Jack Welch was CEO of a different era. Remember when GE owned NBCUniversal? No? That was also under Welch. The WSJ lays some of the blame of GE's downfall at t

Jack Welch was CEO of a different era. Remember when GE owned NBCUniversal? No? That was also under Welch. The WSJ lays some of the blame of GE's downfall at the feet of his successor, Jeff Immelt. > GE’s precipitous fall, following years of treading water while the overall economy grew, was exacerbated, some insiders say, by what they call “success theater.” Mr. Immelt and his top deputies projected an optimism about GE’s business and its future that didn’t always match the reality of its operations or its markets, according to more than a dozen current and former executives, investors and people close to the company. [0] Jack Welch didn't always make great decisions -- diversifying away from GE's core businesses into financial markets, media, etc. His last act of trying to acquire Honeywell failed. But it was Immelt who brought the company down. Immelt grew GE Capital from 40 to 55% of the company at the onset of the Great Recession, took government bailout money when it tanked, then divested it from the company when it was clearly a drag on profitability. He championed GE Digital which never materialized, and then made big bets on conventional energy just when renewables were taking off. I don't know if it could have been different in someone else's hands. But a little more truth-telling would probably have helped. Welch did think that appointing Immelt was his "biggest mistake" [1]. [0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-jeffrey-immelts-success-theater-masked-the-rot-at-ge-1519231067 https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-jeffrey-immelts-success-the... [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-welch-one-regret-general-212714268.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-welch-one-regret-general...