How Successful People Think

The second thing they all have in common may be less apparent but is still crucial: Each won his spurs as a leader at General Electric (GE). Nardelli and McNerney were considered possible successors to GE’s legendary boss, Jack Welch. In 2001, when it became clear that Jeff Immelt would succeed Welch, Nardelli (president and CEO of GE Power Systems) and McNerney (president and CEO of GE Aircraft Engines) left to join The Home Depot and 3M, respectively. Bossidy, former chief operating officer of GE Credit (later GE Capital), left to join AlliedSignal, which merged with Honeywell in 1999. Paul headed global operations for GE Medical Systems before he joined Wipro.

This book is designed to lead you through writing your own business plan. While there may be some elements of the finished document that would benefit from professional input from an accountant, marketing expert, etc, you should be able to write the main elements of this plan yourself. I believe that it is important for the person who will have to carry out the plan to have ownership of all the ideas in it. One reason for this is that you must also be able to present it in person, which is more difficult if you have not been closely involved in
preparing it. A second reason is that writing the plan helps you to hone its contents. Sitting in front of a business partner or prospective investor is a bad time to find you are not utterly familiar with the plan or that there is a hole in the logic you hadn’t thought of.