Welch

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Signature MoveThirteen-Hour Meeting as Onboarding Ritual

Relationship LeverageFoxconn's Loss-Leader-to-Lock-In Playbook

Risk DoctrineTacit Knowledge as Accidental Export

Competitive AdvantageApple Squeeze: Invaluable Experience Over Margin

Identity & CultureVerbal Jujitsu Procurement Culture

Signature MoveDesign the Impossible Then Manufacture the Impossible

Signature MoveFifty Business Class Seats Daily to Shenzhen

Operating PrincipleZero Inventory as Theological Doctrine

Strategic PatternUnconstrained Design Not Cost Arbitrage

Cornerstone MoveSecret $275 Billion Kowtow to Keep the Machine Running

Signature MoveSilk Tie Competitions to Train Negotiators

Cornerstone MoveScrew It, iTunes for Windows

Cornerstone MoveBuy the Machines, Own the Factory Floor Without Owning a Factory

Signature MoveDrive Off the Cliff to Prove the Brakes Don't Work

Cornerstone MoveTrain Everyone Then Pit Them Against Each Other

Risk DoctrineRule By Law as Corporate Leash

Decision FrameworkBig Potato Small Potato: Positional Power Over Fairness

Primary Evidence

"The history books miss one critical component of GE’s success in that time period. By the mid- to late 1980s, GE was becoming a cash flow machine. Welch taught managers to fixate on every detail. From the productivity of the factories to every contract term, they emphasized cash flow. And that cash flow allowed for five large bets on future growth: (1) air travel, (2) gas-powered electricity generation, (3) global healthcare expansion, (4) television advertising, and (5) financial services."

Source:Lessons From the Titans

"Under Welch, GE had used its triple-A credit rating to borrow on the cheap, lend to riskier borrowers at higher interest rates, and pocket the difference. “I thought it was easier than bending metal,” Welch once said. The world’s most valuable corporation at the start of the millennium was soon needing government-backed infusions of cash. At its worst point in 2009, GE’s market value fell below $90 billion, a loss of around 85 percent."

Source:Apple in China

Appears In Volumes

Lessons From the Titans Apple in China