John Francis “Jack” Welch, Jr. (born November 19, 1935) is the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. Welch gained a solid reputation for uncanny business acumen and unique leadership strategies at GE. He remains a highly regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative management strategies and leadership style.
约翰.弗朗西斯.“杰克”.韦尔奇二世(生于1935年11月19日）在1981?2001年担任通用电 气公司的董事长兼执行总裁。韦尔奇在通用电气期间由于其惊人的商业灵敏度和独特的领导策略而赢得了良好的声誉。因为他的创新管理策略和领导方法使得他 在商界仍是一位受到高度重视的人物。
Welch joined General Electric in 1960. He worked as a junior engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at a salary of $10,500 annually. Welch was displeased with the $1,000 raise he was offered after his first year，as well as the strict bureaucracy within GE. He planned to leave the company to work with International Minerals & Chemicals in Skokie, Illinois.
韦尔奇在I960年进人通用电气公司。他当时在马塞诸塞州匹 茨菲尔德市当初级工程师，年薪为1.05万美元。韦尔奇对于工作一 年后才加的1000美元薪酬很不满意，同时也对通用电气内部严格 的等级官僚制度非常反感。他计划离开这家公司跳槽到伊利诺伊 州斯科奇市的国际矿物化工公司。
However, Reuben Gutoff，a young executive two levels higher than Welch, decided that the man was too valuable a resource for the company to lose. He took Welch and his first wife Carolyn out to dinner at the Yellow Aster in Pittsfield, and spent eight hours trying to convince Welch to stay. Gutoff vowed to work to change the bureaucracy to create a small-company environment.
然而，比韦尔奇高两级的年轻主管鲁本?加托夫，认为韦尔奇 是公司不可或缺的有价值的人才。他邀请韦尔奇和他的第一任夫 人卡洛琳在匹茨菲尔德的黄紫苑饭店共进晚餐，并且花了 8个小时 劝说韦尔奇留下来。加托夫发誓将努力改变现有的官僚制度并创 造一个类似小企业的工作环境。
Through the 1980s, Welch worked to streamline GE. In 1981 he made a speech in New York City called “Growing fast in a slow-growth economy”. This is often acknowledged as the “dawn” of the obsession with shareholder value. Later, in an interview with the Financial Times on the Global financial crisis of 2008-2009, Welch said, “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy…your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”
整个上世纪80年代期间，韦尔奇一直在致力完善通用电气。 1981年他在纽约市发表了名为“在低速增长时期的快速发展”的演 讲。这次演讲通常被认为是对股东价值痴迷的“黎明”。之后在关于 2008 ~ 2009年全球经济危机问题而接受《财经时报》采访时，韦尔 奇说道：“从表面判断，股东价值是全世界最蠢的概念。股东价值是 一个既有结果，而不是策略……你的主要选民是你的员工、你的消 费者和你的产品。”
He also pushed the managers of the businesses he kept to become more productive. Welch worked to eradicate inefficiency by trimming inventories and dismantling the bureaucracy that had almost led him to leave GE in the past. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units. Welch’s philosophy was that a company should be either 1 or 2 in a particular industry, or else leave it completely. Welch’s strategy was later adopted by other CEOs across corporate America.
他同时也推动企业的管理人员变得更有生产效率。韦尔奇通过消减存货和推翻差点让他离开该公司的官僚制度来消 除零效率。他关闭工厂、减少薪酬开支并且撤除过时的旧 生产设备。韦尔奇的哲学就是一家企业要么就在所做的行 业里做到第一或第二的位置，否则就干脆不要涉足。韦尔 奇的战略后来在全美范围被许多其他的总裁采纳。
Each year，Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. He earned a reputation for brutal candor in his meetings with executives. He would push his managers to perform, but he would reward those in the top 20% with bonuses and stock options. He also expanded the broadness of the stock options program at GE from just top executives to nearly one third of all employees. Welch is also known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.
每一年，韦尔奇都会解雇10%的表现最差的经理。他 因此在与总管们开会时获得了“残酷地坦诚”的名声。他会 促使他的经理尽量表现自己,并且会奖给那些表现最好的 20%的员工红利或是股票期权。他在通用电气中扩展了股票期权奖励计划,从高层主管扩展到了近 1/3的员工。韦尔奇同时还因打破了传统的9等级管理模式引进了自由的公司理念而为人所知。
During the early 1980s he was dubbed “Neutron Jack" for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. Welch states that GE had 411,000 employees at the end of 1980，and 299,000 at the end of 1985. Of the 112,000 who left the payroll, 37,000 were in sold businesses, and 81,000 were reduced in continuing businesses. In return, GE had increased its market capital tremendously. In 1986， GE acquired NBC, which was located in Rockefeller Center; Welch subsequently took up an office in the GE Building at Rockefeller Plaza. During the 1990s, Welch helped to modernize GE by shifting from manufacturing to financial services through numerous acquisitions.
在上世纪80年代早期，他由于在解雇员工的同时保持了企业的完整而被人戏称为“中子弹杰 克”。韦尔奇表示到1980年底,通用电气拥有41 ? 1万名员工，到1985年底为29.9万名。被辞退的11.2 万人中，3.7万人属于销售企业,8.1万人是从持续业务中被裁退。相反,通用电气的市场资本得到 了迅速增长。1986年,通用电气收购了位于洛克菲勒中心的美国全国广播公司。韦尔奇随后在洛克 菲勒广场的通用电气大楼中拥有了自己的办公室<>在20世纪90年代期间，韦尔奇通过众多的收购 企业案把公司的经营方向从制造转变向金融服务业，从而帮助通用电气进行了现代化改革。