Why Lean is so Mean
Once Jack Welch instituted the Six Sigma program into General Electric (GE), it became a badge of honor to be invited to partake in the meeting where the top 30 executives in the company, including Welch, got together and told everything they were doing to increase the productivity of the company within their divisions.
Welch would sit in the front row of the room and write down endlessly while executive after executive got up to the podium and talked about the effects of the program on their divisions or departments. The vast majority of them would speak concerning Six Sigma in high regard.
They would take turns talking about the ways that they would use new ideas to get even more profit out of the already lean GE. They would talk about how the increased quality would cut costs and the number of mistakes so that productivity increased to an even higher level.
All of that eventually led to increased market share, while getting rid of the need to invest in new equipment and plants. The results were unprecedented.
The point in all of this is that commitment to this type of quality makes you extremely difficult to compete against and gives you competitive advantage that can be counted on as you project out where the company will be with relative accuracy; which is another competitive advantage.
When you read this, it must be understood that not only was this because of Six Sigma, but also the open culture and communication that Welch fought for so hard that allowed the information to flow amazingly well across a company so huge. It was also the learning from one another across completely different industries where ideas could be adapted to their specific businesses that made this so valuable.
The two of them together helped make GE the powerhouse that it's been for years.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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