ns to determine strategic direction:
What is the detailed global position of your business and that of your competitors: market shares, strengths by product line, and by region today?
What actions have your competitors taken in the past two years that have changed the competitive landscape?
What have you done in the past two years to alter that landscape?
What are you most afraid your competitors might do in the next two years to change the landscape?
What are you going to do in the next two years to leapfrog any of their moves? (p. 390).
Welch believed in planning, but also in reviewing and revising plans on a regular basis. He eschewed short-term financial plans that would sacrifice long-term investment for short-term profit, but he was adamant that his managers should review and revise their plans as the business environment changed. Under Welch, planning at GE was a year-round process with planning sessions in January, July and November. Above all else, Welch did not like sur
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