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Fortune magazine named Jack Welch the Manager of the [20th] Century. The major reason was his incredible run as GE's CEO from 1981 to 2001. Here's how Fortune described it.

"Welch transformed GE and multiplied its value beyond anyone's expectations: from a market capitalization of $14 billion to more than $400 billion today-making GE the second-most-valuable company on Earth."

Just a few years later, though, Fortune was "Tearing up the Jack Welch playbook." Now the prevailing wisdom was as follows.

"The Six Sigma master was once the undisputed authority in management. But Fortune is finding that today's smart CEOs are following a different set of rules."

Most of the articles that talk about Welch concentrate on the wrong things. Sometimes they're a purity test (Is Six Sigma good or bad?). Sometimes they zoom in on the tactical. Sometimes, like the Fortune piece from 2006, the articles are more about perceptions of Welch than what he did as CEO.

If you're a boss at any level there are some things you can learn from the career of one of the most successful bosses of all time. Here's my list.

People are the most important thing. Welch's history is a continuing quest to find the best ways to recruit, train, equip, evaluate, and reward the people at GE. He also understood, as most CEOs don't, that training is not just about skills. It's also about relationships and it's the carrier of culture.

Change takes time. Most of the companies I observe appear to belong to the "Change of the Month Club." Major initiatives are lucky to get a year before the next one comes along.

Welch was different. In his twenty years as CEO he had, depending on who's counting, four to six initiatives. He stayed with important changes long enough for them to embed themselves in GE's culture.

Making the numbers is not enough. They were important, but Welch made sure that evaluation also included whether a manager conformed to the values of the company.

Creative destruction should be alive and well. Many people today forget that Welch took over the CEO job from a man who was the most admired businessman in America at the time. But he still moved quickly to do what he thought was the right thing.

There's nothing difficult here. Nothing is rocket science. You don't need an MBA. It's all basic stuff and common sense. Not only that, most managers would agree with it. .

The difference is that they don't act on it. If they act on it, they don't act on all of it. And if they act on all of it, they don't do it consistently.

What made Welch different was that he turned all those basic concepts into action. And he worked at those basics, day after day, with diligence and with discipline.

Boss's Bottom Line

Things like whether to choose a program like Six Sigma or whether you should weed out 10 percent of your people every year are about what Jack Welch did in a particular situation. They won't teach you any big lesson. They may be wrong for your situation.

The big lessons are more basic and universal. People are important. Change takes time. Making the numbers isn't enough. Creative destruction is a necessary part of business.

And the most important lesson to take away from this is that business is about doing the basics with unremitting diligence.

Additional Resources

Jack's second book, Winning, written with Suzy Welch, is far better than his first, biographical book. This book is based on responses to questions the Welches were asked on their speaking tours, sharpened by repetition and Suzy's editor's hand.

The Welches do a column that appears in Business Week and also on their own site. It's a good weekly dose of candid commentary.