More on Criticism of Welch
Some employees of General Electric (GE) under Welch have complained because of the continuous pressure on them to perform by the hard-driving manager. That's part of the motivation for bringing up the name some created for him called "Neutron Jack."
The problem is that these same people didn't understand, and still don't, what the global marketplace is or means to their businesses. Welch understood that the only way that General Electric could compete in the emerging global economy would be to challenge his people to perform and grow greater than they ever had.
One worker representative said concerning this: "No matter how many records are broken in productivity or profits, it's always 'What have you done for me lately?'"
The problem with that comment above is that we live in a fluid, dynamic world where people from all over are striving to make a better life for themselves. They don't care what somebody else things about their hard work and success; they live for it. For someone from Western countries especially, and the U.S. specifically, to think that they don't need to work in the atmosphere of "what have you done for me lately?" will soon find that their job is at an overseas location.
Many have already found this out as they've drawn a line in the sand on how far they want to go and will go no further. The problem is so have their competitors, and they have no thought of easing up. They've tasted the opportunity before them and will do anything to reach out and grab it. That's the competition that Welch saw emerging and the reason why he employed strong methods to combat it.
To this day people that have no concept at all of economics and the effects that decisions can have upon a company, still operate in a way that will almost guarantee that they will eventually fail.
Strangely enough, even after Welch's understanding of the coming global competition has been confirmed for years, I still hear these goofy nuts that try to act like his management style was terrible. The truth is that by streamlining and pushing his people, he was able to save more jobs than he had to get rid of.
If you don't think I'm right, go ahead and do a study on jobs that left this country because of global competition. Look at the state of the American auto industry in comparison to Honda and others that operate within this country but thrive. They have a motivated work force, not people that believe they are entitled.
To me, that's the real, major issue behind a lot of the criticism of Welch and his methods: many working for him had developed the idea that they were entitled to things without having to pay the price for getting them. The global market has now brought this reality out in the open ... those that don't respond will find that they will no longer be able to compete either.
Welch not only helped GE thrive when he was there, but helped set up the company and Jeff Immelt to be ready to thrive in the increasingly competitive world marketplace. For that some people have attempted to make him look bad. In reality he will go down as one of the greatest American managers that the world has ever seen.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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