Welch, Jack
Welch, Jack (John Francis Welch, Jr.), 1935–2020, American business executive, b. Salem, Mass., grad. Univ. of Massachusetts (1957); Univ. of Illinois (M.S., 1958; Ph.D., chemical engineering, 1960). He joined General Electric (GE) in 1960 and became vice president (1972) and then vice chairman (1979). In 1981 he became chairman and CEO of GE; at 45, he was the youngest person ever to have held that position. Under Welch, GE made a series of aquisitions, including RCA with its NBC television network in 1986, that resulted in its becoming the world's largest manufacturing, technology, and service company, with 1999 revenues of over $110 billion. Welch is credited with
reinventingGE by encouraging decentralization in the organization, plus speed, simplicity, and self-confidence among management, but he was also known as
Neutron Jackbecause of the number of employees that were fired or laid off during his tenure. He introduced the
Work Outconcept, a results-focused approach to problem solving. The development of GE's financial services arm, which became increasingly significant under his leadership, ultimately proved to be a liability after he retired in 2001.
See his Jack: Straight from the Gut (with J. A. Byrne, 2001); studies by T. F. O'Boyle (1998) and R. Slater (1998).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Business Leaders