Английский язык. Практический курс для решения бизнес-задач

Welch skillfully used rewards to drive behavior. Welch demanded that the rewards a leader disbursed to people be highly differentiated. Although GE set an overall 4% salary increase as a target in 1998, base salaries could rise by as much as 25% in a year without a promotion. Cash bonuses could increase as much as 150% in a year. Stock options, once reserved for the most senior officers at GE, have been broadly expanded under Welch. Now, some 27,000 employees get them, nearly a third of GE’s professional employees. Unlike many companies that hand out options as automatic annual grants, Welch did not want GE’s program to be perceived as a «dental plan.» So everyone who received options didn’t get them every year.

Welch has been a major beneficiary of stock options. Yet few things energized Welch as much as reviewing a list of GE employees who cash in their rewards. Combing through the names, Welch could hardly contain his enthusiasm – for the wealth he has put into the hands of people whose names were unfamiliar to him. In the first quarter of 1998 alone, some 3,900 employees exercised 8.7 million options with a net value of $520 million. «It means that everyone is getting the rewards, not just a few of us,» he said. «That’s a big deal. We’re changing their game and their lives».

While analysts on Wall Street or GE’s own investors viewed Welch’s likely legacy as creating the world’s most valuable company in stock market terms, Welch himself saw things quite differently. The man who spent more than 50% of his time on people issues considered his greatest achievement the care and feeding of talent. «This place runs by its great people,» said Welch. «The biggest accomplishment I’ve had is to find great people. An army of them. They are all better than most CEOs.»

While many companies profess to run as meritocracies, in reality, they are often conscious of class. At GE many of the company’s most successful executives were, like Welch, the first in their families to earn college degrees. When it came time to pick a new CFO, for instance, Welch passed over several candidates in line for the job in favor of then 38-year-old Dennis Dammerman two layers down in the ranks because he was impressed with how he had handled other tough assignments.

In every potential leader, Welch was looking for what he called «E to the fourth power.» That was his term for people who have enormous personal energy, the ability to motivate and energize others, «edge» – the GE code word for being instinctively competitive – and the skill to execute on those attributes.

* * *

On September 7, 2001, Jack Welch said goodbye to GE, and its people. He appointed Jeff Immelt to succeed him and set in place a staff that he believes will support his successor. The next chapter in GE’s history began.

Source: Business Week (online), June 8, 1998, abridged

Essential Vocabulary

1. market value – рыночная ценность

2. shareholder value – ценность для акционеров

3. headhunter n – специалист по подбору кадров

4. turnaround n – благоприятный поворот (конъюнктуры, дел компании); вывод компании из кризиса

turn around v – выводить (компанию) из кризиса

5. double-digit a – двузначный

6. operating earnings – операционный доход

7. acquisition n – поглощение; приобретение

acquire v – поглощать; приобретать

8. emerging market – развивающийся рынок

9. asset n – актив

10. merchandise n – товары, торгуемые в розницу

11. chain of command – цепочка (иерархия) подчиненности

12. entrepreneur n – предприниматель

entrepreneurship n – предпринимательство

entrepreneurial a – предпринимательский

13.lever n – рычаг

14. agenda n – повестка дня

15. division n – подразделение, деление; разделение

16. creativity n – творчество

create v – создавать

creative a – творческий

17.borrowing n – заимствование

borrower n – заемщик

borrow v – заимствовать

borrowed a – заемный

18. gap n – разрыв

19. gain n – повышение, рост (курса акций, цены); прибыль, доход, выгода

gain v – зарабатывать, добывать, выгадывать, выигрывать; получать, приобретать, достигать, добиваться

gainful a – доходный, прибыльный, выгодный; оплачиваемый

20. implementation n – претворение в жизнь

implement v – претворять в жизнь

21. equipment n – оборудование

equip v – оборудовать

22. approval n – одобрение, утверждение

approve v – одобрять, утверждать

23. return on investment (ROI) – доходность инвестиций

24. facility n – (производственная) мощность, здание; кредитная линия, схема кредитования

25. report n – отчет, доклад; подотчетное лицо

report v – отчитываться, докладывать; быть подотчетным

26. average v – в среднем равняться

average a – средний

27. headquarters n – штаб-квартира