okay perfect okay well thanks everybody
for showing up live showing up on the
stream for this authors at Google Talk
and I could not be more excited to be
introducing our guests today so I'll
read a little bit to make sure I don't
miss the good stuff although there's so
much we could spend the whole hour on
this just a little just some people may
not have heard of you too
okay so just in case we're thrilled to
host Jack and Suzy waltz today Jack was
chairman and CEO of General Electric
during a revolutionary time in its
history a time line went from a great
company to the greatest company and the
management practices that that Jack
instilled and the team he built had been
loud it ever since and it's sort of a
once in a generation kind of company and
institution that that he built and
created Suzy an author and journalist
former editor-in-chief of the Harvard
Business Review a keen judge of people
and talent and a fantastic writer and
they've been partners and collaborators
for over a decade they're both involved
in the Jack Welch management Institute
which is a leadership development
program and an online MBA program as
well and they're here to speak to us
today about their book the real life MBA
your no BS guide to winning the game
building a team and growing your career
and everything that you talk about in
here resonates incredibly deeply it's a
personal thrill actually to be here
because of my own history my few minutes
I spent at GE unfortunately after your
tenure and it's a delight to meet you in
person as well Suzy so as you can see I
sort of had a lot of kind of comments
and questions so what we do is I'd kind
of kick things off and then we'll open
it up to questions we also have an
online page where people online are
submitting questions and somebody will
come off and kind of tee those up great
and I have the advantage in that I've
read this cover to cover I don't know if
everybody in the room is yet had a
chance to but I just for a context any
question it's been about 20 years since
you've been at GE and you you two have
been partners in crime for some time
what have you been up to what have you
been doing traveling the world yeah
selling a message of business business
is good
winning is good when companies win good
things happen
cheerful vibe like this in the room
because Google wins you wouldn't have
that it wasn't a tank
so basically we're out selling how to
make it win uh-huh and why winning is
good and we we're also running 24
private equity companies and we started
in school which has now has 900 MBAs
there were a million and a quarter
people excuse my voice I've been doing
this for three weeks I'm a burned-out
guy now but I love doing it
we both love doing it and we learn every
day from the Midwest
we've been across the East Coast and
then we've been in this beautiful bubble
called California yeah now you were you
were saying when we were talking before
that sort of what you see here in
Silicon Valley and you've been to some
other companies you've talked to folks
you're both telling me it's a little
different from you know once you get 50
miles from here once you get in the
Midwest once you get to the South what
are you seeing everywhere tougher grind
it's a tougher grind since the 2008
recession things have gotten a lot
tougher and people out there backed our
employment levels that are at before
they're not sure that's a company that
they signed up for there's still the
same company they've lost some benefits
some other things have gone away
companies have shrunk down the word
across most of the country is do more
with less that's the slogan no matter
where you go do more with less it's not
just looking here this morning when we
were getting ready to come here we've
been here to serve for a few days and
obviously we in our lives have dealings
with Silicon Valley companies and and I
just sort of was ruminating and I said
to Jack it is really like a different
planet here I mean we've just been
through the Midwest Kansas City
Minneapolis and just and the questions
are different and the expressions are
different and just you know it's like
this very and I'm saying this in the
most positive way because with it's a
beautiful thing but it's a very shiny
happy place compared to many other
pockets in the United States and where
the sense of possibility
here is is amazing and then you know but
we have been in rooms filled with people
who who are have a very different sense
of what the world feels like right now
and it's a it wouldn't it be an amazing
marvelous thing if the whole country was
experiencing what you're experiencing
the best way to think about this is
Google runs a survey every quarter I'm
not Google I mean Gallup runs sir I made
Google so I got Google on the brain we
do surveys every quarter to Gallup does
a survey every quarter on employee in
America and in the recession it got to
have to the point where 70% in 2008 of
employees didn't like going to work
we're not engaged in their job didn't
like what's going on today
six years later seven years later it's
65% in the last quarter I disengaged
with their work they don't like work
working some part of their life they
don't see it as part of their life its
way to get a check and that's a terrible
thing and so we're out trying to change
that we're out trying to get people to
have this feeling of excitement about
growths closes and Alixe them what you
can do to grow how you can grow how you
get aligned all these things we think
they're way and we've seen them try
private equity I've been involved with
74 companies over the last 15 years 24th
active now and we've changed lives of
these companies because these companies
were orphans and big companies they were
broken companies you don't buy a private
equity company because it's healthy you
buy a sick company and try and fix it
and you spend several years fixing it
and then giving it freedom but that that
life is not going on in many companies
but you're you know you said you started
out by saying you're about sort of you
know preaching winning and you you
famously are known for you know ya GE
you said you have to be number one or
number two in an industry or get out of
it you talked about the importance of
growth of winning what you write about
here and and what you're hinting at now
is you know people just not enjoying
their work about there not being meaning
and in the book you talk about the
importance of having a mission
is a mission the same as winning like
he's winning sufficient or is there
something bigger where's the product a
good mission and a good set of behaviors
and the consequences they come from it
so winning is the result it's not a
starting point I'm sorry like for
example we say the chief characteristic
of a leader is to be a chief meaning
officer give the work purpose
people come to work because they want a
purpose they want to have a reason for
being they want to be proud of it and
your job as a leader you're so let
people know why they're there where
they're going why they're going there
and then when everybody leaves out in
most places what's in it for them to go
there and one of the consequences pro
and con of doing it right but how do you
find that meaning in the kind of places
you've won two anecdotes then well I
hear your question and this is a little
bit of a roundabout way of saying this
for many years after Jack retired we ran
a seminar called two days with Jack
Welch where 100 CEOs would come in from
around the world and they would work
with Jack for two days and when we first
did the planning for this Jack said I'm
just gonna spend the first you know hour
I'm just talking about mission because
all these CEOs surely know what the
mission is of their of their company and
then we'll move right on to X Y & Z so
the first day starts out and Chang says
sort of looks at this crowd 100 CEOs who
itself selected to come to a group to
work on management so you'd think they'd
be very self actualizing enlightened and
I was sitting sort of at one table with
a bunch of CEO so I could hear what they
were saying and Jack said okay so just
jot down your mission and there was like
this weird just uncomfortable silence
and I was actually sitting at a table
with two brothers who worst co-ceos of a
family company and one brother said to
the other what's our mission and you
know you know you're here we're I mean
we've been here we've been at Google an
hour and a half or something I've heard
the mission mentioned repeatedly we got
a demo we met people in the hallway and
the mission is just flowing all out of
you and I actually think you are you
getting kind of sick of it by now yeah I
was I was saying were kids are engineers
I mean
oh it's free and whatever because this
is kind of place the mother would want
our kid to work and so because of that
mission and that that sense of
incredible you know I think you all know
what you're doing here and how your work
is connected to the mission and secondly
in our year in our ten twelve years
traveling around the world we've made
the point over and over again that it's
imperative for leaders no matter if
you're leader of three hundred people or
three people to make sure that your
people know where they stand how they're
doing what they're doing well what
they're what they could be doing better
what the trajectory of their career
looks like and when we travel around we
say to crowds how many of you know where
you stand and it is a very very good day
when fifteen percent of the crowd raises
their hands we were in Chicago the other
day six hundred people we asked this
question for people raise their hands
knew where they stood this big business
group and so they didn't know the
meaning of their work I mean clearly if
you're not having a conversation about
where you stand and what you could be
doing better you don't even know what
the meaning of your work is this is why
that number sixty five percent of people
disengaged so you should all pinch
yourselves because I bet you could I bet
you know where you stand and we did it
this yesterday to Silicon Valley company
and 85 percent of dealers about sixty
percent but it was still better than any
place they should have been yeah you
went right here oh no
so the we can try it let's do it haha
how many people here know what their
boss thinks of them they know exactly
where they stand and what that could she
career trajectory is thank God you win
thank you let's do it again let's do it
like a hundred and ten percent it was it
was it was not a hundred percent there's
like four people in there Kevin I'm
looking at you they taking names
no but it's actually it's something
we're not always great at because we we
love we you know we focus on hiring
great people and then we try to give
them a lot of freedom and we try to get
managers great
it's a hard thing even for us to get
managers to have those tough messages
and you actually later in the book you
talk about this you you have a section
gonna skip ahead where you talk about a
woman named Lauren Lauren is a financial
analyst she's 34 she'd heard whispers
that she might be made a partner as part
of a management transition and you go on
but suddenly the whispers stopped and
Lauren was informed by a colleague that
her boss was the reason and you continue
on and eventually Lauren was asked we
asked Lauren you to ask Lauren if her
boss felt the same way about her value
to the firm as she felt about her value
to the firm and she said he just doesn't
want me to be a partner because I'm a
woman he got pissed off when I went to
part-time after my baby
and you were right was that the case
it's possible but here's the story
Lauren was guessing when we pressed her
she admitted she had no clue how her
boss really felt about her performance
long before her baby or after because
he'd never told her and so what that
makes me wondering and it's great that
we actually weren't quite at a hundred
percent whose job isn't to make sure the
employee knows where they stand is it
the boss's job is that the employees job
is it shared fifty-fifty well I think
it's without question the boss's job but
the employee has a responsibility if
they've got a bad boy yeah to press on
about it and we talked about career
Purgatory's about working for a boss
that does have your interest alive I
mean every good company it'll happen
you'll get a bad boss we talked about
bosses that don't have the generosity
gene they're generous about their praise
generous about their rewards steal ideas
and take them up as their own all those
things so you've got to put timetables
on those situations but what it's really
is the boss's job we have a Donna you
might tell the story of just one story
yeah so we have one of our daughters
works in LA and she's in the
entertainment business where she was I'm
very happy and to get a job so she's
working away and you can imagine having
your career managed from afar by us all
right so share she is working in LA and
she doesn't know how she's doing she's
working very very hard but she hurt her
sense of her performance rises and falls
on her broads boss's mood okay so he's
in a good mood she's doing great look at
the bus grunts we get a fine
phone calls in the text are related to
his mood so then one day she gets a
raise in the mail did her paycheck and
she calls us and she's ecstatic
second only to us being ecstatic that
she got a raise and she says I got a
raise got a raise and we said well why
did you get the raise and she doesn't
have any idea why so because she's
related to us we said to her you have to
go in and find out why you got this
raise no no I don't want to piss him off
who said no you've got to find out why
you got the raise so finally under
extreme pressure she went in into his
office we can only imagine it was like
hi sorry to bother you
it's just she said you don't got a raise
I'm really happy um can you tell me why
and he looked at her and said to her
merit
that's it what are you doing she ran out
the door she was so happy to get an
answer and call us and said Garret and
and and she still doesn't know what it
was now since then she's been promoted
so clearly they're happy with her
performance but she right now all she
knows about what she does well is merit
but so what's your advice then to
somebody who were you've got a bad boss
yeah who's not telling you where you
stand
so say you're fine you're fine your
bonus is kind of okay you know maybe
goes up a little each year whatever do
you just say you know do you confront
the boss do you push for an analyze the
way you go I'd like to talk to you about
how you feel about my work I'm like you
know how do you feel well wait what do
you think I'm doing well and what how do
you think I can improve how can I really
improve cuz I want to do a better job
here and you don't ever confront them
head on
you go out what can I do better wait
wait why don't you confront them head on
why don't you just say like what's going
on with me well you can say what's going
on but you're gonna ask them what can I
do better don't go inside challenging
them it doesn't make sense it's suicide
yeah like you man it the other way yeah
how can I do better and what do you
think I have to do to move on what do
you think would be the criteria that
would get me the next level yeah well
the two of you you talked about later in
the book when you're into the personal
advice you have a section called Y
career stall which is related to this
because often your your career stalls
probably you also often aren't getting
si
back and you're trying to figure it out
and you you talk about career stalling
for a few reasons
you've got a blocker above you you can't
grow you talk about and talk about how
to resolve that you talk about
wrongheaded notions about the importance
of multifunctional expertise you talk
about boss haters and you talk about
purgatory it's it's like Dante's Inferno
of career management here it's awful so
can you talk a little bit about like
what's if your career if you feel stuck
what is what is a blocker what does that
look like ahead of you above you around
you and why are you step 3 - the blogger
is somebody who's enjoying your your
great work and it's very happy to keep
you on in the draw to keep getting all
that good work so that they look very
good that could be one case of a block
not another case of blocker is and these
Midwestern companies you're talking
about is there's no growth the boss is
going no way yeah that doesn't happen
here there's plenty of growth creating
opportunities all the time but in many
companies most of the world right now
with the GDP of 0.8 percent growth
doesn't have all these jobs opening up
so you're stuck there in a in a no
growth situation with a good boss maybe
yeah but what you have to do in all
these situations is control your own
destiny you got to put a timeframe on it
I'll stick it out here for two years or
one year whatever you decide took a
timeframe and I over deliver
I'll give them more than ever seen
before and if nothing happens I've got
to take my wares and move on why do you
think more when you say it that seems
like I mean that's fantastic advice most
people don't do that why not insecurity
self confidence comfortable where they
are or maybe family situations kids damn
old they're in high school college
whatever momentum momentum Norcia I mean
just humanity I mean and it's and and
the fear of the unknown
and and I think also sometimes people
don't do anything because they have this
little nagging voice inside saying maybe
the problem is me and it's just much
easier not to look at that piece of it
and so they'd rather just bump along but
we I'm just gonna crawl and going yeah
which is
education place like and I would teach
every class and spend three hours of the
class Q&A and then I spent three hours
in the bow and I'd learn more at the Bob
and I did in the in the teaching program
but that big basically what I would
always leave them with always love being
here love being a G but be ready to
leave you've got it we want you so that
put the pressure on the leadership if
the leadership wasn't taking care of you
and we started seeing good people
leaving in a certain area and it didn't
happen very often I'll tell you in those
days didn't happen very often but we
knew we had a bad boss just like when
yeah do you have a plant factory we had
a lot of factories and when a union
showed up and you took a boat and they
got a positive boat now we never formed
a union the 21 years I was there
whenever it came up for a vote we knew
we had a jackass plant manager because
otherwise it wouldn't get there if you
had if you had the right atmosphere the
right feelings in the place of a
transplant we want transparency
transparency is the biggest virtue you
can have in a in a company and if you
have a transparent spot you won't have
unions forming people will think they
have voice anyway we'll have boys they
only call me Union to get voice because
nobody's listening otherwise so when you
have these situations and I want to I
want to circle back to the greener side
but you've both seen a ton of companies
and every time in the book you talk
about a leadership transition you talk
about firing people and this isn't the
snack rank 70-20-10 stuff this is you
know you talk about Eric fry Wald
firewalled at Nalco and he can goes in
and he moved on you say many top leaders
had to be asked to move on more than
half of the top 100 so new CEO 50% or
more example gone and then you say a
personnel move speaks louder than 100
speeches and there's a few other parts
of the book where you talk about the
importance of when you come in as a
leader firing some of the people out of
you is that just it was good hi we're
talking there about
private equity okay sorry in private
equity the reason why you buy a company
is it's an orphan usually in a company
it's a division that isn't like that I'm
not sure Google there are something like
that there are a division that sort of
the turkey over here it gets less
attention from the top people
it doesn't get does it get loved doesn't
get enough resources to be another so
right there are those in most companies
so you buy these companies because the
company wants to trim down be with
activists out there now companies are
selling off divisions and you grab the
division where those people haven't been
looked at for ten years they've been
sitting over there not growing not
performing I'm not being told anything
so you bring them in and you've got to
get a fresh eyes look at the situation
so we're talking mainly about companies
you're acquiring that have been get on
their feet for years and I think a lot
of times in especially in those stories
is that look when you want your company
to be productive and fast and creative
and innovative and all those things you
want people pretty much need to share
the values and the values have to be
things like teamwork and and like maybe
you have here fast failure I mean there
you have values that are that you want
people to demonstrate and so when
they're there these leadership
transitions if a leader comes in and
says you know what I am installing these
values the values of urgency and speed
and boundary lessness and you have
people who there's a great story in the
book I think by when when Dave Calhoun
came into Nielsen and he knew that this
was a silo company where nobody spoke to
each other and he knew that if it was
going to survive and be the company he
wanted it to be he needed people who
wanted to share ideas and he tried and
tried to get that value across but when
he found managers that just would not
share ideas he had to ask them to move
on so that it's a lot about values which
you guys talk about values a lot so this
should sound pretty familiar right but
are there I mean could you imagine oh
like imagine a company that's going
great and you have a leadership change
at whatever level right doesn't have to
be CEO could be a division
have you what are the odds that they're
not going to have to fire anybody from
the direct reports we've had we bought
to medical company in high-growth
industries that were underfunded and we
didn't touch a person yeah and we've had
6x returns with just pouring money at
them giving them the resources to grow
they were flourishing now you really
find those birds okay
whenever you find a blue bird like that
you go home and rub your hands life is
easy it's all good and you take it
public in in two years and make 6x and
you look like a genius
good people money yeah that's a good
strategy
yeah you know the thing you have in your
book which I like so much and I've never
seen it right now Oh III write it all
the time but I've never seen you and I
this idea of paying great people watch
great people it is that we will we have
a story in here of getting whacked and
recovering from a whack and what we
talked about there is the 2008 recession
in their coming we bought we were so
brilliant we bought this company called
Home Depot supply and / devo supply so
lots of goods to the construction
industry in 2007 was booming housing
moving everything moving and it was
doing 12 billion dollars in revenues in
2008 more quarters later it was doing
seven billion dollars it collapsed on
itself and so they asked my all-out
smart decision to buy it couldn't have
been worse timing could not have been
worse timing we get it and this guy Joe
D Angelo brings in is he's got his team
he had been hiring him for some time a
bunch of people you work with before his
first act was not let's cut 10 percent
across the board we got to save money no
his first thing was pay the Aces tons of
equity tons of equity I gotta keep this
if I'm gonna get out of this whack where
he's practically going bankrupt the
first thing I gotta do is make the size
no we're all swimming the same tank
together and I'm giving you lots of
money well to make a long story short
you get lots of other things to get out
of that whack and we talked about
getting out of a web well I'll have
whacks business-wise personal you'll get
hit and how you get out of it well this
is the story of this guy taking the
absolute non-traditional way of doing it
he would not give me the aces in the
game and I'll give them all the money
well they just went public about six
months ago the top team now this isn't
big money by Silicon Valley standards
but the top guys got over a hundred
million dollars yeah that's big money
twenty to forty million dollars but
that's also big money through six years
of fighting that mess but he didn't see
opposite of what you originally see
nothing's worse than anything across the
board across the board races across the
board that's if there are sinful things
to do in business
they're just cowards well how do you
that we were talking about this a little
beforehand so you find your aces you
give them the big equity what do you
tell and the middle people are they kind
of get it they're their worker bees the
people at the bottom and would eat okay
they get an equity - what do you do
about the layer just below the ones who
get the giant Awards that's the toughest
layer manager I mean we started out with
a system don't comedy night of going ten
fifteen fifty fifteen Jen and Bill
Connie was your head of a job and we
were ponderous Ernest we bled people the
whole time that was our whole job in
jaime and spent a lot of time on other
stuff and always came in trying to make
these careful slices of ten between the
top ten and the next 15 you know
we're all humans we're making these
chants and we're not really that good
that make him so we piss off the next
group so we cut that down to top 20
middle 70 bottom jam to try and get a
distribution that looked like this and
the biggest problem you have is taking
good people in the middle and telling
them they're in the middle yeah that's
by far is the hottest job and so I
always err it up for shims from the top
of the middle and giving them as close
as you could to the top and there they
they're happy with that they live
happily ever after or they're just
sliding our period time they're not a
lifetime sentence we don't get I'm in
the top five yeah percent I mean I might
there forever no if you stink you two
get out of there and if you're if you're
in the next group you guys have five 20
or whatever you got that five tier thing
and people that can move by performance
and the thing we gotta get clear though
one performance Chris even you had your
brother have a little misunderstanding
of what I think was when you when you're
looking at valuing where people are
there are two axes on one axis is
behaviors the values of the company
speed marvelous behavior etc now you do
that I separate about a bad evaluation
of these things and you put a half
circle or a full circle just again for
the numerical number of those you fill
in a circle if they're fully qualified
in that everything a full circle have
half circle quarter circle whatever and
then you come up with a judgment this is
how the company is in its this is how
this employee and he instill the
behaviors we need to win because it's
where we're going
that's the mission how we're gonna get
there or the behaviors and then the
consequences and then you get on the
bottom axis
you got numerical performance whether
it's sales quotas are the new products
whatever you pick is a financial
measurements
okay then you draw four quadrants one
people and then the top and it's low to
high on each axis okay low to high I
wish we have a little white board here
but at low to high in then in the top
right you got high values high be ages
and high performance that's easy on wood
nothing on the bottom you got low B on
the bottom left quadrant you've got low
behaviors and low numbers that's easy to
give them some time to either fix it or
they move on then the third type over
here in there on the lower on the upper
wealth you got low performance but high
behaviors very good they're on your team
they believe that everything you believe
in you give them a second third fourth
chairs because even when you get
somebody who buys into the whole system
the mission if you will the mission of
Google the mission of company X Y or Z
you want that person but it's the fourth
quadrant out to the right that kills
companies and I'm sure that what you've
seen here and you've seen them
everywhere the high performer who's a
horse's ass
and every time you tolerate that person
and you talk about your values and your
behaviors and you've got some jerk who's
kissing up and kicking down while
getting good numbers
you keep tolerating them and you give
speeches on values and mission and
beauty and peace and everything else but
you've got this person every promotion
of that person every time that person
gets Ramona
you ruined 50 speeches 500 speeches stop
flapping your lips don't talk about it
so that person with high performing
numbers and lousy values is a killer of
culture it's a killer of culture you you
talk about I think this is a category of
that you talk about boss haters like
when you talk about why careers get
all to come back to that some of it is
you've got a blocker the other category
was this you know you spread too wide
which if we have time we'll come back to
but talking about low values you talk
about boss haters and how they don't
know their boss hater so they don't
admit it but they're toxic they're
poisonous I'm going to go back to that
because I want to stay in this other
thing I mean many more which because you
talked about in your book Microsoft and
you talk about Yahoo and you talk about
Mankins yeah that terrible word was
destroying those those companies you
talk to you interviewed people etc yeah
the facts I you couldn't be in the top
performing group if you didn't have
teamwork because you're in the wrong
place looking at numbers them was all
numbers yeah okay that's a
misapplication of a theory of the case
you're an important guy to carry this
message long term that's why I'm
catching you you can't have you can't be
a bad team player or a bad behaving
person and be in the top ten so let's
let's dig into this so I agree but let's
explore for the folks who are who are
watching and listening so somebody who
has great numbers great salespeople
brilliant engineer total jerk horse's
ass you know you can see that what about
the people where you know they're not at
both extremes the great numbers but you
know they're they're jerks sometimes
they kick down sometimes they're kind of
political where do you draw the line
where do you call how much of that kind
of behavior is acceptable was any of it
where's none of it you can't do people
want to hang out with them do they have
a place where people want to work are
they attracting people or people dodging
them well but so one thing we've seen
one thing we've seen here because we do
surveys we love our data we do surveys
about how you know what do you think of
your manager every six months and one of
the things that happens is we see people
who are kind of brutal really rough
tough managers and what ends up
happening is the team's end up giving
the positive scores because they say
well you know what I don't like working
for this person but I know where I stand
or you know what I've learned more than
I've ever learned yeah I get beat up
once a while but I'm learning so much
because this person's too
acting in my face and what's interesting
is when those people's move jobs the
leaders move jobs no one follows them
and the team kind of goes but every
measurement we have along the way you
look at it objectively people go like oh
yeah you know it's fine I can I can deal
with it it's within is this like having
a bad boyfriend or girlfriend you just
can't break up is it like what's what's
the secret no I have said how do you
find those I mean nobody is a perfect
system the question is what's a better
system yeah it's always gonna be that
because you can you can always argue
against the perfect but no system is
perfect but you've got to be able to
evaluate people on two axes not one and
now you may not get it right you may not
be perfect but you'll you'll be better
than any other system out there so I
think you're right about the second axis
I think we need that we absolutely do I
have one question I want to save for the
end but I want to open it up for
questions either that are submitted
online or if anyone in the room has
questions I actually have a whole bunch
of questions but if anyone wants to
start migrating do you wanna just run to
the mic so we can get any more any of
that hi thanks again for coming at
Google one of the challenges that any
large company has is remote office
workers in developing their talent what
are some of the best strategies you've
seen I've know you developed talent and
your remote offices when you're at GE
what are the some of the best strategies
you've seen for owning your own career
as a rabona office worker
we have an online school all remote and
the biggest challenge is how do you
socialize that office to believe they
belong to the mothership it's a huge
deal you're gonna make all kinds of
efforts what we do is we have pivot
points on the computer screen we have we
know how many contacts the Dean has been
every faculty member per week we know
how many contacts every game has every
faculty member has with every student an
online school is the toughest thing in
the world people are working well
Hey go home and do the work at night
little sick kid the worst thing can
happen there to stay up all night and
you were paper turn in get back
nice job killer so you gotta have that
stress so we have we monitor totally the
socialization aspects of a faculty with
the student the Dean with the faculty we
got to bring them in we talked about so
how are we talking about subcontractors
same thing subcontractor has seven
clients how do I make the subcontractor
like me more so I get it's hot and so
well here you see them you do all kinds
of things but you want to get that
subcontractor more with more allegiance
to you then to the other six clients he
has so you're always working on
socialization you're always bringing
them into the core as much as you can
you're measuring how many contacts you
have you're doing all these things to be
sure that nobody feels they're out of
Iowa I think the main thing is that if
you don't actively manage from people
who are working in remotely or virtually
if you don't actively managing you let
it sort of manage itself it it falls
apart and so managers often can feel I
mean I felt that way myself when I was
the editor of a magazine I had a lot of
people not working in the office because
editing can be done anywhere and so a
lot of people were in life stages where
they wanted and needed to work at home I
put a lot of Mom's and and and you want
to accommodate them because they were so
talented and you're so busy with what
you're doing day to day that you just
sort of let it go and then you realize
six month have gone by and you haven't
seen this person and you haven't really
talked to them every every interaction
you've had with them has been electronic
it was easy and it was working pretty
well and then you get that person in and
you have a conversation you think how
much better it could have been and so I
think you just have to have it on your
to-do list
to actively manage remote relationships
and if you just let them go which is the
natural human thing to do you just are
not getting everything you can out of it
and and the one thing the one thing that
Google could bring to the world
you will is the ability to socialize
online education we no matter how hard
we try will be blackboard whether it be
this system or the other system we still
a missing the socialization link in our
MBA program that's the weak link in the
system how do we get our employ students
more engaged in our game a new
technology comes out all the time
believe me we've seen it it's not apply
to these offices are you Google for
Education customers because we can we
can introduce stuff like that huh yeah
we look good enough no it's a nice
product but it isn't good enough next
frontier okay next question
thank you so I had a question on your
career management so there are two
approaches right one is you stay with
that within a company and you grow you
know stay 2025 years within GE a company
like that and in the in the Silicon
Valley it's more like you know every few
years you you sort of get a promotion as
in joining another company and and move
around every few years so how would you
contrast the two approaches to managing
your career I don't think you manage
your career I think you manage your job
and you what you do is you over deliver
all the time so you become a commodity
with gold stars everywhere so everybody
wants you anybody's managing their
career picking I'll go here next and
I'll go here next and if I get that job
they don't get that job killer killer
perform keep your eye on your job to
better than anybody's ever done that job
and good things will happen to you it's
my view of whether whether you stay in
that company or go to another company
you know that that's actually in your
career chapter that's your first main
point you say don't deliver over
delivery yeah
and again that's something most people
actually we do our best but most of us
don't think about it as I'm gonna kick
butt every single day I'm going to
exceed everyone's expectations I think
it's it's hard to talk about that in
this room cuz I'm gonna presume that
most of you have been over to live
since you were in kindergarten and most
of them most okay but I mean
over-delivering is an interesting
concept you know it's it it is you know
for some people it's very natural okay
but when for others it's not by
over-delivering it means doing you know
in school you're taught to deliver even
when you're in a fine fine school okay
you know you get the assignment you hand
in the assignment you do the assignment
very well and you're gonna get a great
grade okay when you get into the real
world it's a different thing it's about
making the assignment much bigger I mean
you're asked to do X and you have yous
actually give serious thought to what
more what would be the bigger question
and so you deliver on X and the bigger
question and you know what Jack tells a
great story about when he was a trying
to get out of the pile at early on he
was Chemical Engineer PhD and his boss
asked him to present to his boss about
some plastic and instead he came he
presented to the boss about the entire
picture of the plastics industry and
five and ten years and just learned did
this McKinsey like presentation on they
couldn't believe that but that's
over-delivering
and and and so the question is are you
thinking expansively enough about your
work and that is the way to manage your
careers if you are constantly over
delivering and you've got to have a
certain natural love and joy about the
work to be doing that and a certain
natural engagement and curiosity about
the work to be doing it I mean otherwise
it's really hard labor one thing to
think about if this is a simple little
tip is your boss a lot smarter after the
meeting you had with him or her then
before the meeting took place is your
boss going out and can go to a cocktail
party and can blow smoke about something
you gave beautiful insights into I'll
give her insights and you can just end
up smarter did the boss just sit through
a mind-numbing boring regime of you
telling them what you've done and how
you or have you given him an expansive
broad view of the subject that he asked
about well the meeting was supposed to
be about think about that every time
never go to a meeting
without making the boss you're dealing
with smiler for having sat through that
meeting with you simple tip think about
it what I love and then we're gonna the
question is the you keep coming back to
things that I as an individual control
right I control how much work I'm
putting in I control whether I'm going
above and beyond I control what happens
in that meeting with the boss I control
do I ask about you know the the woman
who asked you know what's my rating you
know what's going on there's a huge
focus on that and it's very different
from the typical advice which is well
you know chart your course and check
these boxes and get this experience hey
why would you wave example the book
everyone says oh get a lot of
multifunctional experience that'll do a
lot of love for you I always say don't
bring skates to the basketball court
that's for hockey don't try skating on
the best walk away Michael Jordan tried
playing baseball he stunk at it okay he
went into pro baseball and do what
you're good at and just excel like hell
at it and the sky's the limit that's how
a chemist becomes a CEO yeah how good a
chemist were you really
he's I but I was let me tell you there's
a difference I got a PhD with a Nobel
Prize winner uh-huh I got out in three
years most of my peers took seven they
were all smarter than I were but they
Donald I played in the lab they liked
lab hours I want to get that out of
there to be with people so I wasn't
smarter by any means not even close but
I was in a hurry I think that might have
made I think we could debate the smarter
part I think I think you probably did
all right well we'll see we'll see I
guess in the next few years how things
work out thank you
I was wondering if I could ask a
question about smaller companies yes
because I think we have a lot in common
here
small companies I was just curious if
you having their experience at GE a big
corporation if there are any because I
think small companies are often proud of
the fact that they're small and they
don't have much in common with
corporations what do you think smaller
companies could incorporate practices
learnings from a big company that you
think they often overlook or avoid
intentionally well I mean let's what a
company always wants to be don't forget
that plastic story we started with I I
was the first employee and eighteen
years later we were 16 billion dollar
company we had one technician I hide the
first one the second one the third one
now we have the luxury of building that
16 billion dollar company in a big
corporation that didn't know anything
about plastics so a shield and we had
lots of money we had a bank behind us so
we weren't out starting it up in the
ground but what is it where does a small
company never want to be it never wants
to be a bureaucracy well it's a big
company want to be it wants to get rid
of Laius wants to delay and become a
small company but what does a small
company want to be that one step
leverage in the marketplace so it has to
have it you need products to get
leverage in the marketplace it must be
unique it can't have just coverage so
you want that you want the muscle of a
big company in the heart of a small
company and all these things don't go
together for example when you talk about
business as a sport the team with the
best players wins that's what happens in
sports the team of the best players
played together wins that's what happens
in business so it doesn't matter whether
you have a small business or a big
business you want the best players you
want to constantly reward the best you
want do all the same things but you
don't want I was talking about LinkedIn
yesterday and talking you today you guys
are now a bureaucracy you have all the
food and all the stuff around here but
you're a bureaucracy come on you got
guys like him with forms and all that
stuff I'm gonna survey them about this
talk
I want the forms you know I mean you
every day but you got layers you're
adding layers you can't have this many
people or not have layers but you gotta
fight every layer has to go through the
scrutiny if you've got to start from the
standpoint if I never want to have a
layer when you're starting a small
company give them salary don't have to
give them a title give them salary give
me more spare twenty-nine direct reports
ideally I should have had 60 probably
cuz you guys if you drive a wild rep
report you can't medal if you're good
people you want them to have their own
heads so you're fighting like hell all
the time not to layer up a place every
layer is evil it spins messages it
delays decision-making it does all these
terrible things so on this point one of
the things you talk about one of these I
answer your question but you understand
the theory when one of the things you
talk about in terms of bureaucracy is
you you touch very briefly on budgets
and you talk about how boots every
company has these budget negotiations
internally about how much you're gonna
spend and you write there's this
beautiful line about and somehow you
always end up in the middle right
because people you know sandbag how do
you cut through that how do you how do
you get people to be honest look no hope
the main point in this book is what a
leaders job is is to create an
atmosphere of truth and Trust where
every meeting you never neon light up
here it's the only truth being spun here
no spin no it no BS we want the truth
only because everybody comes in with a
pitch and they have their own biases
their pitching and spinning it let's
take the budget review is appropriate
for for example I'm in the field I
commend to headquarters at Google here
with my with my budget and I'll Jam and
say them the margin States the world's
coming to an end
the Chinese are killing us this is
happening here all I can do is choke and
then the bosses here will say
for and you're going to a windowless
room and sit there and bang hands
there'll be no customers no analyst
nobody around and you'll sit there for
seven hours with presentations and
slides and all that stuff you'll come
out with three that's the budget for the
year nothing what happened
the only measurements the countess how
did you do against last year and how did
you do against any competitors you
measure against that's all the counts
measuring is the budget is the dumbest
thing was ever invented in business the
dumbest thing because a budget is a
negotiation between two human beings
there's nothing in the world it's crazy
you talking about look open at variance
instead right you talking about variance
instead it's like everything's variance
yeah in my mind if you're we will we
have a chapter here don't be afraid of
Finance if you know if you want to stand
there and surrounds us how does the
monetary budget compared to last year
and other sales going up because you
double the marketing budget or they not
everything against a variance against
last year against two years ago against
and you acquired a company why you going
to spend that much versus make what they
spend before everything's variance it's
arithmetic it's not DC IRAs or DSD CF so
I our eyes and all that crap you don't
need it you need to understand variance
that's what you need in finance is there
I don't know if cliffs still here as the
Dory questions but if there's one if oh
we got them all okay so the and if
there's any other questions we've got a
few minutes left
two less things one super well actually
what do you do in all your travels
what's the biggest business opportunity
out there what's the biggest most
exciting thing on the horizon and not at
a high level like you know online
learning or you know digital or
something like that but like you know if
if you were starting out what industry
would you go in what problem would you
tackle what would you do
that's one for you I can do one thing I
can write so I mean for me it's like
move that the world doesn't need that
many more writers so well I think
biotech is just the most exciting area
in the world right now was it yeah
because you're dealing with a clear-cut
mission you've got wrong mission it's
easy we have a medical system G we buy
men discoveries it's not a problem
getting the mission understood by
everybody you're changing lives you're
making lives better you're doing all
that I think and there's some it's a
frontier now the enormous upside to
explore but if people people have said
this about biotech like 10 years ago 20
years ago is it different today there's
much more breakthroughs yeah
drugs are coming up much faster huh yeah
what about Oh actually do you want to
yeah sure yeah thanks for coming I'm in
a position where I'm choosing a new team
right now what are some of the things
that I should be looking for in my new
manager what should I look for in a boss
yeah you go to what team no easy you're
building a team no I'm moving to a new
team okay what are you looking for in
your boss
so um there's one characteristic that we
think defines it separates a good boss
from a great boss and that's this thing
that we call the generosity gene and
it's technically not a gene but it is a
I have to say that hold your questions
on that okay know what she knows it's
not a gene but it is AI and I only say
that because Jack calls it the
generosity gene and I'm always sort of
they're piping up saying idea but what
do I know but I think that what it is
okay and you've seen it you've all
experienced it it's this preponderance
this desire this burning desire in an
individual to see the people around
working for him or her growing and then
you want to they get really psyched
about giving promotions and raises and
seeing people get things right and and
just getting better and so if you're
looking for we've all worked for bosses
with the generosity gene who have this
incredible heart of of love really for
people to grow and to get better and and
to really want to and really love
was an individual and see you get more
money and see you get promoted and seen
you even leave the team to go on to
bigger and better things
and then we've all had the bosses who
steal your idea and use it as their own
and and and and don't want to and really
get stingy around raises and really gets
stingy about it about celebrating you
and so if you're looking for what team
you're gonna go to you know you want to
work for that but you don't go the extra
mile and the team will be that much more
energized when the leader has got this
generosity this generosity gene and if
you think about it stay there may if you
think about it if you think about it in
this room all of you you've worked for
both types you've worked for people with
a generous spirit you work people that
didn't have it where was it more fun
where was it more enjoyable when I look
at the people in our company and the
companies I've worked with 74 private
equity companies in gee if I look at
these had the winning people male or
female they had this experience they
loved to see their people grow the
biggest thrill for me is we've got you
can count of 50 60 70 CEOs out there now
work for me many other men you refer to
one in your book Dave Cody
we've got they were all chief executives
of GE businesses I that's the biggest
turn-on in the world to have the Boeing
CEO the Honeywell CEO the Home Depot CEO
all these people were my partner's
they're my friends and the nice thing
Google's gonna have that they probably
have a lot of it now already will the be
Marissa Meyer or whoever else is out
there
yeah you all have the same raft which I
got a human resource process that works
and that's one of the great thrills of
life to see these people sprouting up
all over the place from Google and
Google will be the G of the last 20
years 20 years ago
going forward they'll have tons of CEOs
out there running companies and it'll be
the biggest turn-on for Google it is
it's amazing to watch folks
so that's last question for each of you
that question
you you right in one of the concluding
chapters you say to quote Mark Twain the
two most important days in your life are
the day you were born and the day you
figure out why I'd love if you don't
mind for you to share why were you born
why are you here you know it's well it's
for me yeah I happen to be a devout
Christian so for me the answer is just
gonna be I was born to glorify God so I
think that the that's a really personal
thing and probably and if there's any
other Christians in the room they would
have the same answer so that would be
the answer to know how I glorify God is
I have a gift which was which is writing
and I I sort of discovered that I had
that gift like many writers do when I
was really young like I started a diary
when I was nine years old and I wrote in
it every single day and if I didn't
write in it I felt like something was
really wrong so I was really lucky to be
able to have that gift and then I've
been unbelievably blessed to find many
different ways to use that gift to
change people's lives and in fact when I
was running HBR when I would try to
recruit people I would say please come
join me help change the world and that
was I mean that was just an incredible
so I was able to use my gift and right
over I did use their gifts in different
ways so that's amazing
thank you know I just happened to be
lucky at luck place an enormous part in
where you get to release in these jobs
see you bust your butt you do all these
things but I love people and when I took
this job on from the first plastic I
loved my first employee to my second
employee to my third employee I like
hanging out and contrary to what Laszlo
feels and he's smarter and brighter than
some ways going for you know I believe
my god I'm a I'm a gut guy I'm not an
analyst I I have a PhD and all that
stuff but I believe in gut and feel and
touch and people you know and I'll hire
and I'll make mistakes with my gut many
times but so far people
they work hard for me we all work as a
team it isn't me but I always hire
people smarter than me in every job I've
ever been in and I like him I like
hanging around with them I mean if you
like people it's a fun job it's a great
job and that's what I like and so it all
worked out I was captain sports all
through college I was kavanah sports in
high school people tend to let me be
captain it seemed to be fun and I I've
never stopped like that's why we keep
doing this we love these interchanges we
learn everywhere we go we we see these
magnificent people doing things and it's
wonderful to be out here when you seeing
all this growth because growth really
does is it elixir of life it truly is it
gives you a whole new jolt and we're
lucky that proportion of staff people
come and listen to us so thanks for
being here thank you things in closing
one is it's it's not often you have a
discussion about a business book that
then hinges on talk about God and love
and you know changing the world and
transformation it's so it's an
incredible gift to have both of you here
and to have you share the wisdom you
both accumulated so thank you on behalf
of Google the other thing is I know just
for this room that you've both offered
to kind of hang around and say hello to
folks anybody wants to come up a chat
and we'll have we have some books up
back there
that you're free to take some others
when we run out that you're free to
purchase at a discount I imagine your
hands aren't completely sore all we get
a few signatures but thank you sincerely
for sharing your message really
appreciated