Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Words of Wisdom From Jeffrey Immelt

You have to have a plan. You have to stick with it. You have to modify it at times, but every day you've got to get up and play hard. Jack [Welch] used to see me running around, even after he left, and he'd say to me, "Remember, it's a marathon. Ten years. Fifteen years. You've got to get up every day with a new idea, a new spin, and you've got to bring it in here every day." I always kind of knew that, but until you're right in the middle of it, you never get it. His advice was right. It's the sustained ability to change that really counts.

- Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric (from Excellence Inspiration for Achieving Your Personal Best)

2 comments:

brockster said...

That strikes me as incoherent. You have to have a plan, but you have to come in with a new idea every day.

You have to have an objective. The plan follows from that. Maybe he thinks that is understood, but it does not look that way

Boris said...

Thanks Brockster.

It's funny because I was just thinking today about how most of my ideas seem solid, well thought out, and interconnected to me, but obviously not so much to others...

The objective (to me) is a given - without one, there will be no plan, no work, and ideas that never amount to much.

The point, as I read it, is that hard work and change are also givens.