Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

The most important executive utterance of 2009

12.23.2009 by David Murray // 4 Comments

(And one communicators ought to have laminated for their wallets, to be whipped out whenever an executive says, "It's all about the shareholders.")

Former G.E. CEO Jack Welch, father of the so-called "shareholder value" movement that said a company's singular strategic focus should be on creating value for investors, recanted last spring.

"On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world," he told the Financial Times. "Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy … your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products."

Why didn't that get more press?!

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // "shareholder value" movement, CEO, dumbest, General Electric, Jack Welch

Comments

  1. Robert J Holland, ABC says

    December 23, 2009 at 8:09 am

    Exactly. If you take care of those other things, shareholder value takes care of itself. Thanks for digging that one out and sharing it.

    Reply
  2. Ron Shewchuk says

    December 23, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    Very interesting development.
    Remember my post from awhile ago about Richard Edelman’s talk of the emerging “stakeholder society”?
    http://ronshewchuk.blogs.com/for_your_approval/2009/05/towards-a-stakeholder-society.html
    Do you think Jack Welch might be a Canadian, too?

    Reply
  3. David Murray says

    December 23, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Welch is growing more Canadian with age.

    Reply
  4. Greg says

    December 29, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    I would argue that his new list is 50% too long. Your products aren’t a “constituency.”

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Now Available

An Effort to Understand

Order Now

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE BLOG UPDATES

About

David Murray writes on communication issues.
Read More

 

Categories

  • Baby Boots
  • Communication Philosophy
  • Efforts to Understand
  • Happy Men, and Other Eccentrics
  • Human Politicians
  • Mister Boring
  • Murray Cycle Diaries
  • Old Boots
  • Rambling, At Home and Abroad
  • Sports Stories
  • The Quotable Murr
  • Typewriter Truths
  • Uncategorized
  • Weird Scenes Inside the Archives

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Log in

  • Preorder An Effort to Understand
  • Sign Up for Blog Updates
  • About David Murray