t let people know where they stand.” - Jack Welch
54. “I don’t feel under-taxed in any way at all.” - Jack Welch
55. “The 1980s will seem like a walk in the park when compared to new global challenges, where annual productivity increases of 6% may not be enough. A combination of software, brains, and running harder will be needed to bring that percentage up to 8% or 9%.”- Jack Welch
56. “CEOs can talk and blab each day about culture, but the employees all know who the jerks are. They could name the jerks for you. It’s just cultural. People just don’t want to do it.” - Jack Welch
57. “It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Ten years. Fifteen years. You’ve got to get up everyday, with a new idea, a new spin, and you’ve got to bring it to work, every day” - Jack Welch
58. “Short cycle business are being impacted by credit, and are being impacted by gasoline prices, food, distribution businesses, chemical business.” - Jack Welch
59. “What’s important at the grocery store is just as important in engines or medical systems. If the customer isn’t satisfied, if the stuff is getting stale, if the shelf isn’t right, or if the offerings aren’t right, it’s the same thing. You manage it like a small organization. You don’t get hung up on zeros.” - Jack Welch

Above were few of the motivating quotes by Jack Welch, we hope that you must have enjoyed reading them. If you have more quotes by Jack Welch, do feel free to share them with us through your comments.