Jack Welch has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Jack Welch has died

#91

Post by Ididntdothis » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:02 PM UTC

hylaride wrote: post #62

throwaway55554 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because of policies like this or in spite of them?

Both. I've posted this before about Ballmer, but I'll repost: He consistently increased earnings via Windows and Office during his tenure as CEO. He was a very good businessman. He was not, however, a product guy. Witness their failures with the Zune, mobile, search, and early cloud computing. His problem was that he always tried to do what would be best for Microsoft first and not the customer. You can get away with…

Ballmer also didn’t create a personality cult around himself. He actually seemed ok with being viewed as a clown as long as it helped Microsoft.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#92

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

teej wrote: post #81

optimiz3 wrote: post #34

Steve Ballmer revered Jack Welch's rank-and-yank management style. During the 2000s and early 2010s Microsoft's stack-rank reviews were infamous for the internal politics created. Didn't matter if you had a full team of top-tier engineers, the bottom 15% WAS going to get managed out. Savvy managers would hire low-tier performers to protect the productive ones. That's the only lens through which I have to view Mr. Wel…

Hiring folks to act as telomeres for your team seems so cruel.

[deleted]

Re: Jack Welch has died

#93

Post by kingkawn » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

prostheticvamp wrote: post #87

kingkawn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what I said is verifiable with a cursory web search, as you have shown. I know people with cancer linked to this pollution. Your standard of truth makes no room for any reporting of personal experience and is invalid.

This is the Internet, and you are anonymous. Your “personal experience” has precisely zero credibility for asserting the existence of facts.

unless you make even the slightest effort to look it up and see that yes, Welch did exactly what I said.

Which has already been done above.

fighting with me over the abstract rules of internet engagement, rather than acknowledging that what I said is verifiably true from professional news outlets and that your complaints are over form alone.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#94

Post by tyre » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:05 PM UTC

buran77 wrote: post #65

tyre wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What story does the evidence tell you? If you're going to disqualify someone as a leader, Jack Welch is not that guy.

He's the type of leader who grew the company on a minefield of figurative debt and real hidden costs. Leaving behind something with a solid foundation makes you a good leader. Getting out in time from a Ponzi scheme you built doesn't. Another trait of a real leader is to be able to grow another leader who can do the same. By his own statements he failed.

GE crashed nearly a decade after he left. He spent decades building GE into a powerhouse in many industries.

Finding a leader who can replace you is a miniscule piece of being a leader. Also, that's ultimately the Board's responsibility. The CEO reports to them.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#95

Post by cletus » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:07 PM UTC

optimiz3 wrote: post #34

Steve Ballmer revered Jack Welch's rank-and-yank management style. During the 2000s and early 2010s Microsoft's stack-rank reviews were infamous for the internal politics created. Didn't matter if you had a full team of top-tier engineers, the bottom 15% WAS going to get managed out. Savvy managers would hire low-tier performers to protect the productive ones. That's the only lens through which I have to view Mr. Wel…

Add to that that stack ranking has a tendency to devolve into a popularity contest and that it most rewards those who do the best job of convincing everyone that their job is hard then one has to ask if this is really the best system for a group of people that trends towards being introverted.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#96

Post by QuesnayJr » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

chirau wrote: post #30

Plenty of heartless comments in this thread. It's a shame really. Rest In Peace, Jack.

I don't have a strong opinion on Welch, but a) he fired lots of people from GE, and b) introduced stack ranking to the world, which got lots more people fired. Whether or not he was good for GE, he was a heartless man. Of course he gets a heartless response.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#97

Post by birdyrooster » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

prostheticvamp wrote: post #87

kingkawn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what I said is verifiable with a cursory web search, as you have shown. I know people with cancer linked to this pollution. Your standard of truth makes no room for any reporting of personal experience and is invalid.

This is the Internet, and you are anonymous. Your “personal experience” has precisely zero credibility for asserting the existence of facts.

Thanks, professor.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#98

Post by michaelt » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

Ididntdothis wrote: post #67

buran77 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's the type of leader who grew the company on a minefield of figurative debt and real hidden costs. Leaving behind something with a solid foundation makes you a good leader. Getting out in time from a Ponzi scheme you built doesn't. Another trait of a real leader is to be able to grow another leader who can do the same. By his own statements he failed.

And you don’t complain publicly about the people you hired. Especially while loudly proclaiming how good you are at hiring.

The quote does say "according to friends" - so maybe he only complained privately.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#99

Post by reflectiv » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

prostheticvamp wrote: post #87

kingkawn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what I said is verifiable with a cursory web search, as you have shown. I know people with cancer linked to this pollution. Your standard of truth makes no room for any reporting of personal experience and is invalid.

This is the Internet, and you are anonymous. Your “personal experience” has precisely zero credibility for asserting the existence of facts.

This is the internet...so if you find something questionable...search for it.

Which you did...and he was right...so like, stop acting offended.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#100

Post by devonkim » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

hristov wrote: post #74

Ididntdothis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“he gave himself an A for his execution of its operations, and an F for his choice of successor.” That alone disqualifies him as a leader “I did everything right but others screwed it up”.

And to be clear he was absolutely lying about that. Immelt was certainly a problematic leader, but a lot of the problems with GE happened under Welch. The biggest issue with GE was massive insurance liabilities for assisted living insurance which drastically exceeded anything GE predicted. Well Welch started the insurance business in GE and took on a lot of these liabilities. And while Immelt certainly had his proble…

Furthermore, people asked Jack Welch about the GE Capital spin-off and he said he agreed it was the right decision for the business. So I find it contradictory how Welch could feel bad while agreeing with major strategic decisions. Was it an execution problem? Because no amount of execution would have saved GE Capital given all the scathing criticisms I read. The entire financial sector became hazardous waste during the financial crisis, so unless GE Capital was as strong as a top tier Wall St bank it wasn't about to survive I'd imagine.