9Viewing the Whole A Way to Grapple with Contradictions
Jack Welch, the chief executive officer of GE, sent a stir through the corporate world when he said leaders who think they know what’s going on just don’t understand. The paradox implicit to his comment suggests that thinking you know is evidence that you don’t, and that acting from a false assumption of knowing can be a dangerous obstacle in moving forward. The validity of his own comment came back to haunt Welch when one of GE’s business units, Kidder Peabody, was shown to be reporting phantom profits. Welch’s reputation as one of the most admired of CEOs was sullied when it was learned that Kidder Peabody’s problems were part of a larger corporate culture that chased after the bottom ...
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