We Bring Good things To Life--RETRO FRIDAY

Neptune Bob's question is a valid one. At the time, no one realized the underlying destruction of GE by Welch. As Frigilux said, the value of GE was going up, big time...for awhile.

Anyone can sell off divisions, create and influx of money to a company and make the books look good. And that is what Welch did. It was a very immature thing to do.

I am sure there were probably some, at GE, who realized the future consequences of Welch's actions, but were probably silenced. No doubt Welch would have fired any Board member who opposed him. Most of the board were sycophants, who even copied Welch's unusual dress habits, knowing Welch wanted only "Yes Men.".

Why fire the CEO who is making the stockholders delirious with joy by lining their pockets. Few saw the underlying permanent damage to the very core of GE that Welch was causing. Money talks. And when you fill people's pockets with money they don't often question your motives nor procedures.

What Welch actually created, as we are realizing today, is a House of Cards. House of Cards are very pretty, they attract a lot of attention and get oohs and aahs. Everyone was oohing and awing over a 4000% increase of the value of GE.

The increase of value of GE was only a temporary phenomenon. It couldn't be maintained for the very underlying structure of GE was being torn apart.

The house that Jack built was an illusion. Houses of Cards cannot stand because there is no underlying structure. A wind comes and they fall down.

We have to go back to the origins of General Electric to see why it was so successful and could weather any storm that came. GE, from day one, created a market for its own products, and in doing so was self-maintaining.
theoretically by creating demand for its own products, and with its own products being items need AND wanted by consumers it became a self-perpetuating.

GE, from day one, was designed to create electricity. It began with generators and distribution systems. It created the electricity, then it created and marketed a way to get the electricity to its customers. Then it created the need for its own product to be used.... creating light bulbs for homes and industries, then motors, then home appliances.

Consumers began demanding that their towns become "electrified." they wanted to get rid of kerosene lamps and dangerous and dim gas jet lights in their home.

General Electric was saturating the market place with ads of clean, bright and safe electric lights. Soon GE engineers developed their electric fans, now customers could have breezes of air, providing comfort from the city heat. Something that never existed in the marketplace.

Before long they were making electric stoves for consumers to cook their food on , and electric heaters to keep their homes warm. General Electric mad motors for water pumps so consumers could now have running water in their homes. Then GE made water heaters so the consumers could have the comfort of warm baths and showers and cleaner laundry. Then they made the washing machines to use the water pumped up from their wells by GE motors, heated by GE water tanks from electricity brought to their home by GE wires and transformers, made in powerplants by GE generators...ad infinitum.

Industry was getting electric power for motors, replacing the large and cumbersome steam power that manufacturer's were previously using. Manufacturing plants were able to expand their building with electric lights throughout the plant, plants were no longer dependent on large windows for illumination, some manufacturing plants began second and third shift operations due to GE's electric lights.

GE was supplying the ways and means to give people what they not only wanted, but needed. Everyone needs light, everyone needs heat, everyone needs to eat. All GE products were designed to provide for the basics of human existence and provide means that were better than what was available before.

GE created the electricity, they got it to your house with their electrical wire that they began manufacturing, They created the transformers, the fuse boxes that kept it safe, the outlets you plugged into, the cords that went to their appliances and the sockets that went to their bulbs.

For over a 100 years GE functioned like a fine-tuned watch. Even during the great depression, when other business were falling like flies, GE thrived. No matter how bad the economy people still need light, they need warmth and they need to eat. Money to buy food become scarcer and scarcer during the depression and GE refrigerators preserved this food. Many consumers looked upon refrigeration as a necessity and would scrip and save just to buy GE's refrigerator.

It was all working like clockwork....until Welch came along. Don't get me wrong, GE did have problems along the way. But when a division was having problems, then engineers analyzed and tweaked I. They didn't throw the whole division away as Welch did. By the eighties GE was getting less competitive as it was following the trend of the manufacturing industry to get rid of engineers in position of administrative power and as the CEOs, and replacing them with MBA's.
,
Welch was a hybrid. He was a chemical engineer (and not even a good one as even he admits in his autobiography, stating he caused an explosion at one of GE's polymer plants due to his lack of knowledge of chemical processes.) But he got the attention of GE's MBA's because of his aggressive and ruthless business practices. He was a mover and a shaker.

Welch was not an electrical engineer as were most of GE's past CEO's and he had no love for electricity nor electrical products. What he did have a love for was himself and a driving desire to make a name for himself.

Welch was green and not ready to be CEO of one of the world's largest corporations. He had never been a CEO before and only had administrative experience in one of GE's divisions, GE Plastics.

His actions were immature and childish. Playing poker with GE divisions as if they were chips. Every division he sold off gave him literally, billions of dollars to play with and put on the books.

Welch's fatal mistake is that he played to the stockholder. Welch forgot that, as do many MBA's, that company answers to the consumer and not the stockholder.

A company begins when someone has a love for a product or an idea and they market this to the consumer. The company thrives and grows when it meets the consumers needs. It only makes money when the consumer buys its products.

GE's previous CEOs were usually electrical engineers. They loved electrical products, they understood them and they knew how to design them to met the consumers needs and their expectations. Welch's needs were to build an empire by taking and electrical company and making it into a company of his design. A company made in his own image and company that had little to do with electrical products. He threw out the entire history of GE.

Welch hated electrical products and manufacturing. He wanted GE to become a world power in finance and insurance, with a presence in the media (NBC) for self promotion. When he purchased RCA, GE could have been the world leader in electronics. Instead he immediately dissected RCA of its divisions and sold them off for ready cash. A world leader in consumer and industrial electronics destroyed, literally, overnight. RCA was gone forever. Now just a name to be used by paying a licensing fee to GE.

Buying financial and insurance companies, as well as NBC the once mighty GE was now reduced to being a bank, and insurance company and the operator of the NBC owned Universal Theme park Florida. Once a world renowned electrical manufacturing empire was now a bank and operator of the roller coaster at an amusement park. The irony is that even the rollercoasters couldn't use GE motors as their electrical motor division was sold off.

Yes, Neutron Jack was ignoring all of GE's infrastructure. From day one GE was designed to be a manufacturer of electrical equipment. They were not designed for insurance nor owning amusement facilities. Over a 100 years of infrastructure and experience was being thrown away and discarded to meet jack's dream of being a financial magnate.

For a while it looked good. All Houses of Cards look good until they fall. Much of GE's core infrastructure, that it was built upon and supported by, was sold off. they were no longer able to create a demand for their own product. The foundation was gone and GE began to crumble. It began almost imperceptibly. But the cracks were beginning to show and no power in the world could bring GE back.

General Electric is now in its death throes. Upon Welch's retirement, he handpicked Jeff Immelt as the new CEO. Immelt continued to use Welch's sell off off strategy (as instructed to by Welch when he told Immelt he would have him hired as CEO, but only if he would continue GE's transformation out of electrical manufacturing.) Immelt eventually realized the problems and tried to make some minor shifts back to engineering and manufacturing with GE Wind Power.

But is was too late. GE's foundation , built to weather any storm, was largely gone. Immelt found himself selling divisions just to get enough money to keep GE afloat.

GE's divisions WERE GE. Jack hated HVAC, as he stated in his autobiography, and he thought GE Housewares was silly and peeling wands and mixers beneath the dignity of GE. What he forgot was these were GE.

GE's divisions were gold. They were diversified and all worked together for the good of GE and the desire and needs of the consumer.

Imagine a man built a house. After the house was built, he realize the basement foundations bricks were made of rock that had gold streaks in them. He slowly pulled out the bricks, one by one, and sold them for money.

With the money he remodeled his house and made the house look beautiful and attractive to everyone. People came from around the world and marveled at the architecture of his house. He was held in esteem by all, and his ego continued to be artificially inflated. He pulled out more and more bricks to sell off for money. He added onto the house and built it higher and higher.

People from around the world admired him and claimed his to be one of the finest housebuilders in the world.

Houses without foundations, soon develop cracks. So the man, still unaware of what he was doing structurally, to his home, pulled out more and more bricks and sold them to try to patch the cracks and keep the house looking beautiful and impressive. He passed ownership of the house to another man while it was still looking good, but he knew it was starting to develop problems.

Then the house began to crumble. People quite coming to look at it. The new owner had to sell even more bricks to try to keep up with the repair work. Now he was robbing Peter to pay Paul. The more foundation brick she sold off the more the house crumbled. Soon no more bricks could be removed and sold, so there was no money to put into the house to rebuild the foundation.

The house was now in its death spire. No foundation, no money for repairs. It is dying taken over by entropy. It will soon crumble and people will look at it and say, "How could it have happened?"

The houses decline can be traced back to one man. The man who was entrusted to the care. maintenance and operation of the house. He knew the right time to get out of the house before it crumbled.

However the man still goes around and build his ego by giving speeches, making television appearances and writing books, saying, "When I lived in that house, it was the best house in the world. I knew how to build the house. Now look at what has happened to it. It was beautiful when I took care of it and built it up. It's it's new owner who doesn't know what he was doing. What a terrible shame!"

Yes folks, That is Jack Welch. The man who wanted to remake GE in his own image. A little man with a big, big ego.

GE is most likely terminal and is in its last days. If it survives at all, its remaining few division will probably be separated and made into their own companies or sold all altogether. This is the House that Jack built.

A sad ending for a company that didn't deserve it.


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Post# 1046836 10/4/2019 at 15:37 (1,663 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )
Checkrate/Likes 4 This ad (1979) was made right before Jack Welch (Neutron Jack) became CEO and began his quest to turn General Electric "from a manufacturing company to a "service company" (Welch's own words) He wanted GE out of electrical manufacturing and to become primarily financial/banking services and insurance brokerage. Just a couple of years after this ad had aired he dissected GE Heating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) from General Electric and sold it to Trane, and was already instructing divisions to phase out the use "General Electric" and use only "GE" to erase the public's association of GE with electrical products. Five years after this aired aired he diversed GE Housewares and two years after that got rid of GE Consumer Electronics. Two years additional years after that he got rid of the beloved 100+ year old GE logo, replaced by the capital block letters "GE" in italics (as appeared on top of the GE building in New York for decades.) Thankfully public outcry was enough that he brought the famous cursive GE in a circle logo back--very reluctantly and with much anger. CLICK HERE TO GO TO reactor's LINK

Post# 1046840 , Reply# 1 10/4/2019 at 17:07 (1,663 days old) by DADoES (TX,�U.S. of A.)
Checkrate/Likes 1 � Do believe I recall that clip.

Post# 1046854 , Reply# 2 10/4/2019 at 21:41 (1,662 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes What a shame it was not enough anger to cause him physical harm. I remember the reports about the fresh flowers delivered to his apartment and office daily.

Post# 1046855 , Reply# 3 10/4/2019 at 21:51 (1,662 days old) by appnut (TX)
Checkrate/Likes 1 The college kid taking his own selfie had me remember the ad.

Post# 1046856 , Reply# 4 10/4/2019 at 23:00 (1,662 days old) by Michaelman2 (Lauderdale by the Sea, FL)
Checkrate/Likes 3 Remember this clip very well. Never would want to wish "physical harm" to anyone. Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with them. This clip is refreshing and nostalgic. Thanks for the share.

Post# 1046860 , Reply# 5 10/5/2019 at 00:28 (1,662 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *I'd like to teach the world to sing* ...I don't have such a wonderful history lesson to share, but my husband Bruce and I were reminiscing and browsing top 40 hit lists of the early 1970s. I can't remember which year--'72--maybe, "I'd like to teach the world" made the charts twice with different artists. I was pretty sure the song originated in the Coke ad, and, sure enough, it did. I loved it then and love it now... CLICK HERE TO GO TO sarahperdue's LINK

Post# 1046896 , Reply# 6 10/5/2019 at 13:01 (1,662 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )
Checkrate/Likes 6 *Neutron Jack* The "anger" I spoke of was Welch's. He was not used to giving in or not getting his way. It was a rare thing, indeed, for Welsh to back down on a decision he made. He designed the new GE logo himself and only returned the original logo because of the great public outcry and the bad press it was giving GE. He was not one bit happy. He absolutely refused, however, to take his logo off the top of the GE Building in New York. I am sure it built his ego, to go out at night, and to look at his self-designed logo in electrically lit letters several stories high, lighting up the New York skyline. Welch was able to get his way by belittling fellow employees and Board Members. If you disagreed with him, it is reported he went into a red-faced shouting tirade of verbal abuse personally attacking you in front of your peers. He would get so angry he reverted back to his childhood stuttering and would get to the point where he could barely force his words out syllable by syllable. The poor unlucky victim of one of Jack's profanity laced verbal attacks, soon found themselves being escorted, with a box of their desk contents in hand, to the front door by GE Security Guards. That is how Jack ruled GE and slowly removed GE's core foundation, division by division. Slowly reshaping GE into a company in his own image. GE had weathered wars, recession and depressions. In fact is was one of the only companies to continue to pay dividends throughout the entire Great Depression. GE withstood everything but Jack Welch. Now that Jack has removed the foundation of GE brick by brick (division by division) GE has nothing left to stand on and is crumbling fast. A sad demise for a once great corporation. .

Post# 1046897 , Reply# 7 10/5/2019 at 13:23 (1,662 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes 2 Now the only thing GE still has is the Lighting Division, or have they sold that already (I know they were trying to). It is sad. GE brought some great things to life before Jack Welch came along and destroyed it all.

Post# 1046912 , Reply# 8 10/5/2019 at 16:06 (1,662 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes 1 We were proud to work there in 1989-1992 when I was there--shame what they've become!

Post# 1046930 , Reply# 10 10/6/2019 at 02:24 (1,661 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie)
Checkrate/Likes 2 Why didn't they fire Jack Welch? Because during his tenure as CEO, the company's value increased 4,000%. His Wikipedia entry is an interesting read, especially the sections headed 'CEO' and 'CRITICISM.' CLICK HERE TO GO TO Frigilux's LINK

Post# 1046936 , Reply# 11 10/6/2019 at 04:24 (1,661 days old) by askolover (South of Nash Vegas, TN)
Checkrate/Likes We used to have GE Xray machines, CT scanners, and other healthcare products. One hospital had GE heart monitors in the ICU (I hated those). Now, our MRI machines are Phillips, the newest CT scanner is Siemens, all the new digital Xray machines are Samsung, and our heart monitors are Phillips.

Post# 1046990 , Reply# 16 10/6/2019 at 17:13 (1,661 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )
Checkrate/Likes 3 Don't forget the major appliance div. now being owned by Haier. (China). They're continuing on with the GE Logo and so far our Haier built GE stove is working fine, early days though, I'll give my pronouncement in a couple of years LOL

Post# 1047004 , Reply# 18 10/6/2019 at 17:49 (1,661 days old) by superocd (PNW)
Checkrate/Likes 2 *It's sad how far GE has fallen...* If GE had better management with a vision, I bet that Samsung, LG and other conglomerates wouldn't be as big as they are now. As far as Jack Welch changing the logo, that's just absurd. Certain logos should never be changed for the history of the company. Everyone recognizes the original GE logo, even if they don't know what it stands for (General Electric). They'd say, "oh, they're the lightbulb people" or "they made my stove", etc. Everyone recognizes certain logos. The McDonald's arches. The Chevrolet bowtie. The Nike swoosh. Take the Best Western logo for example. The original yellow crown logo (way before my time) and even the Best Western logo from the early '90s are distinctive. The latest one is so generic that I think that if BW's management paid even a measly $10 for the design agency's services, they were cheated. The newest BW logo looks like some kind of pharmaceutical product such as cough medicine.

Post# 1046929 , Reply# 9 10/6/2019 at 01:55 (1,661 days old) by neptunebob (Pittsburgh, PA)
Checkrate/Likes 2 Another nasty part about GE is what they did to RCA. GE bought RCA in 1986 mostly to get NBC - and then destroyed the company! RCA products now are made by another company, probably Chinese. It seems all GE makes now is jet engines and steam turbines, I'm not even sure if they make actual generators any more. Shouldn't it be General Turbine by now? What I don't understand is GE had a board of directors, why didn't they fire Jack Welch if he was so destructive to the company?

Post# 1046944 , Reply# 12 10/6/2019 at 07:51 (1,661 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )
Checkrate/Likes 5 *Neutron Jack's Destruction* Neptune Bob's question is a valid one. At the time, no one realized the underlying destruction of GE by Welch. As Frigilux said, the value of GE was going up, big time...for awhile. Anyone can sell off divisions, create and influx of money to a company and make the books look good. And that is what Welch did. It was a very immature thing to do. I am sure there were probably some, at GE, who realized the future consequences of Welch's actions, but were probably silenced. No doubt Welch would have fired any Board member who opposed him. Most of the board were sycophants, who even copied Welch's unusual dress habits, knowing Welch wanted only "Yes Men.". Why fire the CEO who is making the stockholders delirious with joy by lining their pockets. Few saw the underlying permanent damage to the very core of GE that Welch was causing. Money talks. And when you fill people's pockets with money they don't often question your motives nor procedures. What Welch actually created, as we are realizing today, is a House of Cards. House of Cards are very pretty, they attract a lot of attention and get oohs and aahs. Everyone was oohing and awing over a 4000% increase of the value of GE. The increase of value of GE was only a temporary phenomenon. It couldn't be maintained for the very underlying structure of GE was being torn apart. The house that Jack built was an illusion. Houses of Cards cannot stand because there is no underlying structure. A wind comes and they fall down. We have to go back to the origins of General Electric to see why it was so successful and could weather any storm that came. GE, from day one, created a market for its own products, and in doing so was self-maintaining. theoretically by creating demand for its own products, and with its own products being items need AND wanted by consumers it became a self-perpetuating. GE, from day one, was designed to create electricity. It began with generators and distribution systems. It created the electricity, then it created and marketed a way to get the electricity to its customers. Then it created the need for its own product to be used.... creating light bulbs for homes and industries, then motors, then home appliances. Consumers began demanding that their towns become "electrified." they wanted to get rid of kerosene lamps and dangerous and dim gas jet lights in their home. General Electric was saturating the market place with ads of clean, bright and safe electric lights. Soon GE engineers developed their electric fans, now customers could have breezes of air, providing comfort from the city heat. Something that never existed in the marketplace. Before long they were making electric stoves for consumers to cook their food on , and electric heaters to keep their homes warm. General Electric mad motors for water pumps so consumers could now have running water in their homes. Then GE made water heaters so the consumers could have the comfort of warm baths and showers and cleaner laundry. Then they made the washing machines to use the water pumped up from their wells by GE motors, heated by GE water tanks from electricity brought to their home by GE wires and transformers, made in powerplants by GE generators...ad infinitum. Industry was getting electric power for motors, replacing the large and cumbersome steam power that manufacturer's were previously using. Manufacturing plants were able to expand their building with electric lights throughout the plant, plants were no longer dependent on large windows for illumination, some manufacturing plants began second and third shift operations due to GE's electric lights. GE was supplying the ways and means to give people what they not only wanted, but needed. Everyone needs light, everyone needs heat, everyone needs to eat. All GE products were designed to provide for the basics of human existence and provide means that were better than what was available before. GE created the electricity, they got it to your house with their electrical wire that they began manufacturing, They created the transformers, the fuse boxes that kept it safe, the outlets you plugged into, the cords that went to their appliances and the sockets that went to their bulbs. For over a 100 years GE functioned like a fine-tuned watch. Even during the great depression, when other business were falling like flies, GE thrived. No matter how bad the economy people still need light, they need warmth and they need to eat. Money to buy food become scarcer and scarcer during the depression and GE refrigerators preserved this food. Many consumers looked upon refrigeration as a necessity and would scrip and save just to buy GE's refrigerator. It was all working like clockwork....until Welch came along. Don't get me wrong, GE did have problems along the way. But when a division was having problems, then engineers analyzed and tweaked I. They didn't throw the whole division away as Welch did. By the eighties GE was getting less competitive as it was following the trend of the manufacturing industry to get rid of engineers in position of administrative power and as the CEOs, and replacing them with MBA's. , Welch was a hybrid. He was a chemical engineer (and not even a good one as even he admits in his autobiography, stating he caused an explosion at one of GE's polymer plants due to his lack of knowledge of chemical processes.) But he got the attention of GE's MBA's because of his aggressive and ruthless business practices. He was a mover and a shaker. Welch was not an electrical engineer as were most of GE's past CEO's and he had no love for electricity nor electrical products. What he did have a love for was himself and a driving desire to make a name for himself. Welch was green and not ready to be CEO of one of the world's largest corporations. He had never been a CEO before and only had administrative experience in one of GE's divisions, GE Plastics. His actions were immature and childish. Playing poker with GE divisions as if they were chips. Every division he sold off gave him literally, billions of dollars to play with and put on the books. Welch's fatal mistake is that he played to the stockholder. Welch forgot that, as do many MBA's, that company answers to the consumer and not the stockholder. A company begins when someone has a love for a product or an idea and they market this to the consumer. The company thrives and grows when it meets the consumers needs. It only makes money when the consumer buys its products. GE's previous CEOs were usually electrical engineers. They loved electrical products, they understood them and they knew how to design them to met the consumers needs and their expectations. Welch's needs were to build an empire by taking and electrical company and making it into a company of his design. A company made in his own image and company that had little to do with electrical products. He threw out the entire history of GE. Welch hated electrical products and manufacturing. He wanted GE to become a world power in finance and insurance, with a presence in the media (NBC) for self promotion. When he purchased RCA, GE could have been the world leader in electronics. Instead he immediately dissected RCA of its divisions and sold them off for ready cash. A world leader in consumer and industrial electronics destroyed, literally, overnight. RCA was gone forever. Now just a name to be used by paying a licensing fee to GE. Buying financial and insurance companies, as well as NBC the once mighty GE was now reduced to being a bank, and insurance company and the operator of the NBC owned Universal Theme park Florida. Once a world renowned electrical manufacturing empire was now a bank and operator of the roller coaster at an amusement park. The irony is that even the rollercoasters couldn't use GE motors as their electrical motor division was sold off. Yes, Neutron Jack was ignoring all of GE's infrastructure. From day one GE was designed to be a manufacturer of electrical equipment. They were not designed for insurance nor owning amusement facilities. Over a 100 years of infrastructure and experience was being thrown away and discarded to meet jack's dream of being a financial magnate. For a while it looked good. All Houses of Cards look good until they fall. Much of GE's core infrastructure, that it was built upon and supported by, was sold off. they were no longer able to create a demand for their own product. The foundation was gone and GE began to crumble. It began almost imperceptibly. But the cracks were beginning to show and no power in the world could bring GE back. General Electric is now in its death throes. Upon Welch's retirement, he handpicked Jeff Immelt as the new CEO. Immelt continued to use Welch's sell off off strategy (as instructed to by Welch when he told Immelt he would have him hired as CEO, but only if he would continue GE's transformation out of electrical manufacturing.) Immelt eventually realized the problems and tried to make some minor shifts back to engineering and manufacturing with GE Wind Power. But is was too late. GE's foundation , built to weather any storm, was largely gone. Immelt found himself selling divisions just to get enough money to keep GE afloat. GE's divisions WERE GE. Jack hated HVAC, as he stated in his autobiography, and he thought GE Housewares was silly and peeling wands and mixers beneath the dignity of GE. What he forgot was these were GE. GE's divisions were gold. They were diversified and all worked together for the good of GE and the desire and needs of the consumer. Imagine a man built a house. After the house was built, he realize the basement foundations bricks were made of rock that had gold streaks in them. He slowly pulled out the bricks, one by one, and sold them for money. With the money he remodeled his house and made the house look beautiful and attractive to everyone. People came from around the world and marveled at the architecture of his house. He was held in esteem by all, and his ego continued to be artificially inflated. He pulled out more and more bricks to sell off for money. He added onto the house and built it higher and higher. People from around the world admired him and claimed his to be one of the finest housebuilders in the world. Houses without foundations, soon develop cracks. So the man, still unaware of what he was doing structurally, to his home, pulled out more and more bricks and sold them to try to patch the cracks and keep the house looking beautiful and impressive. He passed ownership of the house to another man while it was still looking good, but he knew it was starting to develop problems. Then the house began to crumble. People quite coming to look at it. The new owner had to sell even more bricks to try to keep up with the repair work. Now he was robbing Peter to pay Paul. The more foundation brick she sold off the more the house crumbled. Soon no more bricks could be removed and sold, so there was no money to put into the house to rebuild the foundation. The house was now in its death spire. No foundation, no money for repairs. It is dying taken over by entropy. It will soon crumble and people will look at it and say, "How could it have happened?" The houses decline can be traced back to one man. The man who was entrusted to the care. maintenance and operation of the house. He knew the right time to get out of the house before it crumbled. However the man still goes around and build his ego by giving speeches, making television appearances and writing books, saying, "When I lived in that house, it was the best house in the world. I knew how to build the house. Now look at what has happened to it. It was beautiful when I took care of it and built it up. It's it's new owner who doesn't know what he was doing. What a terrible shame!" Yes folks, That is Jack Welch. The man who wanted to remake GE in his own image. A little man with a big, big ego. GE is most likely terminal and is in its last days. If it survives at all, its remaining few division will probably be separated and made into their own companies or sold all altogether. This is the House that Jack built. A sad ending for a company that didn't deserve it.

Post# 1046953 , Reply# 13 10/6/2019 at 09:58 (1,661 days old) by Kate1 (PNW)
Checkrate/Likes 4 Modern business practices have ruined the world. It�s not just GE, so many of America�s bedrock companies have been stripped from the inside and made hollow, all while showing a bright and shiny exterior to entice new investment and keep the shell game going. It�s not a direct corollary but look at Enron. I really recommend anyone find a detailed history of Enron and read it. You will be asking yourself how something so egregious could ever happen in a civilized society but the real question is, in the world our financiers have created for themselves, how could it not. And these are just the examples we are aware of, thousands more do the same things and get away with it, allowing the middle class to crumble more and more while they get to make off like bandits. In the past, people would have stormed the buildings, taken to the streets, and demanded action, now we�re pacified by our devices and modern comforts. It�s easier to share a link on Facebook than start another revolution.

Post# 1046959 , Reply# 14 10/6/2019 at 13:13 (1,661 days old) by MattL (Flushing, MI)
Checkrate/Likes 5 Welsh was and is a poster boy for what I call the Harvard MBAing of America and the world. Strip out any value of a company, sell off parts to artificially raise the stock price and play games to keep it there. Screw the workers, screw the product just line your pockets. Used to be at time when owners of companies made a good living and their employees did well too, now it's all bout the super rich getting every penny and the hell with the product or the employees. Every small company has been bought up and is now part of a mega industry, or some conglomerate. There used to be locally owned stores with unique products in every community, now all we have is Wal Mart and Target.

Post# 1046967 , Reply# 15 10/6/2019 at 14:49 (1,661 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes *Very similar to what happened with Westinghouse* In 1984, GE sold the small appliance division to Black & Decker. Shortly after GE bought RCA in 1986, GE had Thomson (a French company) take over theirs and RCA electronics, and manufacture them. In 2007 GE/Thomson sold the audio/video business to Audiovox. For a while the GE brand was licensed to Walmart to use on small appliances. Most anything electrical or electronic with the GE logo on it is made by Jasco who is just licensing the name.

Post# 1046991 , Reply# 17 10/6/2019 at 17:18 (1,661 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )
Checkrate/Likes 1 Forgot; RCA was originally a GE subsidiary. The Marconi company was a division of the British Marconi company and rather than being beholden to a UK company, GE purchased it and changed the name to RCA (radio corp of America) . GE got so big in the 30's that they were order to break up the company and so the RCA div was sold off . Something like that anyways.

Post# 1047008 , Reply# 19 10/6/2019 at 17:52 (1,661 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)
Checkrate/Likes Isn�t that sort of how Dairy Queen became DQ, and Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC? � Dave

Post# 1047016 , Reply# 20 10/6/2019 at 18:25 (1,661 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 2 Yes and Sears is going quickly to become nothing but a memory, thanks to corporate greed.

Post# 1047049 , Reply# 21 10/7/2019 at 06:00 (1,660 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea))
Checkrate/Likes 2 Very readworthy thread! If Hahvahd Biznis was teaching this instead of pyramid greed.... what a wonderful world this would be. It all seems so obvious, how in 13 dimensions could elegantly-educated people do what they did, oblivious to the entirety of history and to a most fundamental business principle, maintenance of value? My gawd, it's beginning to look like Ted Kascinsky was right! He WAS a genius, after all. So why, again, do we put self-serving peabrains like Welch at the top of the industrial foodchain? This will sound silly and perhaps it is but on the other haps it's dead-on. I suspect it goes back to the introduction of tetraethyl lead into the fuel supply, spewed by hundreds of millions of cars over 40 years and over the entire country. What wasn't inhaled immediately settled to the ground to poison generations. How else could everybody have gone crazy all at once? We're all addled compared to where we would be if not for the ubiquitosity of environmental lead. This would explain a great many things. See 'Dirty Laundry' for some urgently-pressing examples.

Post# 1047348 , Reply# 22 10/10/2019 at 07:49 (1,657 days old) by Paulg (My sweet home... Chicago)
Checkrate/Likes 2 *Phonograph record of this ad* Here is a phonograph record of the music for that ad campaign. These were handed out to the employees of GE / Hotpoint at the time, and my father was a Hotpoint employee. View Full Size

Post# 1047349 , Reply# 23 10/10/2019 at 08:00 (1,657 days old) by Paulg (My sweet home... Chicago)
Checkrate/Likes 3 *C�mon, sing along!* Here�s the backside of the album with the lyrics - just in case you couldn�t figure them out yourself. And if you ever ask me nice enough, I have a 1963 Hotpoint Silhouette 16mm film that was not believed to be used much at all. 20 minutes long. Not really a commercial but a series of comedy sketches about washing machines. View Full Size

Post# 1047359 , Reply# 24 10/10/2019 at 11:51 (1,657 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )
Checkrate/Likes 2 *wow* How cool is that General Electric album. Are the different tracks the different iterations of the songs for the various ads? You have a very rare item there!! Too bad you can't download thea udio files for us here at AW.org.