6 ms·

Oh man really? I liked this guy so much I got a book signed by him in early 2000s. Where can I read more

toomuchtodo 4y ago
https://globalpi.org/research/how-jack-welch-destroyed-sloans-century https://globalpi.org/research/how-jack-welch-destroyed-sloan... https://www.ft.com/content/3f1ac0e6-f204-478d-8b64-54a699a12518 https://www.ft.com/content/3f1ac0e6-f204-478d-8b64-54a699a12... https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1101505691/short-term-profits-and-long-term-consequences-did-jack-welch-break-capitalism https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1101505691/short-term-profits... https://www.axios.com/2022/05/31/jack-welchs-questionable-legacy https://www.axios.com/2022/05/31/jack-welchs-questionable-le... https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Man-Who-Broke-Capitalism/David-Gelles/9781982176440 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Man-Who-Broke-Cap...
a2tech 4y ago
Turns out that if you hollow out a giant company you can turn out huge profits and it takes awhile for the corpse to fall.
- jandrese 4y ago
  See also: private equity firms that specialize in finding a business that is currently struggling for one reason or another so they can buy it out and siphon off all of the equity and jump ship before the regular creditors catch up. Lots of safe money to be made by dismantling the work of generations.
  - pinko 4y ago
    A decade ago, the father of my kid's friend ran a PE firm and I'll never forget the day at lunch when he laughingly mocked how the lifelong employees of the large ($50M/y revenue) family business he was gutting were "whining" about having their healthcare plan cut (not scaled back -- just eliminated). Evil SOB.
thesausageking 4y ago
tl;dr - He turned GE into a financial services company, destroyed the culture of engineering that had built it, and bumped up their stock price via financial engineering. After he left, it's been a slow, painful trip downwards. Oh, and he fought hard against the EPA and scientists who said PCBs had bad health consequences so that GE could continue dumping them into the Hudson river and not have to pay for the cleanup until 30 years later (when he was long since retired).
- devchix 4y ago
  Old boss golfed with him. Suddenly everyone was a 6-Sigma blackbelt, or assigned on a 6-Sigma track, even outside of manufacturing. That lasted like two whole years. Bad times.
burkaman 4y ago
You can always check his Wikipedia page, where the "Criticism" section is longer than the "CEO" section.

https://globalpi.org/research/how-jack-welch-destroyed-sloans-century https://globalpi.org/research/how-jack-welch-destroyed-sloan... https://www.ft.com/content/3f1ac0e6-f204-478d-8b64-54a699a12518 https://www.ft.com/content/3f1ac0e6-f204-478d-8b64-54a699a12... https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1101505691/short-term-profits-and-long-term-consequences-did-jack-welch-break-capitalism https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1101505691/short-term-profits... https://www.axios.com/2022/05/31/jack-welchs-questionable-legacy https://www.axios.com/2022/05/31/jack-welchs-questionable-le... https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Man-Who-Broke-Capitalism/David-Gelles/9781982176440 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Man-Who-Broke-Cap...

a2tech 4y ago

Turns out that if you hollow out a giant company you can turn out huge profits and it takes awhile for the corpse to fall.

jandrese 4y ago
See also: private equity firms that specialize in finding a business that is currently struggling for one reason or another so they can buy it out and siphon off all of the equity and jump ship before the regular creditors catch up. Lots of safe money to be made by dismantling the work of generations.
- pinko 4y ago
  A decade ago, the father of my kid's friend ran a PE firm and I'll never forget the day at lunch when he laughingly mocked how the lifelong employees of the large ($50M/y revenue) family business he was gutting were "whining" about having their healthcare plan cut (not scaled back -- just eliminated). Evil SOB.

thesausageking 4y ago

tl;dr - He turned GE into a financial services company, destroyed the culture of engineering that had built it, and bumped up their stock price via financial engineering. After he left, it's been a slow, painful trip downwards. Oh, and he fought hard against the EPA and scientists who said PCBs had bad health consequences so that GE could continue dumping them into the Hudson river and not have to pay for the cleanup until 30 years later (when he was long since retired).

devchix 4y ago
Old boss golfed with him. Suddenly everyone was a 6-Sigma blackbelt, or assigned on a 6-Sigma track, even outside of manufacturing. That lasted like two whole years. Bad times.

burkaman 4y ago

You can always check his Wikipedia page, where the "Criticism" section is longer than the "CEO" section.