GE and Jack Welch

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"If leadership is an art, then surely Welch has proved himself a master painter."

- Business Week, May 28, 1998.

 

"The two greatest corporate leaders of this century are Alfred Sloan of General Motors and jack Welch of GE. And Welch would be the greater of the two because he set a new, contemporary paradigm for the corporation that is the model of the 21st Century."

- Noel Tichy, Professor of Management, University of Michigan, and a longtime GE observer.

GE and Jack Welch: Introduction

On September 6, 2001, John Francis Welch Jr. (Jack Welch), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Electric Co. (GE)1, retired after spending 41 years with GE. During the period, he made GE the most valuable company in the world. Analysts felt that, with his innovative, breakthrough leadership style as CEO, Jack Welch transformed GE into a highly productive and efficient company. During Jack Welch's two decades as CEO, GE had grown from a US$13 billion manufacturer of light bulbs and appliances in 1981, into a US$480 billion industrial conglomerate by 2000. Analysts felt that Jack Welch had become a 'deal-making' machine, supervising 993 acquisitions worth US$13 billion and selling 408 businesses for a total of about US$10.6 billion. Jack Welch was infact described as 'the most important and influential business leaders of the 20th Century' by some Wall Street analysts and academics alike. Management experts felt that Jack Welch's reputation as a leader could be attributed to four key qualities: he was an intuitive strategist; he was willing to change the rules if necessary; he was highly competitive; and he was a great communicator.

The Making of a CEO

Jack Welch graduated in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and in 1959 got a Ph.D in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. In 1960, he started his career at GE as a Junior Engineer. However, in 1961, Jack Welch decided to quit the US$10,500 job as he was unhappy with the company's bureaucracy. He was offended that he was given a raise of only US$1000, the same amount given to all his colleagues. He had even accepted a job offer from International Minerals and Chemicals in Skokie, Ill.

However, Reuben Gutoff, an executive at GE convinced Jack Welch to stay back. Reuben Gutoff promised that he would prevent him from getting entangled in GE red tape and would create a small-company environment with big-company resources for him. This theme of 'small-company environment' with 'big-company resources' came to dominate Jack Welch's own thinking as the leader of GE. Jack Welch quickly rose to become the head of the plastics division in 1968. He became a group executive for the US$1.5 billion components and materials group in 1973. This included plastics and GE Medical Systems.

In 1981, Jack Welch became GE's youngest CEO ever (Refer Exhibits I & II). His predecessor, Reg Jones said, "We need entrepreneurs who are willing to take well-considered business risks - and at the same time know how to work in harmony with a larger business entity...The intellectual requirements are light-years beyond the requirements of less complex organizations."

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1] Thomas A Edison established Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. General Electric was created in 1892, after the merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company. By 2000, GE became a diversified technology and manufacturing company with about 313,000 employees, with revenues of US$129.9 bn. Some of the business divisions of the company include Aircraft Engines, Appliances, Aviation Services, Commercial Equipment Financing, Commercial Finance, Employers Reinsurance Corporation, GE Equity, GE Financial Assurance, GE Consumer Finance, Industrial Systems, Lighting, Medical Systems, Mortgage Insurance Corp., Plastics, Power Systems, Real Estate etc.