Jack Welch, teacher

[Carl Remick]

[GE's Jack Welch is, of course, the most acclaimed U.S. CEO of the age.  The 
passage that follows, from today's NY Times, reminds me of Groucho Marx's 
line about some person being "the brains of the bunch – which should give 
you some idea of the bunch."  In my limited direct experience with corporate 
CEOs, I've not found that any of them, either, were fans of "big heavy 
books" apart from looseleaf-binder briefing books.]

For most of his two decades at the helm of the General Electric Company, 
John F. Welch Jr. has thought of himself as a teacher. ...

"Teacher" might seem an odd appellation for the decidedly unprofessorial Mr. 
Welch. This, after all, is a man whose mass layoffs earned him the nickname 
Neutron Jack and whose rapid-fire speech aggravates a stutter and rarely 
ends in a complete sentence.

Although he is a self-described news fanatic who devours magazines, he 
acknowledges he does not read "a lot of big heavy books" unless they happen 
to be written by Peter F. Drucker, the management guru who inspired two of 
the so-called big ideas that have been part of Mr. Welch's G.E. tenure. 
Instead, Mr. Welch cultivates an informal network of advisers that include 
the world's leading corporate chieftains, academics and consultants.

[Full text at http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/29/business/29WELC.html]

Carl

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