Chapter 8, The Vision Thing Summary and Analysis

In the 1980s, the typical GE analyst meeting is structured right down to the weeded-out questions on note cards collected from the audience for the speaker. Jack's first public statement, presenting the "New GE" to Wall Street broke with this traditional form. Instead of giving the analysts detailed financials, Jack gives them his vision for the company and its future. His first analyst presentation fails miserably. The platform is changed. Twenty years later, analysts are better informed about what the investors expect and the company's strategic direction and outlook. There are intellectual debates, and there are no scripts.

The accepted business philosophy in the 1980s is that if a business is profitable, there is no reason to get out of it or to change it. Jack reasons, on the contrary, that for the business to...