
The Man Who Broke Capitalism
How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy
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Narrated by:
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Kevin R. Free
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By:
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David Gelles
New York Times Bestseller
New York Times reporter and “Corner Office” columnist David Gelles reveals legendary GE CEO Jack Welch to be the root of all that’s wrong with capitalism today and offers advice on how we might right those wrongs.
In 1981, Jack Welch took over General Electric and quickly rose to fame as the first celebrity CEO. He golfed with presidents, mingled with movie stars, and was idolized for growing GE into the most valuable company in the world. But Welch’s achievements didn’t stem from some greater intelligence or business prowess. Rather, they were the result of a sustained effort to push GE’s stock price ever higher, often at the expense of workers, consumers, and innovation. In this captivating, revelatory book, David Gelles argues that Welch single-handedly ushered in a new, cutthroat era of American capitalism that continues to this day.
Gelles chronicles Welch’s campaign to vaporize hundreds of thousands of jobs in a bid to boost profits, eviscerating the country’s manufacturing base, and destabilizing the middle class. Welch’s obsession with downsizing—he eliminated 10% of employees every year—fundamentally altered GE and inspired generations of imitators who have employed his strategies at other companies around the globe. In his day, Welch was corporate America’s leading proponent of mergers and acquisitions, using deals to gobble up competitors and giving rise to an economy that is more concentrated and less dynamic. And Welch pioneered the dark arts of “financialization,” transforming GE from an admired industrial manufacturer into what was effectively an unregulated bank. The finance business was hugely profitable in the short term and helped Welch keep GE’s stock price ticking up. But ultimately, financialization undermined GE and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies.
Gelles shows how Welch’s celebrated emphasis on increasing shareholder value by any means necessary (layoffs, outsourcing, offshoring, acquisitions, and buybacks, to name but a few tactics) became the norm in American business generally. He demonstrates how that approach has led to the greatest socioeconomic inequality since the Great Depression and harmed many of the very companies that have embraced it. And he shows how a generation of Welch acolytes radically transformed companies like Boeing, Home Depot, Kraft Heinz, and more. Finally, Gelles chronicles the change that is now afoot in corporate America, highlighting companies and leaders who have abandoned Welchism and are proving that it is still possible to excel in the business world without destroying livelihoods, gutting communities, and spurning regulation.
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A must-read.
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Good story but wrong title
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The insane zeal to “beat the street” by a penny, employee be damned, was one of the awful legacies Jack Welch left us. As the author explains, Welch’s successor Jeff Immelt was no better. I will leave the storytelling to Mr. Geddes and simply say that I witnessed a lot of this personally at the time I was too naïve, too starstruck and too dependent on my job at GE/NBC, to speak up or say anything.
As for the narrator of this book, what an awful job. He didn’t even pronounce Jack Welch’s name properly on multiple occasions, he used the French pronunciation when it wasn’t warranted and didn’t when it was. His overall lack of facility with business and corporate information in any detail proved him to be someone way over his head in terms of subject matter. This book would have been much better if it’s audio version had it been read by someone with an understanding and command of the situation at GE and corporate America in general. Simon & Schuster can and should have done better in selecting a narrator!
Wonderful Book, Awful Narration
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Explains how Working was Devalued
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Excellent analysis of American business practices.
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A great History Lesson
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Painful for those who fell for his scam.
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validation of the fact that things are wrong
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Long Term GE Employee - This Rings True
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Must read corporate horror story
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