Jack Welch, dead at 84

Well at least he lived long enough to see what he so boastfully built fall apart. Please excuse my snark.
 
He finally has enough.
 
IMHO - Welch popularized the worst of unchecked business practices.

Competing for a managerial position? Second and third place talented individuals are turned into pariahs - Losers have to go elsewhere. A clear indication of management culture for cohesion and teamwork.

Forced ranking every year to get rid of bottom 10% Performers? After 2 years the good ones are getting cut and the best ones leave the company developing a toxic culture.

International 'focus' - is gobbling up diverse divisions creating a better unstructured conglomerate business model? Quickly, the increased company product diversity results in bean counters having no technical savvy about the business division and it drives out of resources, talent and innovation. Look how a much slimmer present day GE is trying to unwind that mess.

A CEO with integrity and moral compass? Ha! He openly diddled his secretary and divorced his long married wife after becoming the business icon of leadership. Thpppptttt.

Strengthening the bottom line of the balance sheet? He cooked the books with GE capital to help justify his outrageous salary and stock options.

A CEO who added value to shareholders? Wonder what the stockholders think of his legacy now.

Don't get me wrong, I am a staunch capitalist who believes the means of production belong in private hands to build wealth and benefit the economy. Knuckleheads like Welch disgrace the system and destroy wealth and prosperity while they line their own pockets. The only difference between him and Bernard Ebbers is that Welch did not get caught.

Whew. Glad I got that off of my chest.

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He always sounded good on the Sunday shows, but that was the extent of any admiration I might have had for him. Still, RIP, Jack Welch.
 
He ranks right up there with chainsaw Al Dunlap as far as CEOs go. One of the worst CEOs of all time.
 
Ah yes, Six Sigma. That overhyped load of BS. I went through that in the factory I worked at back in the 90s. We made great improvements at our plant AFTER we convinced management to stop wasting so much time training employees on the wonders of R bars, bell curves, PONC status, standard deviation, flow charts, etc.
and get back to basics!

What we did was simple. Identify a problem area, get a group of 4 or 5 people who worked in that area, meet once a week, & follow the steps posted on a plaque in our cafeteria since 1975.

1: Identify root cause.
2: Take corrective action.
3: Follow up/monitor

No BS like Six Sigma required.
 
He's not dead, Jim. He's just an under-performing asset.
 
The forced rankings became a joke at my old employer. I don't need to beat the competition i just need to beat you. Very toxic. Bring on the clowns the guy was a joke. Too bad many good people suffered.
 
St Peter: "Sorry, Jack, but we use a forced ranking here at the Pearly Gates"

I'd add my own performance review but that would be piling on and would draw a 15-yard penalty. So I'll focus on Jack's positives.

In his defense, there is no evidence that he ever sold crack to kindergarteners. I guess that's about it.
 
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I worked at GE early in my career, 5 years and just long enough to be vested and have small pension. Gladly took a cash buyout offer in late 2018. I worked under Welch's time and could see then that he was not good for long term success of the corp.

In my opinion Welch was selling off the company, taking advantage of suppliers, not treating employees well, and was too short term focused. All in pursuit of profit and stock price. Sure the stock price did well, but at what long term expense? I think we all know how that worked out.


I won't say good riddance, trying to be nice and will just say hopefully history will show lessons learned to prevent similar actions.

Found this article which was interesting in that it does not sugar coat the Welch legacy:
Jack Welch Inflicted Great Damage on Corporate America
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/jack-welch-inflicted-great-damage-172844562.html
 
Jack Welch? Quite the opposite from James Sinegal, the humble former CEO of Costco, who managed to take care of employees, customers, and shareholders at the same time.

Jack Welch said he cared about shareholder value, but it was really about his stock options. But then, he is not the only CEO with this selfish and egocentric trait. Nothing unusual here. He was simply among the more celebrated and revered ones.
 
The CEO at the MegaCorp I worked at totally bought in to the Welch system. So Welch managed to drag down other companies as well. I know nothing of him personally so I'll stop there.
 
RunningBum said:
The CEO at the MegaCorp I worked at totally bought in to the Welch system.........
Click to expand...
Same here. Those forced ranking, fire the bottom 10% years were especially rough. Zero remorse cashing my fat pension checks.
 
NW-Bound said:
Jack Welch? Quite the opposite from James Sinegal, the humble former CEO of Costco, who managed to take care of employees, customers, and shareholders at the same time.

Jack Welch said he cared about shareholder value, but it was really about his stock options. But then, he is not the only CEO with this selfish and egocentric trait. Nothing unusual here. He was simply among the more celebrated and revered ones.
Click to expand...

Yes, unfortunately his high profile popularized that management style, and it hasn’t been good for American business IMO.
 
Back in 1999-2000, when I first read about Welch in Business Week, he was revered as God.
 
I remember his frequent appearances on CNBC back then. He was so smug.
 
At one point, Welch was seen as some kind of small-g god, almost. But eventually he was a casualty of what Peter Lynch called "deworseification" -- trying to grow too much into spheres you were not prepared to excel in, to your company's ultimate detriment.
 
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