HBS Grads Grill G.E. Chief

Instead of standing before graduates and sending them off with carefully polished platitudes, General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch sat in a wooden Harvard chair and answered the sometimes-probing questions of one gradating student at the Harvard Business School (HBS) Class Day ceremony yesterday.

Welch--who said he doesn't like to give graduation speeches--was interviewed on the podium set on the perfectly manicured grass in front of the Baker Library.

Nigel Killick, a member of the HBS graduating class asked Welch, a figure revered for his 20 years at the helm of one of the world's largest corporations, about how he started off in at GE and how he deals with the stress of running the company.

Killick's polished English accent and carefully chosen words (he is a graduate of Cambridge University) contrasted with Welch's plainspoken style and distinct New England accent.

Welch's conclusions mirrored his down-home manner.

"You've been here for a couple of years," he said to the assembled graduating class and thousands of friends and family members. "You know when you were a jackass and when you were smart. Remember when you were a jackass and leave that behind you."

But his advice didn't stop there. He also urged them to use common sense and be themselves as they join the business world.

"It's a bunch of lucky calls and bonuses here and there," Welch said of the business world. "This is not rocket science. You have to motivate, meet and clap."

Welch also defended certain practices that he has instituted at GE-including making public examples of those who cheat the company and consistently firing under-performers.

"You preach it every day and in every language. We fight every day to get the bad apple out," he said of those who try to take advantage of the company.

"You've got to be constantly grading and raising the bar. We keep too many people who aren't needed on the payroll too long," he added.

When asked by Killick how he deals with the stress of running GE, Welch countered by saying that business is not as taxing as it is sometimes made out to be.

"These are pretty great jobs," he said. "You hand around with great people, you play a lot of golf. It's a great life."

The interview with Welch followed an address by Mini Desai and Stephen Moret, who are the presidents of the graduating class. They alternated speaking during the address. The first part of their speech consisted of inside jokes and tales of the agony of waiting for their HBS admission letters.

Desai concluded on a serious note, however, urging graduates to "live honestly and with integrity."

Their address was followed by HBS faculty awards presented by the graduating class and a speech by Dan Senor, a member of the graduating class.

He explained the HBS experience succinctly: "The situation [at HBS] can boiled down to three activities: we meet, we talk, and we clap," Senor said.

--Staff writer Jonathan H. Esensten can be reached at esensten@fas.harvard.edu.