Boundaryless: One of Welch’s signature concepts and the one term most closely associated with the GE leader. To spark productivity and break down the walls that he felt were killing the company, Welch sought to topple every barrier: internal barriers, such as those between functions (sales and manufacturing), and external barriers, such as anything that got between GE and its customers and suppliers. Any wall was a bad one, insisted Welch. In a boundaryless organization, information flows easily. There is nothing to impede the seamless transfer of decisions, ideas, people, etc. Boundaryless behavior helped GE to rid itself of its century-old bad habits of rigid hierarchy and bloated bureaucracy. Anything that limited the free flow of ideas and learning was destructive, Welch said, and he spent two decades taking aim at GE’s bureaucratic ways.

这是韦尔奇的标志性概念之一，也是与他这位通用电气公司领导关联最紧密的一个词语。为了刺激生产率，并摧垮他觉得正在戕杀公司的种种界限，韦尔奇便致力于推翻每一道壁垒：内部壁垒，比如那些职能之间的壁垒（销售与生产）；外部壁垒，比如挡在通用电气公司及其客户和供应商之间的壁垒。韦尔奇坚持认为，任何界限都是坏事。在无界限的组织中信息才能畅通无阻，才不会有什么事情妨碍决策、创意、人员等等的无缝流通。无界限的行为帮助通用电气公司摆脱了它百年之久的坏习惯：僵化的等级制度和臃肿的官僚制度。韦尔奇说，任何事物只要限制创意与学习的自由流通，都是具有破坏性的。他花了二十多年的时间来对准通用电气公司的官僚习气开火。

 

 

Boundarylessness may be the best way to describe Welch’s contribution to the field of leadership. Welch said that boundarylessness led to an “obsession for finding a better way—a better idea—be its source a colleague, another GE business, or another company across the street or on the other side of the globe that will share its best ideas and practices with us.” Boundaryless became Welch’s signature program for several reasons. He not only coined the term (which he admitted was an odd word), he invented a new model for running a large organization. Once he created the new model, he fashioned a new language to give voice to his new creation.

或许“无界限”也是对韦尔奇在领导工作领域中所作贡献的最好描述。韦尔奇说，“无界限”使人“痴迷于寻找更好的方式、更好的创意，无论它来自于某位同事、通用电气公司的另一家下属企业，还是来自街对面的、或是另一个半球上的另一家公司，只要它们愿意与我们分享它最好的创意和做法。”从好几种理由来看，“无界限”都是典型的韦式计划。他不仅杜撰了这个词（他自己承认这是个古怪的字眼），而且还发明了一种执掌大型组织的新模式。一旦他创造出了这种新模式，他便用了一种戛戛独造的语言来表达他的新作。

 

 

Boundaryless thinking represented a huge departure for GE. Welch inherited a typical command structure, consisting of 350 businesses organized into 43 strategic business units (SBUs). He felt that boundaryless thinking would be the major weapon with which he would fight decades of hierarchy and bureaucracy. One of the key benefits of boundarylessness was the eradication of Not Invented Here (NIH), which was the notion that if it wasn’t invented at GE, the company wasn’t interested. NIH is the antithesis of a boundaryless organization, and, by the 1990s, Welch had praised GE for inculcating new ideas and “Best Practices” of other companies into the GE fabric. Companies that Welch credited included Wal-Mart, Toshiba, Chrysler, and Hewlett-Packard.

对于通用电气公司，“无界限”的思想是一种截然相反的新开端。韦尔奇接手的是一套典型的指挥结构，其中包括划分为43个战略性业务部门（SBU）的350家下属企业。他觉得“无界限”的思维能够成为一件有力的武器，可以用来与盘踞数十年之久的等级制度和官僚主义作斗争。“无界限”思想带来的一种主要好处，是它根除了“外来品”这种观念，这种观念的意思是说，只要不是通用电气公司内部发明的，公司对它就没兴趣。“外来品”是“无界限”组织的对立面。到20世纪90年代，韦尔奇赞扬通用电气公司已经将其它企业的新创意和最佳做法融入了自己的构造中。他所提到的这些公司中包括沃尔玛、东芝、克莱斯勒和惠普。

 

 

In a boundaryless environment, the company becomes more productive as a result of its internal adoption of Best Practices. In 1995, Welch spoke of the effect of  boundaryless behavior within General Electric. With pride he described how different segments of the company had taught GE a Best Practice that had been widely adopted throughout the company. Welch cited several examples of such boundaryless behavior: productivity solutions from Lighting; “quick response” asset management from Appliances; transaction effectiveness from GE Capital; the application of “bullet-train” cost reduction techniques from Aircraft Engines; and global account management from Plastics. Boundaryless behavior, therefore, has many positive effects on the organization. By breaking down walls both inside GE and between GE and the outside world, Welch had created an environment in which Best Practices thrived. GE was free not only to learn from itself, but also to inculcate the best ideas and practices into everything it did. This was a vital step toward the learning culture and the self-actualization of GE.

在“无界限”的环境中，由于对内采用最佳做法，公司就能提高生产率。1995年，韦尔奇谈到通用电气公司内部“无界限”行为所产生的影响。他自豪地讲述通用电气公司的各个单位如何将最佳做法传授给总公司、使它们在整个通用电气公司范围内普遍推广。韦尔奇例举了多种“无界限”行为：照明分公司的生产率解决方案、家电公司的资产管理“快速响应法”、通用电气金融服务公司的交易有效性、飞机发动机分公司的“子弹头列车”成本削减技术应用，以及塑料制品分公司的全球大客户管理。因而，“无界限”行为对组织有着许多积极的影响。通过摧垮通用电气公司内部之间、以及它与外部世界之间的壁垒，韦尔奇便创造了一个盛行“最佳做法”的环境。通用电气公司不仅自由地向内部学习，而且将最佳的创意与做法应用到它所做的每一件事中。这是向通用电气公司的学习文化和自我实现迈出的关键一步。

 

 

通向“无界限”的道路

 

 

Many of Welch’s actions and initiatives were specifically designed to remove bureaucracy, thus creating a more boundaryless organization. Here are three Welch initiatives that promoted boundaryless behavior:

韦尔奇的许多措施和倡导行动都是专门为清除官僚主义而推出的，从而帮助他减少了组织中的界限。韦尔奇促进“无界限”行为的有以下三种倡导行动：

 

 

1. Delayering and other hardware initiatives: By removing layers of management in the early 1980s, Welch paved the way for a more open organization. Fewer layers meant better communication, less rigidity, and a faster response mechanism (to markets, changes, etc.).

1、“精简层级”和其它硬件倡导行动：韦尔奇于20世纪80年代精简了管理层级，为建设更加开放的组织铺平了道路。精简层级能够改善沟通交流、减少僵化刻板并加快机制的响应速度（对市场、变革等等）。

 

2. Globalization: By the mid- to late 1980s, Welch decided that GE needed to expand beyond U.S. borders or risk being only a inor player on the world stage. By acquiring the French firm

Thomson-CGR in 1987, Welch sparked a global revolution that launched GE into the global marketplace. In doing so, he dismantled many of the geographic boundaries that separated GE

from the rest of the world.

2、全球化：20世纪80年代，韦尔奇断定通用电气公司需要走出美国，否则就有可能在全球舞台上无足轻重。他于1987年购买了法国的汤姆森放射学公司，从而催生了一场全球化革命，使通用电气公司跻身全球市场。在这个过程中，他拆除了将通用电气公司与世界其它部分分隔开来的许多地理界限。

 

3. Work-Out: By implementing Work-Out in 1989, Welch ensured that the GEers closest to the products and processes would have a voice in running the business. Work-Out created trust and sowed the seeds for the boundaryless revolution of the early to mid-1990s.

3、“群策群力”：1989年，韦尔奇实施了“群策群力”计划，从而确保通用电气公司最熟悉产品和过程的员工能够表达企业经营方面的意见。“群策群力”计划产生了信任，并为20世纪90年代初期到中期的“无界限”革命播下了种子。

 

“无界限”的发动机：通用电气公司的运作系统

 

Welch knew that given GE’s vast portfolio of businesses, it would be easy for each of GE’s separate companies to have its own culture and ideas. That was the last thing he wanted. After all, throughout the 1980s he bristled when journalists (or anyone else) called GE a conglomerate. In order to create a unified organization that adhered to a single value system, Welch created what he called GE’s operating system: the process by which GE drives its collective knowledge throughout every corner of the company. It includes meetings, reviews, and training (see Crotonville), as well as Welch’s signature initiatives such as Six Sigma and the e-Initiative. The GE operating system was a major factor in making GE a more open, more boundaryless organization (see Operating System).

韦尔奇明白，鉴于通用电气公司业务种类的繁多，它下属的各个企业很容易建立起自己的文化与理念。这是他最不希望发生的事。整个20世纪80年代，他一听到记者们（或是其他任何人）把通用电气公司叫做联合大企业便怒发冲冠。为了构建一家奉行单独一套价值体系的统一组织，韦尔奇便创建了他所称的“通用电气公司运作系统”，这是一套程序，它使通用电气公司能够将它的知识集合推送到公司的每一个角落。这套程序中包括会议、评审和培训（见 “克罗顿维尔”），也包括韦尔奇的标志性倡导行动，比如“六西格玛”和“电子商务倡议”。通用电气公司的运作系统为公司成为更加开放、界限更少的组织发挥了主要的作用（见 “运作系统”）。

 

关于“无界限”的经验教训

 

1. To create a boundaryless enterprise, listen to the people closest to the customers: Welch started Work-Out to make sure that those who did the work got a say in how the business could run better.

1、为了建设无界限的企业，需要向最熟悉客户的人员听取意见：韦尔奇启动了“群策群力”计划来确保实际执行工作的人能够就企业如何能够更好经营而发表意见。

 

2. Take aim at all four boundaries—Vertical (hierarchical), Horizontal (between functions), External (customers and suppliers), and Geographic (different countries). Welch felt strongly that every boundary was a bad one and worked tirelessly

to knock down all debilitating boundaries.

2、对准所有四种界限开火——纵向壁垒（层级）、横向壁垒（职能之间）、外部壁垒（客户与供应商）以及地理壁垒（不同国家之间）。韦尔奇强烈地感到，任何界限都是坏事，因而他不知疲倦地致力于摧垮所有的人为界限。

 

3. Eliminate “NIH” (Not Invented Here): Welch hated the insular attitude of the organization he inherited. One of the keys to a boundaryless organization is recognizing that all the answers do not reside within the company walls.

3、消灭“外来品”观念：韦尔奇厌恨他所接手的这家组织那种夜郎自大的态度。构建无界限组织的关键之一，是认识到所有的答案并不是全都存在于公司内部。

 

4. Move Best Practices around the company: Implementing the best ideas, regardless of their origin, is one of the hallmarks of an effective learning organization. In executive meetings, make sure that everyone recounts or shares Best Practices.

4、在全公司推行最佳做法：推行最佳做法，而不要管它们源于何处，这是有效的学习型组织的一个标志。要在行政会议上务必保证每个人都讲述或是分享最佳做法。

 

原件下载：