"Weed out the weakest. The Red Sox and the Mets are playing tonight. Guess what? They're not putting on the field guys in the minors."
For some reason, the idea of hiring the best for your business was controversial when Welch is the one who made the comment. What's the alternative? What manager would say, "We're just going to put anybody out there to serve our customers?" or "Let's be nice and give somebody a job; whether they're competent or not."
Anybody that would say that would be gotten rid of fast! So why was it controversial when Welch said the obvious? It may have been in the way he said it. But when it comes to the real world, we need to deal with it as it is, not as we want it to be.
And how it really is, is we need to put out the best team we can to accomplish our purpose.
Welch added after his statement above what he thought a real cruel system was: "It's all about fielding the best team. It's been portrayed as a cruel system. It isn't. The cruel system is the one that doesn't tell anybody where they stand."
That is true, no matter what someone may say. How many times have people been surprised by demotions or firings based upon not being communicated with during their tenure at the company? A lot. That's cruel, as Welch says.
Again, the Welch way of doing it has been proven over and over again. I've said it before on the Welch posts: it's the reason why all the headhunters from around the world circle around General Electric (GE) to this day - they are considered to have the richest pool of quality management people in the world. The reason is because of the commitment to having great people put in the highest and most important positions in the company. Why would that be considered controversial?
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
Remember to Sign up for my feed, bizzbite and digg this!
Sponsored link: The outsourcing every manager requires - Tampa Locksmith
Comment Preview