Jack Welch

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.

I wanted to change the rules of engagement, asking for more- from fewer. I was insisting that we had to have only the best people...If you wanted excellence, at a minimum, the ambience had to reflect excellence.

A leader's role is not to control people or stay on top of things, but rather to guide, energize and excite.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.

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.

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.

Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance.

No one can guarantee you a job other than satisfied customers. That's the only thing that works. Nothing creates work other than products and services you provide that create satisfied customers.

My bosses cautioned me about my candor. Now my GE career is over, and I'm telling you that it was my candor that helped make it work.

Hierarchy is an organization with its face toward the CEO and its ass toward the customer.

With leadership the question at the beginning of the day is, 'how far can we take this...how big can we grow it...and how fast can we get there?'

In order to lead a country or a company, you've got to get everybody on the same page and you've got to be able to have a vision of where you're going. America can't have a vision of health care for everybody, green economy, regulations - can't have a bunch of piece - meal activities. It's got to have a vision.

Any company trying to compete...must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee.

If you want risk taking, set an example yourself and reward and praise those that do.

Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.

When it's time to let someone go, do it right. No surprises. No humiliation.

Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins. It's that simple.

There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization's overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow...It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.

We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies-in the minds of those closest to the work. It's been there in front of our noses all along while we've been running around chasing robots and reading books on how to become Japanese-or at least manage like them.

We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies - in the minds of those closest to the work.

Number one, cash is king... number two, communicate... number three, buy or bury the competition.