Disneyland in Mauritius

Jack Welch has many platforms from which to satisfy the seemingly insatiable appetite for his advice on all things corporate: leadership, growth, management, change, etc. He writes advice columns, publishes books, teaches business students, and delivers speeches for sales teams or business conferences.

Welch's wisdom is usually delivered in broad-based, sweeping, one-size-fits all nuggets. The hope is that anyone, from the mailroom clerk to the C.E.O., can learn something from it.

But during a 90-minute question-and-answer session this morning at the World Business Forum in New York, perhaps no one walked away with as many specific answers from the former General Electric leader than the island of Mauritius.

A representative from Mauritius, the island nation off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, asked Welch what advice he had for helping his country's economic expansion. He had traveled for thousands of miles to get to Radio City Music Hall and ask for his help, he said.

"And by the way, I've bought all of your books and read them and I have not found the answer," he added as a postscript to his query.

Welch cut right to the chase. He'd been to the country "two or three times," as the guest of a friend who owns a home there.

Mauritius has some of the most beautiful landscape and waters in the world, and yet it's only accessible to the ultra wealthy who can build homes there, he said.

"Your hotels are marginal. Your golf course is awful! Your airline only has one plane," he criticized. "You need to make it an absolute, must-be-there kind of place."

He even suggested building a Disneyland-like attraction.

The questioner was not able to respond, but as the audience guffawed and snickered at the sharp words, he tried to explain that they actually have more planes now. He probably never expected to hear Jack Welch insulting his country's golf course.

In the end, the moderator Maria Bartiromo had to offer the Welchian nugget for the benefit of summation: Use the assets you have.

We only hope they invite Welch to their Disneyland ribbon-cutting.

by Megan Barnett

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