Big Influence by Jack Welch on General Electric

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10 Jul. 2013 Big Influence by Jack Welch on General Electric John Francis "Jack" Welch, Jr. (born November 19, 1935) is an American business executive, author and chemical engineer. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. During his tenure at GE, the company's value rose 4000%. Within his first five years as CEO he closed 73 plants, sold 232 businesses and eliminated 132,000 workers from GE. There were opposing views to his tactics, many supported him and many did not agree with him. Many people called him "Neutron Jack" because as he rolled out his vision, GE had mass layoffs of many employers that had been loyal to the company for a long time. Somehow, Welch did fulfill the company's primary economic responsibilities to society by turning it into an exceptionally profitable conglomerate. Shareholders and managers became rich off of Welch's vision. In the Welch system, wealth was transferred from workers to shareholders. He insulated himself from the pain this caused, rationalizing that what he did was for the greater good. However, on the other hand, the company pressured cities, counties, and states to lower taxes by threatening to relocate operations, and this lowered budgets for schools. As we all know, education industry is like the lifeline and future in a country. If GE could consider this issue, they can do better than ever they did. According to chapter 5 in the text, corporate social responsibility is the corporate duty to create wealth by using means that to avoid harm to, protect, or enhance societal assets and even though Welch made GE the most valuable company in the world, as the CEO, Welch failed to fulfill the duty of social responsibility in some ways. He failed to fulfill that duty because of the following: pollution in the Hudson River, job cuts in the United States, subcontracting with other
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