Jack Welch was lionized as the CEO of General Electric. He razzle-dazzled investors and others by pumping up earnings on a consistent basis. But he did it at least in part by greatly expanding the role of GE Capital and its various forms of lending. Welch had little interest in R&D and manufacturing. Jeff Immelt […]…
Category: blog
Come hear a talk on How The ThinkPad Changed The World
I’m launching the publicity for “How The ThinkPad Changed The World” on June 21 at a Silicon Dragon conference in New York City. Here’s the link for that event. It’s been an amazing ride since the ThinkPad was introduced in 1992. Prior to that time, personal computers were so big that you had to use a […]…
If Trump Wants To Get Tough With Germany, Learn How They Do It
I realize Trump’s style is to blow off steam without any substantive understanding of the issues, but let’s play a little game. What if he seriously wanted to attack the trade gap between Germany and the United States? He would learn about how the Germans have organized themselves and imitate as much of it as […]…
Tom Friedman Gets It Right. So Come to Scranton
It would be easy to make fun of Tom Friedman of the New York Times for his essay today. What? To understand what’s happening in America, he drove for four days from Indiana to Tennessee? He actually ventured into what New Yorkers regard as “flyover” territory? But it just so happens that he stumbled upon […]…
Ford’s Mark Fields: A Classic Case of Failed Communications
I think the board of Ford Motor acted unfairly in sacking Mark Fields and replacing him with a 62-year-old furniture guy. But what’s done is done. What went wrong? As a long-time student of how CEOs communicate (see this book), Fields was not able to articulate a vision of how the company was incorporating the […]…
