3 ms·

What’s Jack Welch management style in your eyes? I know only a little about his history at GE. And I don’t have any reason to defend the guy, just curious what

What’s Jack Welch management style in your eyes? I know only a little about his history at GE. And I don’t have any reason to defend the guy, just curious what the view is these days.

7thaccount 2y ago
Extreme focus on the stock price and thus highly short term thinking. The accountants run the show and try to aggressively cut costs at every corner which works really well in the short term, but over time the company gets decimated and nobody can take the bigger product risks that allow a company to continue to evolve.
- detourdog 2y ago
  Moved the corporate headquarters from Pittsfield, MA. To Rockefeller center NYC. It’s be more than a generation and Pittsfield is still adjusting.
Zigurd 2y ago
tl;dr: Keep cutting costs way past the point where it kills the ability to innovate, maintain quality, or survive an unexpected shift in the business. Cover that with low-bidder outsourcing until that fails. Meanwhile hit the talk shows (on media where your company is an advertiser), have a book ghostwritten, and buy naming rights to a business school. Have your acolytes form a cult (Lean Six Sigma) with toxic group dynamics ("black belt" inquisitors and "green belt" minions vs everyone else).
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  This doesn't sound the world I live in. There's been insane innovation over the last 50 years. I don't think we can say that what you describe is common.
  - Zigurd 2y ago
    That's because businesses that innovate, or that have consistent high quality, don't operate like GE did under Jack Welch. Reverence for him and his supposed management principles is still commonplace, though not as much as in the 1990s.
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      Okay, but the context was: > with Jack Welch style management everywhere If it's not everywhere, it's worth mentioning that this is a boogeyman people cite rather than a reality.
rramadass 2y ago
References; 1) Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch 2) Was Jack Welch the Greatest C.E.O. of His Day—or the Worst? by Malcolm Gladwell - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/was-jack-welch-the-greatest-ceo-of-his-day-or-the-worst https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/was-jack-welch... 3) Short-term profits and long-term consequences — did Jack Welch break capitalism? in Npr - 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... 4) What Jack Welch Got Wrong (Just About Everything) by David Gelles (author) - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-jack-welch-got-wrong-just-everything-david-gelles https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-jack-welch-got-wrong-jus... He was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (a reference to the Neutron Bomb) for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. He was the main reason USA lost its manufacturing base and completely screwed up how Management was/is practiced.
- roenxi 2y ago
  https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ The US commercial environment experienced a bit of a step change in 1971 - and, realistically, probably a lead up of pressure before that date. A bit of systems thinking and it is probably not fair to say he is "the main reason". He was the first executive who figured out how to get best results in what at the time would have been a poorly understood new regulatory world that rewarded of financialisation.
  - wisty 2y ago
    Seems somewhat legitimate, though I'd prefer more log graphs, linear scales can be misleading. Perhaps the Hakone Maru in 1968, the first TEU container ship (I think), was a harbinger.
    - p_l 2y ago
      A lot of that page builds a lot of point about specific time in order to sell the idea about dropping the unviable gold standard (in the form of Bretton-Woods system) as the real culprit.

What’s Jack Welch management style in your eyes? I know only a little about his history at GE. And I don’t have any reason to defend the guy, just curious what the view is these days.

7thaccount 2y ago

Extreme focus on the stock price and thus highly short term thinking. The accountants run the show and try to aggressively cut costs at every corner which works really well in the short term, but over time the company gets decimated and nobody can take the bigger product risks that allow a company to continue to evolve.

detourdog 2y ago
Moved the corporate headquarters from Pittsfield, MA. To Rockefeller center NYC. It’s be more than a generation and Pittsfield is still adjusting.

Zigurd 2y ago

tl;dr: Keep cutting costs way past the point where it kills the ability to innovate, maintain quality, or survive an unexpected shift in the business. Cover that with low-bidder outsourcing until that fails. Meanwhile hit the talk shows (on media where your company is an advertiser), have a book ghostwritten, and buy naming rights to a business school. Have your acolytes form a cult (Lean Six Sigma) with toxic group dynamics ("black belt" inquisitors and "green belt" minions vs everyone else).

robertlagrant 2y ago
This doesn't sound the world I live in. There's been insane innovation over the last 50 years. I don't think we can say that what you describe is common.
- Zigurd 2y ago
  That's because businesses that innovate, or that have consistent high quality, don't operate like GE did under Jack Welch. Reverence for him and his supposed management principles is still commonplace, though not as much as in the 1990s.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    Okay, but the context was: > with Jack Welch style management everywhere If it's not everywhere, it's worth mentioning that this is a boogeyman people cite rather than a reality.

rramadass 2y ago

References; 1) Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch 2) Was Jack Welch the Greatest C.E.O. of His Day—or the Worst? by Malcolm Gladwell - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/was-jack-welch-the-greatest-ceo-of-his-day-or-the-worst https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/was-jack-welch... 3) Short-term profits and long-term consequences — did Jack Welch break capitalism? in Npr - 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... 4) What Jack Welch Got Wrong (Just About Everything) by David Gelles (author) - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-jack-welch-got-wrong-just-everything-david-gelles https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-jack-welch-got-wrong-jus... He was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (a reference to the Neutron Bomb) for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. He was the main reason USA lost its manufacturing base and completely screwed up how Management was/is practiced.

roenxi 2y ago
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ The US commercial environment experienced a bit of a step change in 1971 - and, realistically, probably a lead up of pressure before that date. A bit of systems thinking and it is probably not fair to say he is "the main reason". He was the first executive who figured out how to get best results in what at the time would have been a poorly understood new regulatory world that rewarded of financialisation.
- wisty 2y ago
  Seems somewhat legitimate, though I'd prefer more log graphs, linear scales can be misleading. Perhaps the Hakone Maru in 1968, the first TEU container ship (I think), was a harbinger.
  - p_l 2y ago
    A lot of that page builds a lot of point about specific time in order to sell the idea about dropping the unviable gold standard (in the form of Bretton-Woods system) as the real culprit.