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From "In Bubble Wrap".com
Life is Business, Business is Life
Sometimes I find it interesting to view life through a business lens. Growing up, it's almost like we are employees of life. Our parents are the CEO's, our teachers and preachers are middle managers and strategists, and most of us have coaches or piano teachers or dance instructors who are like part-time consultants. And as we grow older on up the ladder, as we take on new stages of life, new mentors are entrusted to progress our development. Then we reach a certain point when start assuming more responsibilities. We become the middle manager, and that college professor, that first boss after graduation, they become like the new VP's hired from outside the company. Ultimately, the goal is to become chairman of the board and majority owner of our own self. This is when we can examine every life stage, appreciate the great leaders who helped us stand out, form a definitive outlook on capital L Life, and hopefully turn into CEO's of younger lives. It's a beautiful long-term business cycle, and if we do it right, success can last centuries.
Like I said, sometimes I find the life as a business analogy interesting, but recently I read a book that seemed to bring this parallel to the front of my brain. The long-term success; the great leaders along the way; the important lessons learned and retaught to younger generations; the pipeline of leader and mentorship; these characteristics of life that begin at inception and are eternal in passed-down wisdom can be perfectly applied to the rich and storied history of GE. The book that spawned all of this in me noggin? It's called the .Secrets to GE's Success
I know, I know...I say GE and most people think Jack Welch. But that's like being 60 years-old and attributing all of your life's success to one single parent. That parent may have been greatly influential, but chances are, you learned a lot of lessons from a lot of great people. The same can be said of GE.
This book explores GE from the Thomas Edison days of inception to the present. It hones in on four particular stages of the companies history: After the Edison stage came the eras of Ralph Cordiner and Jack Welch, and now we are in the period of Jeff Immelt. The author William Rothschild, a former GE strategist who reported directly to Welch, dissects each era and how the successes and failures of each leader contribute to making GE the world-class company it has become and continues to be.
But then Rothschild transcends the stages by using one word to pinpoint what has made GE the long term success it grew to be - LATIN, or Leadership, Adaptability, Talent, Influence, and Networks. Yeah, that might sound a bit overarching and vague, but it's not, because the author does a magnificent job breaking down each category. Here's a simplified break down:
Leadership - Create a succession system that identifies the right leader for the right time
Adaptability - Recognize when even seemingly successful strategies need to be adapted and changed
Talent - Develop a "farm system" to create a deep, skilled, and loyal managerial and professional bench
Influence - Being proactive, not reactive, to social, political and economic events
Establish, adapt, and use systems in finance, strategic planning, and human resource management that lend stability to the organization, and help it make progress toward overall goals
The book is not just a history of GE, and it's not simply an examination of what has kept the company riding high, it's a toolkit for you to use for your own company. It's prescriptive, it's informative, and it offers so pretty far-ranging perspective. It's kind of like the 60 year-old you gathering every great teacher you've had along the way, having everyone write down one important life lesson, and then presenting it to a 10 year-old kid. That would be invaluable to any adolescent, just as The Secrets to GE's Success could prove invaluable to the future of your company.
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