My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

Don't manage - lead change before you have to.

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

Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas.

Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.

If GE's strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the future of this company for the next century.

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.

The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Give me a highly successful unionized industry.

The 1980s will seem like a walk in the park when compared to new global challenges, where annual productivity increases of 6% may not be enough. A combination of software, brains, and running harder will be needed to bring that percentage up to 8% or 9%.

The team with the best players wins.

I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.

The Internet is the Viagra of big business.

We bring together the best ideas - turning the meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies.

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

I was afraid of the internet... because I couldn't type.

Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.

Be candid with everyone.

We've only been wealthy in this country for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained?

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.

Change before you have to.

A strategy is something like, an innovative new product; globalization, taking your products around the world; be the low-cost producer. A strategy is something you can touch; you can motivate people with; be number one and number two in every business. You can energize people around the message.

Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later.

I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that's a big deal. And if you're going to be a leader - if you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.

If you have a reputation as a big, stiff bureaucracy, you're stuck.

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.

Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.

One of the jobs of a manager is to instill confidence, pump confidence into your people. And when you've got somebody who's raring to go and you can smell it and feel it, give 'em that shot.

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.

The story about GE that hasn't been told is the value of an informal place. I think it's a big thought. I don't think people have ever figured out that being informal is a big deal.

There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.

You measure your people and you take action on those that don't measure up.

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.

Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will

Theres no such thing as work life balance. There are work life choices and you make them and they have consequences.

Cash is king. Get every drop of cash you can get and hold onto it.

Does coaching work Yes. Good coaches provide a truly important service. They tell you the truth when no one else will.

An organizations ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage.

No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just cant ignore it.

Every employee not just the senior people should know how a company is doing.

In the end your integrity is all youve got.

An organisations ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Good business leaders create a vision articulate the vision passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.

Globalization is now no longer an objective but an imperative as markets open and geographic barriers become increasingly blurred and even irrelevant.

Globalization has taken a hit in that there is some sand in the gears because most of us have supply chains that are all over the world that weve had to lengthen.