Former CEO of GE Varun Kumar Chaudhary (11BM60019) Ashwin Variyar(11BM60039) Soumitra Sahu(11BM60067) Avinash Singh (11BM60089) Abhinav Minnala

Mohan (11BM60093)

About Jack Welch

CEO of GE from 1981 to 2001.
Grew GE from $ 24+ billion company to $ 74+billion

company.
Realigned goals and motivation and stretched the

managers under him to their limits.

Restructured GE into one of the worlds most staid

corporations

Strategies for Communicating Change

Jack Welch implemented an open communication

strategy. He tried to maximize the organizations potential by creatively synthesizing executives initiatives and employee concerns. He not only disseminated information about the change, but also gave the employees a chance to contribute to the change. He allowed the employees to air their concerns about the change.

Skills for Communicating Change

Jack Welch took up the role of a Director for communicating change
He communicated an optimal amount of information to his employees (The Why, What and How of the Change) He emphasized on Therapeutic Listening, where one listens to the problems of the staff and helping them He followed the Bottom Up Approach in bringing about the Organizational Change

Skills (contd.)
Welch instituted a 30-odd member Corporate Executive Council (CEC). This council has no formal authority, but has come to function effectively as GEs political center. They act as Toxic Handlers and extend help relating to Organizational Pain
The most important of all, Jack Welsh stressed on

Communicating to the External World. He obtained information from other companies and used these inputs constructively to ensure the positive change in GE

Consolidating Change
Welchs leadership theory depends heavily on the power of delegation.

Welch, however, does not just relinquish all power to good people. He balances hands-off management giving his business heads full autonomy and the power of decision with hands-on leadership. He keeps his direct reports on their toes by the unpredictability of his interventions in sometimes, lesser matters. Team recommendations are presented to the responsible managers, who must accept or reject proposals on the spot. Ideas that require further study are reviewed for a period of time agreed on by the team (usually less than a month) before a final decision is made. The process encourages responsive leadership and greater employee participation, which increases the rate of change throughout the organization.

Contd
One of the first things Welch did to increase communication was to

cut out all managers that simply gathered information from their subordinates and passed it up the line to senior management Welch called for developing a corporate culture that encourages and rewards honest feedback. "You reinforce the behaviours that you reward," he explained. "If you reward candour, you'll get it. An effective performance appraisal system, he said, relies not only on honest feedback but also on meaningful differentiation among employees. At GE, he put these principles into action by implementing a forced ranking system that divided employees into three distinct segments: the top 20 percent of performers, the middle 70 percent, and the bottom 10 percent. Even though GE's "20-70-10" systemwhich methodically manages out the bottom 10 percent of employees each yearhas always been controversial, Welch emphatically defended it.