“A strategy is something like, an innovative new product; globalization, taking your products around the world; be the low-cost producer. A strategy is something you can touch; you can motivate people with; be number one and number two in every business. You can energize people around the message.”

“Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later.”

“Be candid with everyone.”

“Change before you have to.”

“Control your own destiny or someone else will.”

“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.”

“Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.”

“Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas.”

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

“I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that's a big deal. And if you're going to be a leader - if you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.”

“If GE's strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the future of this company for the next century.”

“If you have a reputation as a big, stiff bureaucracy, you're stuck.”

“If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.”

“In order to lead a country or a company, you've got to get everybody on the same page and you've got to be able to have a vision of where you're going. America can't have a vision of health care for everybody, green economy, regulations - can't have a bunch of piece-meal activities. It's got to have a vision.”

“I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.”

“Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.”

“My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.”

“Number one, cash is king... number two, communicate... number three, buy or bury the competition.”

“One of the jobs of a manager is to instill confidence, pump confidence into your people. And when you've got somebody who's raring to go and you can smell it and feel it, give 'em that shot.”

“Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.”

“The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.”

“The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well. I don't like to use the word efficiency. It's creativity. It's a belief that every person counts.”

“The story about GE that hasn't been told is the value of an informal place. I think it's a big thought. I don't think people have ever figured out that being informal is a big deal.”

“There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

“You measure your people and you take action on those that don't measure up.”

“You've got to eat while you dream. You've got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.”