Geschke Lecture Series:

Suzy and Jack Welch are contemporary oracles of business knowledge, which is why Atheneum Director Molly Anderson invited them to speak on this year's Geschke Lecture series prompt: "In this global age, is the United States leading or following?"

Suzy and Jack Welch speak at Nantucket High School's Mary P. Walker Auditorium on Wed., Aug. 15 at 8 p.m.. "We live in a world with a lot of complex issues, and it requires thoughtful and effective leaders. So we thought it would be interesting to bring together people who are either leaders themselves and have done some thinking on the topic of leadership or who have studied leadership, to see what their thoughts were about individual leadership or organizational leadership in this complex global age," said Molly Anderson, director of the Atheneum.

Former chairman and CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch now heads Jack Welch, LLC, where he serves as an advisor to a small group of Fortune 500 business CEOs and speaks to business people and students around the world. Jack also teaches a leadership course at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Suzy Welch is a contributor for O Magazine, where she writes frequently about balancing work and life, as well as the delicate art of managing career challenges. She is also the Executive-in-Residence at Babson University's Center for Women's Leadership, where she teaches and advises both undergraduates and MBAs. Together Jack and Suzy write a weekly column for Business Week magazine and a global weekly syndicated column appear- ing in over 45 countries answering questions about business, company, or career challenges. In 2006, they published these columns in a book called "Winning:The Answers."

"Every week, we get mailboxes full of questions, and with these, you get a pulse of what people are thinking around the world," Jack said of the response to their column.

The Welches also travel all over the world for Q&A sessions - during which, Suzy mediates audience questions while Jack responds.

"We don't prepare ourselves prior to getting there. Suzy surprises me," Jack said. "It's not that we're trying to be cute about it; we just want it to be more spontaneous."

Given that, the Welches couldn't reveal what they'd be discussing for their Nantucket Q&A, per se. ("If you come on August 15, we'll tell you," Jack said.) But they did take a few minutes to do a warmup Q&Awith the Nantucket Independent:

In general, what are the kinds of questions you field during these sessions?

S: Typically, we get three buckets, as I call them, of questions. The first bucket contains macroeconomic and geopolitical questions … like, 'What do you think will be the sources of energy in the next 20 years?' The second bucket deals with management issues and business strategy, and the third bucket of questions is about people's individual career issues: about getting ahead, promotions, demotions, etc.

What do you think are the three most pressing economic issues for the United States?

J: I think the three big, economic issues facing us are, first, the current short-term issues of credit. Second, the repricing of risk in the market place is clearly an issue. And third, the global economy is clearly an issue - especially in terms of what we should do about energy, what our long-term plan for energy should be.

What do you think are the three most pressing political issues facing the United States?

J: Politically, we should be concerned about international relationships, about the country's place in the world, its brand. Also, [a pressing issue is] what we think the leadership of the country should be doing to make sure we have a safe country and a competitive country where people are flourishing and jobs are created.

Could you expand on the idea of the

branding of America?

S: Actually, you can read more about that in our column from the last issue of "Business Week."

Of all the questions you've fielded, have you seen any commonalities between American professionals and professionals in the rest of the world? Are there any universals?

J: That's actually a very good question. The commonalities are the same things that you would have in your experience at work - the bad bosses, the feeling stuck - "I'm getting good reviews, but I'm not being promoted fast enough …" And also, there's always the issue of not having candor within a company: "People never tell me where I stand with them in my office."

S: Also, there's a universal frustration with hierarchy and bureaucracy.

What are the differences?

J: In the United States and in Western Europe, the questions are much more inyour face about people's troubles and their interests and their problems. … Things are more subtle if you're in a place like Thailand.

S: Also, in places like Croatia and Argentina, places that are coming out of controlled economies, we get a lot of questions like: "How are we going to run our companies without the entitlement people were used to in the past?" … When we were in Latin America, we also got questions on corruption that you don't get in the United States. …And we get a lot of questions from developing countries, like Africa, that are just so poignant.

J: And heartbreaking.

S: We see issues like, "I'm struggling to keep my managerial job because of my HIV-positive status…" or questions like, "How do I deal with losing my good employees due to illnesses?" You really can learn a lot about the countries from the different questions. …

In general, what's the secret to American leadership?

J: As long as you're winning, the world wants to play with you and respects you. The world wants to be on the side of the winner. The "U.S." brand is unassailable in business - there's no one who won't to do business with you. … Now, in the political world, it's more precarious, because we've stumbled and we're not winning, and therefore our brand is more diminished.

Are the business and political brands autonomous?

J: Absolutely. I've never seen someone in a deal say even once, "We don't want to business with this country

because we disagree with its politics." I