Jack Welch: The Man Who Broke Capitalism — with NYT Reporter & Book Author David Gelles

Long before Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Welch was one of the most powerful and celebrated CEOs on the planet. The Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) hosted this student-led event with New York Times Reporter David Gelles, author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism and Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer. Did Jack Welch really break capitalism? Can we move beyond his influence and embrace better models of business leadership?

[breaktherules]

EXCELLENT insights! THANK YOU for sharing! Congratulations Mr. Gelles for your courage!!!! THANK YOU!

[philip]

Great talk. All the more relevant today seeing what has happened under Calhoun's leadership at Boeing.

[jeffberner]

Another reason why the United States should have universal healthcare. The well being of workers needs to be taken out of the hands of corporate executives. The incentives to minimize costs at the expense of worker well-being are just too great. It would be good for business as well because executives really should be spending time running their business and not trying to scheme ways to nickel and dime the costs of worker benefits.

[orangemanonsteroids]

@27:10 "This a part of how we got there." Yeah. also I would like to ask if this is how America got into so much poverty could we say that the 2008 crash was caused by people like Welch who just got a wild hair up thier ass and indiscriminately fired people from time to time to feel good about themselves. This guy said you should fire ten percent of your work force every year. He is a poster Child of why we should really break up and BUST UP all corporations bigger then a regional conglomerate THEY HAVE TOO MUCH How Many of those people were older and had mortgages to be paid? How many actually deserved to be let go?
It's too bad these same newspapers won't give credit to the great resignation that ensued after COVID as a generation or two decided to take covid money instead of working...
Can we blame them??? NO! We cannot!!

[fernandososterbortolotto]

Putting input to Welch´s way of doing things "“Neutron Jack” cut head count and instituted an annual employee ranking scheme that required that employees in the lowest decile be fired. The company’s business units had to be No. 1 or 2 in their market or they were jettisoned. Meanwhile, Welch chased new growth opportunities in financial services and media — soon, GE Capital alone accounted for more than half of the company’s profits."
So, more and more, as the crisis of the 80´s and its politics moved on, the shareholder return view became less of a popular view of the world. I wonder how exactly GE Capital turned so much profit? Are the banking activities of such big and old money companies the only reason? If so, it would be surprising to know how such activities turn up profits.

[amythomspon]

Immelt destroyed GE by being to worst capital investor. Selling businesses at lows and buying businesses at the highs.

[victormonreale]

If a company have excessive profit, there is something wrong, they will not last, i will not invest in that company.

[WallaceBMcClure]

Neutron jack destroyed GE. I agree with that. Immelt didn’t do them any favors either. I believe that welch and immelt are lessons in what not to do. I put welch and immelt in the same bucket as ibm, Gersner, palmisano, and romenity. It is incredibly important to invest in r&d. IBM and ge are lessons in what happens when you don’t invest in in r&d. Sure, it all works great for a while, but when you don’t have products coming along, companies fail. Ge, ibm, sears, etc are a lesson in this disaster. That is what this woke report is missing and why his reasoning is wrong. Yes, right answer, but wrong reasoning to get there.

I refer to this problem as shareholder value vs customer value. If you optimize for shareholder value, the company downturns and fails. If you optimize for customer value, the customer buys more and the customer and shareholders both benefit.

[amythomspon]

Lol a NYT reporter has the solution to fixing capitalism 😅

[marianaoliveira]

I think it is really easy to say whatever about someone after his death. I work at ge and I don’t agree with what you say. I think it is really sad for you.

[sergiuspaulus]

I’m appalled. Perhaps Stanford needs to be closed down.

[PhilosophicalZombieHunter]

This is a disgusting rewriting of history of a man who just recently died and isn't able to defend himself.