Winning by Welch - Book Report/Review Example

?Winning Contents Thesis 3 Central Pillars 4 Learning Outcome 4 Learning Outcome 2 5 Learning Outcome 3 5 Discussion 6 Works Cited 7 Thesis Winningby Welch comes with both pragmatic and philosophical dimensions, which has been designed to turn out to be the bible of commerce & business for the future generations. The book clearly states the solutions to the most complicated questions faced by people both off and on the job. The thesis of Winning is dedicated to the factual "stuff" of business. The central theme of the book has been divided into four parts. The first section has been named as “Underneath It All,” that throws light on the general aspects of business philosophy which cover topics ranging from management & control to selecting the winners to make change take place. The second part is referred to as “Your Company” that focuses on the internal matters like processes, culture and people. The second part mainly deals with hiring, leadership, human resource manage­ment, change management, crisis management and letting people go. The third aspect covers topics like competition, strategic benefits, devising meaningful financial statement, expanding geographically, Six Sigma, and growing through the means of mergers and acquisitions. This portion has been named as “Your Competition.” The final part of the book is referred to as “Your Career” and it is with reference to managing the profession starting from hunting for the appropriate job profile to striking a balance between professional life and personal life. Thus in simple terms the central focus of the book is profession or business and their management (Welch & Welch 2005). Central Pillars Learning Outcome 1 Winning presents a few essential attributes of business. According to Welch the most important aspect of business is its mission and core values. A general definition of Mission Statement is that it is a written document where the ideas & thoughts of the company are communicated & the purpose of the firm is clearly defined to the internal & the external stakeholders. However Welch puts emphasis on the fact that, “an effective mission statement basically answers one question: How do we intend to win in this business? It does not answer: What were we good at in the good old days? Nor does it answer: How can we describe our business so that no particular unit or division or senior executive gets pissed off?” the author states that this statement helps the managers in the decision of resource allocation. He states very clearly that a mission statement must not include diplomatic and usual terms which are used by almost every organization. In this regard he has illustrated the example of Even Ben & Jerry’s ice cream firm whose mission statement includes terms like “profitable growth” and “increasing value for stake­holders”. Thus the author means to say that no social goal stated in the mission statement is attainable unless the financial growth is ensured and the financial goals and objectives must cover a significant portion of the mission statement. Welch further added that framing the mission is the responsibility of the top management. A mission is something which can’t be (and of course must not be) handed over to anyone else apart from the people eventually held responsible for it. Regarding values Welch claimed that the general people reading the mission statement must be able to connect the values of the organization with the mission statement since they are the answers for the questions related to the “how” of the mission and therefore they are regarded as the means to the conclusion that is winning. While mission must be prepared by a few, value must be formed embracing all the people of the organization. Finally the author talks about integrating the values and the mission. In his terms, a “concrete mission” is what a company should follow and the values which portray precise practices must also be followed, but for an organization’s mission and values to work truly together as an endearing scheme, they must be mutually supporting. Learning Outcome 2 Leadership has also been discussed with great focus in the book. Welch stated the following while discussing what are the activities performed by leaders- Leaders uncompromisingly work towards upgrading their team and ensure that everyone is participating in the process. He/she encourage his followers to live and breathe the vision of the firm. A leader offers positive thoughts. Leaders create mutual trust by the means of honest and transparent actions. They are also known for taking risky decisions. Leaders work towards answering the doubts arising in his follower’s mind. Further Leaders influence and inspire people and a leader rejoices. Learning Outcome 3 Managing people is another significant factor discussed in the book. The author states that as hiring is a significant part of the organization, managing and retaining the talent pool is a much more crucial part of the firm. Welch says it’s a process that requires the management to cover six fundamental practices which are- Raising the HR to a point of primacy and power in the firm and ensuring that the HR person is having the particular qualities to assist managers create “leaders and careers”. Along with that the HR must be adapted to applying a meticulous, non technical assessment framework, scrutinized for veracity with the equal strength as “Sarbanes-Oxley Act” agreement. The HR must also work towards creating effectual devices where the author instructs his audience to read it as money, training and recognition, for motivating and retaining the staff. An HR must be proficient in fighting gravity, and treating the middle 70% of the firm as the central part of the organization instead of taking them for granted. It’s his/her responsibility to Design the organizational chart clearly specifying the reporting relationships and to keep it flat. Discussion The future managers can draw a great deal of help from this book since the book guides through every possible situation that arises within a business. Winning clearly discusses what are the probable issues faced by managers as well as employees and solutions for those has also been provided. Further the book offers practical examples from industry scenarios and the firms discussed in the book are quite renowned and thus it creates a sense of confidence within the managers that the practices and approaches discussed throughout the book have been tried already. Managers acquire a great deal of knowledge regarding managing the people, utilizing the leadership skills, forming teams, managing the team conflicts, dealing with change and a lot similar premises. Thus it can be concluded that this book acts as a guideline and as a rulebook for the future managers which would help them in devising proper strategies for different situations. Works Cited Welch, Jack & Suzy Welch. WINNING. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 2005. Pdf. Read More