Jack Welch - Short and Long Term

We exist to help contractors build stronger businesses for the next generation.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

That is not only our mission at D. Brown Management but should also be the mission of EVERY leader within a construction business.  

Quote: 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. Jack Welch Retired Chairman and CEO of GE

Leaders must be focused on balanced execution across both functional areas and time horizons for truly sustainable growth.  

  1. Developing Your Talent
  2. Winning Quality Work
  3. Building Quality Projects
  4. Keeping Score
  5. Integrating Your Supply Chain
  6. Leveraging Technology

Within each of those functional areas leaders must balance out short-term execution while investing in their long-term vision.  This balancing act is extremely difficult when management teams are all stretched thin.  

Jack & Suzy Welch do a great job of describing this balance in Winning and The Real Life MBA.  

An experienced but unbiased 3rd party can be invaluable in helping your team remain balanced in their thinking and execution. 




Connecting Metrics to Activities and Outcomes
Outcomes are created through doing the right activities. Data is only a proxy for that activity and a metric is a synthesis of lots of data points. Metrics are valuable, but always have a skeptical view of proxies for performance, especially with growth.
The Capability and Market Balance (The Chicken or Egg Dichotomy)
Sustainable growth for contractors requires balancing capabilities and capacity with the available market. Like balancing on the toes of one foot, balance is not a static relaxed state. It requires focus, continuous adjustments, and deliberate practice.
Early Identification is a Process - Effectively Using Checklists
Few things will improve customer satisfaction, profitability, cash flow, risk, and team stress more than early identification of change orders. This is a process and a trainable skill. Checklists are some of the most valuable tools in that process.