Posted on Jun 2, 2022
Short-term profits and long-term consequences — did Jack Welch break capitalism?
1.22K
7
2
5
5
0
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/ [login to see] /short-term-profits-and-long-term-consequences-did-jack-welch-break-capitalism
Long before the reign of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, there was Jack Welch.
Welch, who headed up the General Electric Company from 1981 and 2001, is often thought of as the first celebrity CEO, a businessman who wowed investors and mingled with celebrities.
"[Welch's] face was on the cover of magazines all the time," New York Times correspondent David Gelles says. "He emerged as sort of this imperial executive and helped define what I think is still with us today in the form of a certain amount of CEO worship."
In his book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism, Gelles makes the case that Welch's ruthless cost-cutting and single-minded focus on quarterly earnings ultimately hurt both GE and American capitalism.
Long before the reign of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, there was Jack Welch.
Welch, who headed up the General Electric Company from 1981 and 2001, is often thought of as the first celebrity CEO, a businessman who wowed investors and mingled with celebrities.
"[Welch's] face was on the cover of magazines all the time," New York Times correspondent David Gelles says. "He emerged as sort of this imperial executive and helped define what I think is still with us today in the form of a certain amount of CEO worship."
In his book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism, Gelles makes the case that Welch's ruthless cost-cutting and single-minded focus on quarterly earnings ultimately hurt both GE and American capitalism.
Short-term profits and long-term consequences — did Jack Welch break capitalism?
Posted from npr.org
Capitalism
American History
Business
Celebrities
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 1
2
2
0
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."On GE's role in the American economy before Welch took over
As I dug into the history of GE, I found it hard to overstate not only the impact that GE still had in 1981 when Jack took over, but really its role in the history of American industry for the better part of the century before that. This was the company that brought us electric light bulbs, power plants, X-ray machines. This was the company that introduced everyday products like the toaster oven. They were behind the mass marketing of radio sets and televisions, dishwashers. The list just went on and on. ...
When you looked at their influence on industry and government beyond what we might find in our kitchens, they were no less influential there as well. It was GE that helped put men on the moon on the Apollo missions. You go back and look at those pictures and there are lines and lines of GE engineers working side-by-side with NASA engineers. And right up to the present day, the size of that company became, at one point, I think, representing something close to 1% of the American GDP. And there was a phrase, "As GE goes, so goes the American economy." ...
..."On GE's role in the American economy before Welch took over
As I dug into the history of GE, I found it hard to overstate not only the impact that GE still had in 1981 when Jack took over, but really its role in the history of American industry for the better part of the century before that. This was the company that brought us electric light bulbs, power plants, X-ray machines. This was the company that introduced everyday products like the toaster oven. They were behind the mass marketing of radio sets and televisions, dishwashers. The list just went on and on. ...
When you looked at their influence on industry and government beyond what we might find in our kitchens, they were no less influential there as well. It was GE that helped put men on the moon on the Apollo missions. You go back and look at those pictures and there are lines and lines of GE engineers working side-by-side with NASA engineers. And right up to the present day, the size of that company became, at one point, I think, representing something close to 1% of the American GDP. And there was a phrase, "As GE goes, so goes the American economy." ...
(2)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google