Sunday, May 19, 2002
Jack Welch speaks freely at Baruch
If you have wondered what a Jack Welch looks like, I can tell you. He is a short intense man witha a receded hairline, beaky predator's nose, nervous manner and challenging defensive attitude, quite open. There is nothing oracular or high-priest about him, he speaks straight and does not do sound bytes.
For the Martians among us, Jack E. Welch just retired from GE as CEO and Chairman, after a career of 3x yrs, during which he became notorious for firing 100,000 employees and setting up open competition for his replacement among three candidates, at the end of which two left - to become CEOs of 3M and Home Depot, not a bad. set of consolation prizes. In the process, he made GE a most profitable giant entity, the market's darling. He popularized the Six Sigma quality control process developed at Motorola in the 1980s, a novel employee-involving analysis with katate terminology (champions, Black Belts) that streamlines processes and maximizes profits by minimizing manufacturing and distribution costs.
We saw "Neutron Jack" in a unique interview at the new Baruch College Vertical Campus, Lexington Ave and 24th Street, of which more later, when we wheedle a tour of the very security-conscious building. The interview was conducted by Sarah Bartlett, the new Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism, a former ace reporter at NYT, Fortune and Asst Managing Editor of Business Week, until 1998, when she yielded to the syren call of Oxigen Media and, subsequently, Upside.com. Oh, well...
The sympathetic interviewer led Neutron Jack gently through discussions centering on Enron, not letting his frequent potshots at the media distract her..Predictably, Welch was positive, declaring Enron to be one of a handful of bad apples, while the majority of corporate America is straight. Stock market analysts have been gullible, and some appear to have been corrupted.. Analysts, the press and particularly auditors must get down, gain open access to the company, to smell it, feel it, touch it. Internal auditors are a valuable resource, in transfering their knowledge and crosseminating valuable information within divisions of a corporation, and he would never think of outsorcing this function (an oblique reference to Enron's outsourcing the function to Arthur Andersen a decade ago, with the well-known results).
Tricky operations, whereby companies transfer this quarter's sales to boost last quarter's results came in for withering criticism. Consistent earnings with consistent growth is the method for business success and credibility, and FASB (the conservative book of accounting rules) is the only guide. Corporations must not fool with pension funding, which is a small item in GE's $15 billion earnings horizon. Putting current economics in perspective, we always find a solution for the human condition, these are not the first of times, and the economic recovery is clearly materializing, barring any major acts of terrorism. He proclaimed his grief for New York City, comparable to that felt when JFK was assassinated, and declared Rudy Giuliani to be the role model, even before 9/11.The first instance if showing his fangs.
On the question about Jack Welch as a cult figure, he saw corporate executives as fair game for People magazine as wellas the business press, and the protection of their private lives being up to the individuals (his divorce as the result of an affair with a Harward Business Review editor has been recently in the newspapers). Corporate boards came in for criticism for not playing by the rules. He likened the Enron situation to the board suspending all rules of ethicsd,
For the Martians among us, Jack E. Welch just retired from GE as CEO and Chairman, after a career of 3x yrs, during which he became notorious for firing 100,000 employees and setting up open competition for his replacement among three candidates, at the end of which two left - to become CEOs of 3M and Home Depot, not a bad. set of consolation prizes. In the process, he made GE a most profitable giant entity, the market's darling. He popularized the Six Sigma quality control process developed at Motorola in the 1980s, a novel employee-involving analysis with katate terminology (champions, Black Belts) that streamlines processes and maximizes profits by minimizing manufacturing and distribution costs.
We saw "Neutron Jack" in a unique interview at the new Baruch College Vertical Campus, Lexington Ave and 24th Street, of which more later, when we wheedle a tour of the very security-conscious building. The interview was conducted by Sarah Bartlett, the new Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism, a former ace reporter at NYT, Fortune and Asst Managing Editor of Business Week, until 1998, when she yielded to the syren call of Oxigen Media and, subsequently, Upside.com. Oh, well...
The sympathetic interviewer led Neutron Jack gently through discussions centering on Enron, not letting his frequent potshots at the media distract her..Predictably, Welch was positive, declaring Enron to be one of a handful of bad apples, while the majority of corporate America is straight. Stock market analysts have been gullible, and some appear to have been corrupted.. Analysts, the press and particularly auditors must get down, gain open access to the company, to smell it, feel it, touch it. Internal auditors are a valuable resource, in transfering their knowledge and crosseminating valuable information within divisions of a corporation, and he would never think of outsorcing this function (an oblique reference to Enron's outsourcing the function to Arthur Andersen a decade ago, with the well-known results).
Tricky operations, whereby companies transfer this quarter's sales to boost last quarter's results came in for withering criticism. Consistent earnings with consistent growth is the method for business success and credibility, and FASB (the conservative book of accounting rules) is the only guide. Corporations must not fool with pension funding, which is a small item in GE's $15 billion earnings horizon. Putting current economics in perspective, we always find a solution for the human condition, these are not the first of times, and the economic recovery is clearly materializing, barring any major acts of terrorism. He proclaimed his grief for New York City, comparable to that felt when JFK was assassinated, and declared Rudy Giuliani to be the role model, even before 9/11.The first instance if showing his fangs.
On the question about Jack Welch as a cult figure, he saw corporate executives as fair game for People magazine as wellas the business press, and the protection of their private lives being up to the individuals (his divorce as the result of an affair with a Harward Business Review editor has been recently in the newspapers). Corporate boards came in for criticism for not playing by the rules. He likened the Enron situation to the board suspending all rules of ethicsd,
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:14 PM 
