Instead of standing before graduates and sending them off with carefully polished platitudes, General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch sat in a wooden Harvard chair and answered the sometimes-probing questions of one gradating student at the Harvard Business School (HBS) Class Day ceremony yesterday.

Welch--who said he doesn't like to give graduation speeches--was interviewed on the podium set on the perfectly manicured grass in front of the Baker Library.

Nigel Killick, a member of the HBS graduating class asked Welch, a figure revered for his 20 years at the helm of one of the world's largest corporations, about how he started off in at GE and how he deals with the stress of running the company.

Killick's polished English accent and carefully chosen words (he is a graduate of Cambridge University) contrasted with Welch's plainspoken style and distinct New England accent.

Welch's conclusions mirrored his down-home manner.

"You've been here for a couple of years," he said to the assembled graduating class and thousands of friends and family members. "You know when you were a jackass and when you were smart. Remember when you were a jackass and leave that behind you."

But his advice didn't stop there. He also urged them to use common sense and be themselves as they join the business world.

"It's a bunch of lucky calls and bonuses here and there," Welch said of the business world. "This is not rocket science. You have to motivate, meet and clap."