Welch

A rare perspective on the personal philosophy, business savvy, and future of the chairman of the most admired company in the world
Jack Welch, chairman of General Electric, is due to retire this spring. Welch has transported GE into the new economy with his management style, his forward-thinking approach to new technology, and by encouraging creativity among his employees. This book provides a look at what the innovative powerhouse executive has brought to American business and what will ultimately be his legacy. Thorough, authoritative, and absorbing, Welch: An American Icon includes interviews with CEOs at other leading companies who have worked under Welch and been trained by him, as well as interviews with other GE executives.
Janet Lowe (Del Mar, CA) is an investment writer and author who has written sixteen business and biographical works, including the recent Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire-Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger (0-471-24473-2). Ms. Lowe is past editor of the San Diego Daily Transcript and Financial Editor of the San Diego Tribune. More than 200 of her business articles have appeared in such publications as Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.Finanz- und Investmentexperten, Investoren, Unternehmer
Jack Welch ist Chairman und CEO von General Electric. Mit seinem Managementstil, seiner vorausschauenden Einstellung zur neuen Technologie und durch die Förderung der Kreativität seiner Mitarbeiter hat er GE zu einem Unternehmen gemacht, das sich in der New Economy behaupten kann. "Welch - An American Icon" untersucht, was Jack Welch für die amerikanischen Unternehmenswelt geleistet hat. Enthalten sind Interviews von CEOs anderer führender Unternehmen, die einmal unter Welch gearbeitet haben und von ihm ausgebildet wurden sowie Interviews mit zahlreichen GE Führungskräften, die anschaulich demonstrieren, wie Welch einen schwächelnden Dinosaurier in einen unbestrittenen Technologieführer verwandelt hat. Das Buch untersucht auch Welchs unverwechselbare Einstellung zum Handel - sei hart, realistisch, innovativ, wettbewerbsfähig und vor allem fair. Eine interessante Lektüre - nicht nur für Führungskräfte.

Preface 7

Acknowledgements 11

Part I The Jack Welch Legacy 13

Chapter One The House of Magic: How Welch Became an American Icon 27

Chapter Two The Gospel of Good Management 49

Part II General Electric Then and Now 69

Chapter Three The Companies General Electric Dumped 81

Chapter Four The Companies General Electric Acquired 93

Chapter Five Building from Within 113

Chapter Six The Globalization of General electric 129

Chapter Seven Wired Welch 147

Chapter Eight The Dark Side of the Legacy 167

Part II The Future 189

Chapter Nine The Meta-Corporation: General Electric after Welch 201

Chapter Ten Welch after General Electric 223

Chapter Eleven Welch’s Place in History 235

Appendixes 245

Appendix A General Electric and Jack Welch: The Chronology 247

Appendix B GE Values 255

Appendix C The CERES Principles 257

Appendix D General Electric Businesses 261

Appendix E General Electric-Nineteen-Year Performance Figures: 1980-1999 275

Notes 277

Index 297

“Readable insights into one of the most admired, and exposed, corporate leaders of recent decades.” (Long Range Planning, June 2004) JANET LOWE is the bestselling author of several business books including Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger (Wiley) and Value Investing Made Easy. Formerly the financial editor of the San Diego Tribune, she has written more than 200 business articles for such publications as Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Los Angeles Times. Praise for Welch: An American Icon

"Welch: An American Icon is a thoroughly researched addition to your business library. No matter how much you have read about Welch, you will certainly learn something new by reading this book."
-George Eckes, Management Consultant and author of The Six Sigma Revolution: How General Electric and Others Turned Process into Profits

"Janet Lowe has written a fascinating and rewarding book . . . Welch is more than an icon. Lowe has identified Welch's dynamic, rhythmic, and forward-looking, yet sometimes turbulent legacy, for many generations to come. That legacy sets forth basic principles, structures, and constructs for a twenty-first-century multinational industrial corporation that operates globally to facilitate the rate of change in zero time for shared and equitable prosperity at home and abroad."
-Dr. George Kozmetsky
Executive Associate for Economic Affairs
The University of Texas System