In 1988, the Harvard Business Review carried an article called "Planning as Learning," by Arie de Geus, coordinator of group planning at Royal Dutch/Shell. Though he was not well known outside of Shell, his article resonated with a great many people–particularly this line: "We understand that the only competitive advantage the company of the future will have is its managers' ability to learn faster than their competitors." Eight years later, the American CEO most admired by his peers, Jack Welch of General Electric, had come to the same conclusion. Welch made this statement in a GE annual report: "Our behavior is driven by a fundamental core belief: The desire and the ability of an organization to continuously learn from any source–and to rapidly convert this learning into action–is its ultimate competitive advantage."