He graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts. A Master of Science and PhD followed in 1960 at the University of Illinois. Once completed his years of education, Welch was hired by GE as a chemical engineer for the Plastics department. He worked tirelessly and was more than rewarded for his efforts when in 1972, he was elected one of GE's Vice Presidents, the youngest in the history of the corporation, and then, in 1979, he was given the title Vice Chairman. As if those feats were not incredible enough, near the end of 1980, official information was released that Welch would assume the position of Chairman and CEO, steadfastly holding the position until retirement in 2001. He was forty-five when he took control of the company that documented sales of just under twenty-eight billion dollars, and an estimated market value of around fourteen billion. Fast forward to the year he retired and GE was doing one-hundred-and-thirty billion in sales, and had a value of four-hundred-and-ten billion dollars. While the sheer enormity in dollars of what he accomplished was outstanding, the fact that most analysts agree upon, is that GE was the biggest and most valuable company in the world. Equally important as the sales figures, was "the how" that makes Jack Welch famous. He was a no-nonsense executive who believed that every component of the company had to be profitable. Each person, each piece of equipment, each division, and each manager had to contribute to the bottom line in a positive manner. Those that could not or would not were summarily relieved of their duties. Productivity, efficiency, and profitability were the optimum words of the day. Thousands of people were fired during his tenure, which led many to say that he was cold-hearted. The truth was, however, that he reformed how factories were managed, and how they grew and maintained profitability. If a division could not be profitable, it was of no value to the company as a whole, and was discarded. The Welch Way was the only way, and it is the way hundreds of companies around the world presently conduct their day-to-day businesses. Another key aspect of Welch's philosophy is "candor". This is almost as much a trademark of the man as the Welch Way. When he speaks on television programs, and to business students throughout the country, he invariably comes back to the term "candor", which is a necessary element in doing good business. He believes that workers must fully understand their importance to a company's profitability. He feels that performance evaluations are generally not honest representations of the employee's performance, and this practice is not fair. On the contrary, anyone who is dismissed from a company should expect it, because their evaluations should have demonstrated poor work behaviour. Unfortunately, most companies, and most managers, just fire people without the employees knowing nor understanding what hit them. Jack Welch may have come from very humble beginnings, but he faced the challenge, and rose to become one of three most influential CEOs of all time. And, despite his 2001 retirement from GE, he still actively works with fervor in an attempt to train future business leaders through the Jack Welch Management Institute.
