Chapter 15 - Just do it!

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Just do it!	497

the company's leader in Jack Welch and the GE Way: "What sets GE apart is a culture that uses this wide diversity as a limitless source of learning opportunities, a storehouse of ideas whose breadth and richness is unmatched in world business. At the heart of this culture is the understanding that an organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive business advantage."
  Welch is consistently voted by his peers as America's most-admired corporate manager. Before he took over the company, fully 80 percent of General Electric's earnings came from its traditional electrical and electronic manufacturing businesses. Now more than 80 percent comes from selling services, training and finance. Asked by Slater whether GE would look like it does today in 20 to 30 years time, Welch replied: " I doubt it. I hope it will be the greatest learning institution in the world."

The give-it-away model
 
  We believe the Netscape concept of free software through the Internet will also be one of the main breakthroughs to revolutionize the delivery of learning programs: give it away - and sell the add-ons.
  The whole culture of the Internet has been built around an open environment, where people around the world freely share knowledge. University researchers have been using it for years to swap information, so the pattern of the future is already set.
  We're convinced that sometime soon most complex computer programs will be stored at central Internet web sites, and you'll be able to access them instantly through a "network computer" - call it what you like - connected to your television set, or as a combined TV-PC.
  We're also convinced that one path to the future involves combining the abilities of the world's best teachers and making them available to all the world through interactive multimedia sources. Any school system not developing that concept will be left behind and surpassed by individual and corporate initiatives.

The Internet selling model
 
  But the Internet is not only great for exchanging information; it's emerging as a potent new way to sell learning products.
  By May 1997 Dell Computers were achieving $1 million in sales a day

 

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