????美國商界傳奇人物、通用電氣公司（General Electric）前總裁兼CEO杰克?韋爾奇現在就真真切切地坐在我們面前。

????對了，這可能還算不上完全的“真真切切”，但的確是活靈活現地出現在一塊電腦屏幕前面。盡管今年已經78歲高齡，但他依舊是一幅招牌式的坦誠直率，沙啞的語調中帶著一絲馬薩諸塞州薩倫地區的口音。

????攝像機前的他穿著一件藍色襯衫和一件運動夾克，正回答著他的MBA學生們的問題。

????“有沒有一種致勝之策，能幫助美國經濟更快速地增長？”

????“‘提供超群的客戶服務’到底意味著什么？”

????“你能說一下關于傾聽和接受坦率的反饋的技巧嗎？”

????韋爾奇回答每個問題時都帶著輕松和自信，偶爾舉一些他本人的例子，他的深入講解經常還會引起進一步的問題。

????歡迎來到杰克?韋爾奇管理學院。這是韋爾奇創辦的一個在線MBA項目，每個季度他都會通過視頻會議的方式與學生進行一個多小時的座談。這個MBA項目包括十幾門必修課程，每門課都有十個星期，可以在線上同步授課。（也就是說只要你的時間方便，就可以在線同步上課。）除了每個季度韋爾奇會參加一次視頻會議之外，這個學校的網站上還有很多來自韋爾奇的視頻信息，而且他每個學期都會抽兩三次時間回復公告欄上的消息。

????雖然目前很多商學院都出現了脫產MBA項目入學率下降的情況，但韋爾奇的管理學院卻可謂門庭若市。這個學校目前有538名活躍的學生，與去年相比增長了36%。但是韋爾奇的雄心要比這個數字大得多，他計劃在五年內招收5000名學生。相比之下，哈佛商學院（Harvard）的1800名學生和斯坦福商學院（Stanford Graduate School of Business）的800名學生顯然相形見絀。

????學生們表示，他們之所以參加這個項目，主要就是被韋爾奇的聲譽所吸引，再就是網絡學習的靈活性以及費用的低廉。它的學費只有36000美元，比印第安那大學（Indiana University）、北卡羅萊納大學（the University of North Carolina）、卡耐基梅隆大學（Carnegie Mellon）等知名大學的商學院要便宜很多，這些老牌知名商學院的費用普遍都在6萬到11.8萬美元之間。

????美國國家航空航天局戈達德宇宙飛行中心（NASA Goddard Space Flight Center）首席工程師史蒂芬?斯科特表示，如果不是通過這個項目的話，他也不可能以別的方式讀MBA了。因為斯科特平時的工作時間很長，而且經常出差，所以不可能參加傳統的MBA項目。網絡會議公司PGi的收購與整合總監凱瑟琳?湯普森也是如此。31歲的她表示自己經常在達拉斯、圣路易斯、堪薩斯城、丹佛、芝加哥、紐約和奧蘭多等地的酒店房間里上課，甚至是在離地面35000英尺的飛機里也能學習。她笑著說：“感謝萬能的互聯網。”

????這個項目與其它MBA項目最大的區別就是實用性。它的課程中灌輸了韋爾奇本人的核心商業理念，比如在管理員工時坦誠的重要意義，以及他在通用電氣公司使用過的著名的差異化戰略等。韋爾奇希望學生們“周一學的東西周二就能用，到了周五就能把它分享出去。”

????21世紀的領導藝術、戰略課、人力管理等課程是受韋爾奇影響最深的幾門課，它們也是在整個項目中打頭陣的課程。課程結束后，學員們還要組成虛擬團隊進行模擬商戰。學員在兩年之內只需要通過一部電腦，就可以在全球各地完成全部課程——不管是在酒店的房間還是在飛機的機艙里。大多數學生一次只選一門課，每周大概需要投入15到20小時進行學習，這樣的話就需要兩年半左右的時間才能完成全部課程。

????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.