杰克•韦尔奇商学院探秘

    美国商界传奇人物、通用电气公司（General Electric）前总裁兼CEO杰克•韦尔奇现在就真真切切地坐在我们面前。

    对了，这可能还算不上完全的“真真切切”，但的确是活灵活现地出现在一块电脑屏幕前面。尽管今年已经78岁高龄，但他依旧是一幅招牌式的坦诚直率，沙哑的语调中带着一丝马萨诸塞州萨伦地区的口音。

    摄像机前的他穿着一件蓝色衬衫和一件运动夹克，正回答着他的MBA学生们的问题。

    “有没有一种致胜之策，能帮助美国经济更快速地增长？”

    “‘提供超群的客户服务’到底意味着什么？”

    “你能说一下关于倾听和接受坦率的反馈的技巧吗？”

    韦尔奇回答每个问题时都带着轻松和自信，偶尔举一些他本人的例子，他的深入讲解经常还会引起进一步的问题。

    欢迎来到杰克•韦尔奇管理学院。这是韦尔奇创办的一个在线MBA项目，每个季度他都会通过视频会议的方式与学生进行一个多小时的座谈。这个MBA项目包括十几门必修课程，每门课都有十个星期，可以在线上同步授课。（也就是说只要你的时间方便，就可以在线同步上课。）除了每个季度韦尔奇会参加一次视频会议之外，这个学校的网站上还有很多来自韦尔奇的视频信息，而且他每个学期都会抽两三次时间回复公告栏上的消息。

    虽然目前很多商学院都出现了脱产MBA项目入学率下降的情况，但韦尔奇的管理学院却可谓门庭若市。这个学校目前有538名活跃的学生，与去年相比增长了36%。但是韦尔奇的雄心要比这个数字大得多，他计划在五年内招收5000名学生。相比之下，哈佛商学院（Harvard）的1800名学生和斯坦福商学院（Stanford Graduate School of Business）的800名学生显然相形见绌。

    学生们表示，他们之所以参加这个项目，主要就是被韦尔奇的声誉所吸引，再就是网络学习的灵活性以及费用的低廉。它的学费只有36000美元，比印第安那大学（Indiana University）、北卡罗莱纳大学（the University of North Carolina）、卡耐基梅隆大学（Carnegie Mellon）等知名大学的商学院要便宜很多，这些老牌知名商学院的费用普遍都在6万到11.8万美元之间。

    美国国家航空航天局戈达德宇宙飞行中心（NASA Goddard Space Flight Center）首席工程师史蒂芬•斯科特表示，如果不是通过这个项目的话，他也不可能以别的方式读MBA了。因为斯科特平时的工作时间很长，而且经常出差，所以不可能参加传统的MBA项目。网络会议公司PGi的收购与整合总监凯瑟琳•汤普森也是如此。31岁的她表示自己经常在达拉斯、圣路易斯、堪萨斯城、丹佛、芝加哥、纽约和奥兰多等地的酒店房间里上课，甚至是在离地面35000英尺的飞机里也能学习。她笑着说：“感谢万能的互联网。”

    这个项目与其它MBA项目最大的区别就是实用性。它的课程中灌输了韦尔奇本人的核心商业理念，比如在管理员工时坦诚的重要意义，以及他在通用电气公司使用过的著名的差异化战略等。韦尔奇希望学生们“周一学的东西周二就能用，到了周五就能把它分享出去。”

    21世纪的领导艺术、战略课、人力管理等课程是受韦尔奇影响最深的几门课，它们也是在整个项目中打头阵的课程。课程结束后，学员们还要组成虚拟团队进行模拟商战。学员在两年之内只需要通过一部电脑，就可以在全球各地完成全部课程——不管是在酒店的房间还是在飞机的机舱里。大多数学生一次只选一门课，每周大概需要投入15到20小时进行学习，这样的话就需要两年半左右的时间才能完成全部课程。

    He's there in the flesh. Jack Welch, the legendary chairman and CEO of General Electric Co.

    Well, maybe not exactly in the flesh. But certainly live, unplugged, and on a computer screen, with his trademark tell-it-like-it-is persona, a trace of the Salem, Mass. accent still in his scratchy voice at the age of 78.

    Sitting in front of a camera with an open blue shirt and a sports jacket, he's fielding questions from his MBA students.

    "What would be a winning strategy for helping to get the U.S. economy growing at a faster pace?"

    "What does it really mean to provide exceptional customer service?"

    "Can you discuss skills on listening to and accepting candid feedback?"

    Welch handles each question with casual self-confidence and personal anecdotes, often drilling down with follow-up questions.

    Welcome to the Jack Welch Management Institute. This is Welch's online MBA program, and each quarter he shows up on webcam for little more than an hour to engage with students. All told, the executive MBA program consists of a dozen required courses, each 10 weeks long, delivered online with "synchronous opportunities" (Translation: You can do the class in real time if you're able to). Besides the quarterly Q&A videoconferences with Welch, video messages from him populate the school's website and he'll often respond to half a dozen messages on the bulletin boards two or three times each term.

    At a time when many business schools are reporting declining enrollment in their full-time MBA programs, Welch's Management Institute is doing a brisk business. The institute currently has 538 active students, up by a healthy 36% in the past year. But Welch is far more ambitious, having a stated goal to enroll 5,000 students within five years, far eclipsing Harvard's 1,800 MBA candidates or Stanford Graduate School of Business' 800 students.

    Students say they are drawn to the program because of Welch's name and reputation, the flexibility of studying online, and the low cost of the program. At $36,000, it's considerably less expensive than the online offerings of highly ranked business schools, such as Indiana University, the University of North Carolina, and Carnegie Mellon, where the total cost ranges between $60,000 and $118,000.

    Steven Scott, chief engineer for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, says it wouldn't be possible for him to get an MBA any other way. Scott works long hours and travels frequently, making commitment to a traditional MBA program impossible. The same is true of Kathleen Thompson, 31, director of acquisition and integration for PGi, a web conferencing company. Thompson says she has taken classes from hotel rooms in Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Chicago, New York, and Orlando -- as well as from numerous airplanes 35,000 feet in the sky. "Thank God for GoGo Internet," she laughs.

    What differentiates this online program from many others is its emphasis on the pragmatic. The curriculum is infused with Welch's core beliefs and ideas on business, from the importance of candor in managing employees to the more controversial differentiation policies he made famous at GE (GE). Welch wants the students, as he puts it, to "learn it on Monday, apply it on Tuesday, and share it on Friday."

    The courses most heavily influenced by Welch's teachings are Leadership In The 21st Century, Strategy, and People Management. Those so-called signature courses come early in the curriculum, which ends with a capstone business simulation done with virtual teams of students. The program can be completed from a computer anywhere in the world -- from a hotel room to an airplane flight -- in two years. Most students, however, take one course at a time, requiring anywhere from 15 to 20 hours of work a week, which would allow them to pass through the program in two-and-a-half years.