阅读杰克·韦尔奇 Jack Welch在历史大观的作品!!! 阅读杰克·韦尔奇 Jack Welch在百家争鸣的作品!!! | |||||
杰克·韦尔奇杰克·韦尔奇（Jack Welch）是通用电气（GE）董事长兼CEO。在短短20年间，这位商界传奇人物使GE的市场资本增长30多倍，达到了4500亿美元，排名从世界第10提升到第1。他所推行的“6个西格玛”标准、全球化和电子商务，几乎重新定义了现代企业……本书是韦尔奇退休前的最后一个大动作，他将自己的成长岁月、成功经历及管理经验和盘托出，为渴望成功的商业人士树立了一个经典范例，堪称一部“CEO的圣经”。该书更以700万美元“天价”稿酬，创下美国自传版权收入之最！
杰克·韦尔奇自传
内容简介：
如果说领导是门艺术，那么杰克·韦尔奇必定是位艺术大师。很少有人能像他一样如此充分地演绎领导艺术，而能像他一样使领导艺术不断结出丰硕果实的人则是少而又少。20年来，大公司和它们的领导人在无情的全球经济中就像多米诺骨牌一要纷纷倒塌，他却领导着GE创下一个接一个的收和利润的纪录。因此韦尔奇成了全世界企业家和经理的榜样，并享有“全球第一CEO”的美誉，享受着与美国总统一样的尊荣和礼遇。
韦尔奇在这本自传中推心置腹、侃侃而谈，首次透露了他的青年岁月、成长历程及管理秘秘诀，如这位奇才开创了一种独特的管理模式，帮助庞大多元的商业帝国摆脱痼疾——“金字塔”官僚体制，走上灵活主动的道路……
沃特·迪士尼公司董事长兼CEO迈克尔·埃斯特说：“杰克不仅仅是一个商业巨子，还是一个有心灵、有灵魂、有头脑的巨人。”索尼公司董事长Nobuyuki则这样评价：“杰克·韦尔奇终于透露了他的管理秘诀” ！
作者自述：
这样开始一篇自传看起来似乎有点奇怪。我承认，我讨厌不得不使用第一人称，因为我一生中所做过的几乎每一件事情都与他人一起合作完成的。然而，你要写一本这样的书，却必须使用“我”来进行描述，尽管实际上它是应该由“我们”来承担的。
在写作时，我想尽可能提及所有在我人生旅途中伴我左右的人名字。但我的编辑却不断地打击我，试图将这些名字剔除出去。我们最终达成了妥协。这就是为什么书后的感谢辞比较长的缘故。所以请读者们注意，你们在书中的每一页看到“我”这个字的时候，请将它理解为我所有的同事和朋友，以及那些我可能遗漏的人们……
背景：
韦尔奇自传创美国自传体版权收入历史之最
刘波记者赵明北京报道被1999年财富杂志誉为“世纪经理”的杰克·韦尔奇不仅领导通用电气公司成为世界上最大的多元化公司，他本人的自传也在最近创造了美国出版业的奇迹：以高达700万美元的天价卖给了时代华纳贸易出版公司，创美国自传体版权收入历史之最。
韦尔奇的这本自传预计明年春季出版，书名尚未确定。竞标得主时代华纳贸易出版公司主席劳伦斯·克斯班说：“我们热切期待着出版杰克·韦尔奇的自传。我们相信它一定能够成为商业管理的经典著作，时代华纳贸易出版公司将全力以赴使尽量多的读者从这本巨著中获益。”
韦尔奇本人对这一最后的竞标价格也稍感意外，他已宣布将这本自传的所有出版收入捐给慈善机构。
今年64岁的韦尔奇于20年前加入通用电气公司。在他就任首席执行官期间，领导通用电气公司从一个以制造业为主的企业转向以服务业和电子商务为导向的大型企业。韦尔奇已决定于明年初退休，这本自传的出版将是他一生管理经验的见证。
摘自《中国经济时报》
目录：
第一部分 早年岁月
第一章 建立自信
第二章 脱颖而出
第三章 掀掉屋顶
第四章 在雷达下飞行
第五章 逼近大联盟
第六章 海阔凭鱼跃
第二部分 建立哲学观
第七章 面对现实与“阳奉阴违”'
第八章 远见
第九章 “中子弹”岁月
第十章 RCA交易
第十一章 人的企业
第十二章 再造克罗顿维尔，再造GE
第十三章 无边界：将理念进行到底
第十四章 深潜
第三部分
第十五章 商海沉浮
第十六章 GE资产：增长机器
第十七章 NBC和电灯泡的结合
第十八章 能屈能伸
第四部分
第十九章 全球化
第二十章 持续增长的服务业
第二十一章 六西格玛的里里外外
第二十二章 电子商务
第五部分 回顾与展望
第二十三章 “回家吧，韦尔奇先生”
第二十四章 CEO是干什么的
第二十五章 来自高尔夫的启迪
第二十六章 “新人”
鸣谢
附录A 经济萧条中的快速发展
附录B 2001年C类会议日程安排
附录C 韦尔奇致杰夫.伊梅尔特信
附录D 业务经理会议日程安排
平凡却伟大的母亲
1935年11月19日，杰克·韦尔奇出生在美国马萨诸塞州萨兰姆市一个普通的家庭，父亲性格沉稳，言语不多，他为波士顿与缅因铁路公司工作，早出晚归，所以培养孩子的任务就落在了母亲的肩上。杰克是家里惟一的孩子，身材矮小，还带点口吃，为此小时候很自卑。
对杰克影响最大的是母亲，虽然她很晚才有了这个孩子，但却从不溺爱，她知道儿子的自卑心理，并不打击他，她的关心更主要是逐步提高杰克的能力和意志力，杰克非常尊敬乃至崇拜母亲：“她是一位非常有权威性的母亲，总是让我觉得自己什么都能干，是母亲训练了我，要我学习独立。每次当我的行为稍有越轨，她就一鞭子把我抽回来，但通常都是正面而且建设性的，还能促使我振作起来。她向来不说什么多余的话，总是那么坚决，我对她心服口服。”
杰克到了成年还略带口吃，但母亲说，这算不了什么缺陷，只有面对现实，坚持与别人沟通，让别人了解你，才能主宰自己的命运，别人才会跟你做朋友。她把缺点变成一种激励，教会杰克正确看待自己的缺陷，在此之后，杰克再也不以口吃为耻，这是这个伟大而平常的母亲给予杰克的最大财富。
事实上，如果你自己不在意，那么那个缺陷也就不太重要了。略带口吃的毛病并没有阻碍杰克的发展，实际上在后来，注意到这个弱点的人大都对杰克很敬佩，因为他竟能克服这个障碍，在商界出类拔萃。
杰克从小就喜欢运动，尤其喜欢打曲棍球，经常到其他城市去参加比赛。母亲一直以一种宽松而包容的方式来教育他，她总是把杰克送上火车，让他独自去参加球赛。在中学的时候，杰克当上了曲棍球队的队长，这次经历让杰克受益匪浅，他开始初步对领导之术有了一点概念。
中学毕业后，正如其他学生一样，杰克想进入哈佛、耶鲁、斯坦福这些著名学校，但事与愿违，他只进了马萨诸塞州大学。开始时，他感到非常沮丧，尤其是很多往日的好友都得偿所愿，让他很是不甘，但母亲的“面对现实”理论让他打起精神，到了学校。
刚进学校没几天，他的沮丧就变成了庆幸，又一次体会到了母亲的先见之明。后来，韦尔奇说：“如果当时我选择了麻省理工学院，那我就会被昔日的伙伴们挤压，很难有出头之日，正是这所较小的州立大学，让我获得了许多自信。”而所有的管理都是围绕“自信 ”展开的，人生的成功也不例外。
大学毕业后，杰克接着攻读研究生课程，1960年他在伊利诺伊大学获得了化工博士学位，之后在许多可供选择的公司中，他把通用电气公司作为自己的第一份工作，直到现在。
成长的过程
1960年10月17日，杰克开始了在通用电气公司的职业生涯。他的第一项任务是找到一个制造PPO（一种用于化工的新材料）的示范场地，然后把工厂建立起来。在皮茨菲尔德的一座破败的楼房里，他与另外一名化学专家为了建立这座工厂，花费了许多心血和精力。
一年之后，这个工厂终于建立起来，杰克得到了很高的年度评语。但是，让他失望的是，通用电气公司只按照标准给他加了1000美元。因为无论表现得好与坏，每个人都获得了同样的加薪。在这一刻，杰克感到这个公司的官僚主义是如此严重，体制是如此僵化，和他以前想象的完全不同。于是，他准备辞职，去伊利诺斯州国际矿物化学公司工作。
当时，作为部门负责人的鲁本·古托夫听到韦尔奇即将离职的消息非常震惊，他决心不惜一切代价留住这位与众不同的年轻人。于是，他在告别宴会的前一天，邀请韦尔奇夫妇共进晚餐。在就餐之际，古托夫对韦尔奇展开4个小时的说服攻势。他保证，他将使韦尔奇不受官僚作风的纠缠，并将利用大公司的资源为韦尔奇创立一个小公司的工作环境。古托夫说：“相信我，只要我在公司一天，你就能利用大公司最好的部分进行工作，最差的一部分将离你远远的。”
第二天，韦尔奇终于做出了肯定的答复。多年以后，鲁本·古托夫回忆说，我今生最成功的推销就是留住了韦尔奇，因为留住了韦尔奇，才留住了通用今天的辉煌。当然这只是表面现象，实际上，鲁本·古托夫更大的功劳是留住了一种用人机制。在之后的几十年中，韦尔奇使大公司的实力和小公司的灵活性相结合的能力得到了验证。古托夫为韦尔奇创造了这种环境，韦尔奇又为更多的人创造了这种环境。
随后杰克成了PPO工艺开发项目领导人，虽然这种材料看上去不怎么起眼，并且它很难塑造成型，所以市场不为人看好。但杰克坚持了下去，终于制成了一种在高温下具有很高的强度，并且容易塑造的材料。这种塑料制品的商业名称叫“诺瑞尔”。
1965年，通用公司根据杰克的建议，决定投资1000万美元，建立一座诺瑞尔加工厂，但是“诺瑞尔”的市场如何，谁都无法预料，于是，在没人出头的情况下，杰克毛遂自荐，成为这个厂的负责人。
杰克非常清楚，这将是一场艰苦的战斗，但他对诺瑞尔充满了自信，当时所有的家用器具都是用金属制造的，用塑料代替金属能使产品变得既廉价又轻便，这将产生一次革命。为了保险起见，杰克推销的第一站就是通用的内部产业，但他们都对这个大胆的提法将信将疑。
于是杰克在他的工厂里用诺瑞尔制造出了电动罐头起子。他把起子向人们展示，让人们相信，塑料的用途远比人们想象的要多，甚至可以制造汽车车身和计算机外壳等。1968年，因为推销诺瑞尔的成功，杰克成为聚碳酸胺脂和诺瑞尔两种塑料制品部门的领导人，成为通用电气公司最年轻的一位总经理。
为了让自己的塑料事业走向成功，为了改变人们对塑料的认识，杰克用尽了各种办法，他首先让那些婴儿奶瓶、汽车、小器具用品的制造商们了解，利用塑料来制造这些东西，不但便宜、轻巧，而且更加耐用。然后他别出心裁，用一则巧妙的广告来推销自己的产品：一对野牛冲进了一家瓷器用品店，结果店里所有的东西都摔得粉身碎骨，只有塑料制品完好无损。这个广告获得了空前的成功，聚碳酸胺脂的使用终于引发了制造业的材料革命，美国消费者对这种比金属和玻璃优点更多的材料十分青睐，它成了世界上最为重要的塑料。杰克负责的塑料企业首次升格为一个部级企业。
这次成功为杰克的事业奠定了根基。他说：“我这一生中最兴奋，同时也是最值得纪念的时光，就是那段与工作小组的同事们共同努力的岁月。”
最成功的经理人
1971年底，杰克成为通用化学与冶金事业部总经理。当时的通用总裁是雷金纳德·琼斯，这个擅长于科学管理的实业家做事总是一丝不苟。琼斯坚持，挑选继任总裁必须经过对每个候选人长期仔细的考察过程，然后再理性地选出最具资格的人选。8年后，杰克终于通过了琼斯的漫长而严格的考核，成为通用公司副董事长。2年后，1981年4月，杰克成为通用电气公司历史上最年轻的董事长和首席执行官。那年他45岁，而这家已经有117年历史的公司机构臃肿，等级森严，对市场反应迟钝，在全球竞争中正走下坡路。
杰克深知官僚主义和冗员的恶果，从他第一年进入通用时，他就已经尝到这种体制的恶果，现在终于可以实施自己的计划了。首先，杰克改革的就是内部管理体制，减少管理层次和冗员，将原来8个层次减到4个层次甚至3个层次，并撤换了部分高层管理人员。此后的几年间，砍掉了25％的企业，削减了10多万份工作，将350个经营单位裁减合并成13个主要的业务部门，卖掉了价值近100亿美元的资产，并新添置了180亿美元的资产。
当时正是IBM等大公司大肆宣扬雇员终身制的时候，从GE内部到媒体都对杰克的做法产生了反感或质疑，这是一个“优秀”的企业应该做的吗？他是不是疯掉了？因为太过于强硬的铁腕裁员，杰克被人气愤地冠以“中子弹杰克”的绰号。
这就是杰克的经营理念——数一数二市场原则，在全球竞争激烈的市场中，只有在市场上领先对手的企业，才能立于不败之地。任何事业部门存在的条件是在市场上“数一数二”，否则就要被砍掉——整顿、关闭或出售。
竞争，对杰克而言，已不只是获取成功的必由之路，它更是一种每天持续不断的工作状态。竞争越激烈，他的生活就越是充实。他认为：“我们每天都在全球竞争战场的刀光剑影中工作。而且在每一回合的打斗之间，甚至没有片刻时间休息。”
没有竞争，就不会有发展。不仅仅国家经济是这样，一个行业、一个企业乃至一个人都是如此。杰克非常明白这一点，才会有那样大刀阔斧的改革。市场变化多端，没有一个企业能够成为安全的就业天堂，除非它能在市场竞争中获胜。让杰克自豪的是：“在GE，我不能保证每个人都能终身就业，但能保证让他们获得终身的就业能力。”
在管理上，杰克更是独创了许多方法，最为著名的莫过于“聚会”、“突然视察”、“手写便条” 了。杰克懂得“突然”行动的价值。他每周都突然视察工厂和办公室，匆匆安排与比他低好几级的经理共进午餐，无数次向公司员工突然发出手写的整洁醒目的便条。所有这一切都让人们感受到他的领导并对公众的行为施加影响。尤其是这些小小的便条，更给人以无比的亲切和自然。形成了一种无名的鞭策和鼓励。
当然还有人才，这是杰克最重视的地方了。他说：“领导者的工作，就是每天把全世界各地最优秀的人才延揽过来。他们必须热爱自己的员工，拥抱自己的员工，激励自己的员工。”作为一个过来人，韦尔奇给公司领导者传授的用人秘诀是他自创的“活力曲线”：一个组织中，必有20％的人是最好的，70％的人是中间状态的，10％的人是最差的。这是一个动态的曲线，即每个部分所包含的具体人一定是不断变化的。但一个合格的领导者，必须随时掌握那20％和10％里边的人的姓名和职位，以便做出准确的奖惩措施。最好的应该马上得到激励或升迁，最差的就必须马上走人。
目前，通用公司每位员工都有一张“通用电气价值观”卡。卡中对领导干部的警戒有9点：痛恨官僚主义、开明、讲究速度、自信、高瞻远瞩、精力充沛、果敢地设定目标、视变化为机遇以及适应全球化。这些价值观都是通用公司进行培养的主题，也是决定公司职员晋升的最重要的评价标准。
杰克初掌通用之时，通用电气的销售额为250亿美元，盈利15亿美元，市场价值在全美上市公司中仅排名第十，而到1999年，通用电气实现了1110亿美元的销售收入（世界第五）和107亿美元的盈利（全球第一），市值已位居世界第二。
1981年的通用旗下仅有照明、发动机和电力3个事业部在市场上保持领先地位。而如今已有12 个事业部在其各自的市场上数一数二，如果单独排名，通用电气有9个事业部能入选《财富》500强。就在韦尔奇执掌通用电气的19年中，公司发生了巨大的变化，并因此连续3年在美国《财富》杂志“全美最受推崇公司”评选中名列榜首。
所有的人都说，创业难，守业更难，但杰克·韦尔奇改变了这个说法，他创造了这个奇迹，将通用这个“百年老店”经营得重放光彩。而他的贡献也远不止于通用一家公司。他所倡导和实行的管理的革命，重新弘扬了为股东创造价值这一企业经营的根本原则，扭转了二战以来国际大企业普遍福利化的倾向，使企业获得了真正的动力；他创造了一个最有益于人才成长的文化，造就的不仅是一代企业家，更造就了一种积极向上的精神，今天的通用已经成为赫赫有名的“经理人摇篮”、“商界的西点军校”，全球《财富》500强中有超过1／3的CEO都是从通用走出；他的管理经验被越来越多的人采纳，几乎成为现代企业的一种典范模式。
人们对他顶礼膜拜，对他无比崇敬，但这个优秀的老人却在2001年事业的巅峰选择退隐，但是，他的精神还在公司继续发挥作用，他所努力创造出的企业文化还在通用等其他企业中产生更深远、更悠久的作用。正如沃特·迪斯尼公司董事长兼CEO迈克尔·埃斯特所说：“杰克不仅仅是一个商业巨子，还是一个有心灵、有灵魂、有头脑的巨人。”
Early life and career
Jack Welch was born in Salem, Massachusetts to John, a Boston & Maine Railroad conductor, and Grace, a homemaker.
Welch attended Salem High School and later the University of Massachusetts Amherst, graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering. While at UMass he was a member of the Alpha chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
Welch went on to receive his M.S. and Ph.D at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960.
Welch joined General Electric in 1960. He worked as a junior chemical engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at a salary of $10,500 annually. While at GE, he blew off the roof of the factory, and was almost fired for doing so. Welch was displeased with the $1,000 raise he was offered after his first year, as well as the strict bureaucracy within GE. He planned to leave the company to work with International Minerals & Chemicals in Skokie, Illinois.
Reuben Gutoff, a young executive two levels higher than Welch, decided that the man was too valuable a resource for the company to lose. He took Welch and his first wife Carolyn out to dinner at the Yellow Aster in Pittsfield, and spent four hours trying to convince Welch to stay. Gutoff vowed to work to change the bureaucracy to create a small-company environment.
"Trust me," Gutoff remembers pleading. "As long as I am here, you are going to get a shot to operate with the best of the big company and the worst part of it pushed aside." "Well, you are on trial," retorted Welch. "I'm glad to be on trial," Gutoff said. "To try to keep you here is important." At daybreak, Welch gave him his answer. "It was one of my better marketing jobs in life," recalls Gutoff. "But then he said to me--and this is vintage Jack--'I'm still going to have the party because I like parties, and besides, I think they have some little presents for me.'" Some 12 years later, Welch would audaciously write in his annual performance review that his long-term goal was to become CEO.
Welch was named a vice president of GE in 1972. He moved up the ranks to become senior vice president in 1977 and vice chairman in 1979. Welch became GE's youngest chairman and CEO in 1981, succeeding Reginald H. Jones. By 1982, Welch had disassembled much of the earlier management put together by Jones.
Tenure as CEO of GE
Through the 1980s, Welch worked to streamline GE. In 1981 he made a speech in New York City called "Growing fast in a slow-growth economy". This is often acknowledged as the "dawn" of the obsession with shareholder value. Later, in an interview with the Financial Times on the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009, Welch said, “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy... your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.” Many top CEOs have distanced themselves from Welch stating that Welch would not have made such a comment while still the CEO of GE. Employees, customers and products are enablers, while shareholder value creation gives a publicly traded company a license to operate.
He also pushed the managers of the businesses he kept to become more productive. Welch worked to eradicate perceived inefficiency by trimming inventories and dismantling the bureaucracy that had almost led him to leave GE in the past. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units. Welch's public philosophy was that a company should be either #1 or #2 in a particular industry, or else leave it completely. Welch's strategy was later adopted by other CEOs across corporate America.
Each year, Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. He earned a reputation for brutal candor in his meetings with executives. He would push his managers to perform, but he would reward those in the top 20% with bonuses and stock options. He also expanded the broadness of the stock options program at GE from just top executives to nearly one third of all employees. Welch is also known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.
During the early 1980s he was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (in reference to the neutron bomb) for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. In Jack: Straight From The Gut, Welch states that GE had 411,000 employees at the end of 1980, and 299,000 at the end of 1985. Of the 112,000 who left the payroll, 37,000 were in sold businesses, and 81,000 were reduced in continuing businesses. In return, GE had increased its market capital tremendously.
In 1986, GE acquired NBC, which was located in Rockefeller Center; Welch subsequently took up an office in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. During the 1990s, Welch shifted GE business from manufacturing to financial services through numerous acquisitions.
Welch adopted Motorola's Six Sigma quality program in late 1995. In 1980, the year before Welch became CEO, GE recorded revenues of roughly $26.8 billion. In 2000, the year before he left, the revenues increased to nearly $130 billion. When Jack Welch left GE, the company had gone from a market value of $14 billion to one of more than $410 billion at the end of 2004, making it the most valuable and largest company in the world.
At the time of his retirement, Welch received a salary of $4 million a year, followed by his controversial retirement plan of $8 million a year. In 1999 he was named "Manager of the Century" by Fortune magazine.
There was a lengthy and well-publicized succession planning saga prior to his retirement between James McNerney, Robert Nardelli, and Jeffrey Immelt, with Immelt eventually selected to succeed him as Chairman and CEO. Nardelli became the CEO of Home Depot until his resignation in early 2007, and until recently, was the CEO of Chrysler, while McNerney became CEO of 3M until he left that post to serve in the same capacity at Boeing.
Criticism
Some industry analysts claim that Welch is given too much credit for GE's success. They contend that individual managers are largely responsible for the company's success. For example GE Capital, under Gary C. Wendt, contributed nearly 40% of the company's total earnings while NBC and Robert C. Wright worked to turn the network around, leading to five years of double-digit earnings growth. It is also held that Welch did not rescue GE from great losses as the company had 16% annual earnings growth during the tenure of his predecessor, Reginald H. Jones. Critics also say that "the pressure Welch imposes leads some employees to cut corners, possibly contributing to some of the defense-contracting scandals that have plagued GE, or to the humiliating Kidder, Peabody & Co. bond-trading scheme of the early 1990s that generated bogus profits".
Welch has also received criticism over the years for an apparent lack of compassion for the middle class and working class. Welch has publicly stated that he is not concerned with the discrepancy between the salaries of top-paid CEOs and those of average workers. When asked about the issue of excessive CEO pay, Welch has stated that such allegations are "outrageous" and has vehemently opposed proposed SEC regulations affecting executive compensation. Countering the public uproar over excessive executive pay (including backdating stock options, golden parachutes for nonperformance, and extravagant retirement packages), Welch stated that CEO compensation should continue to be dictated by the free market, without interference from government or other outside agencies. In addition, Welch is a vocal opponent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Personal life
Welch has had a slight stutter since childhood. He had four children with his first wife, Carolyn. They divorced amicably in April 1987 after 28 years of marriage. His second wife, Jane Beasley, was a former mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer. She married Jack in April 1989, and they divorced in 2003. While Welch had crafted a prenuptial agreement, Beasley insisted on a ten-year time limit to its applicability, and thus she was able to leave the marriage with an amount believed to be in the range of $180 million.
The third wife of Jack Welch is Suzy Wetlaufer, who co-authored his 2005 book Winning as Suzy Welch. Wetlaufer served briefly as the editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review before being forced to resign in early 2002 after admitting to having been involved in an affair with Welch while preparing an interview with him for the magazine.
Welch underwent triple bypass surgery in May 1995. He returned to work full time in September of the same year and also adopted an exercise schedule that included golf. Welch is a member of Augusta National Golf Club. However, in Winning, Welch acknowledges that back problems forced him to give up playing golf, and that, surprisingly, he doesn't miss it. He acknowledges using his time formerly spent on the golf course to consult with companies and indulge other personal interests such as modern art, international travel, teaching and attending Red Sox games. Since then, he has picked up his golf game, playing at courses such as Nantucket Golf Club, Sankaty Head Golf Club, and the Country Club of Fairfield, CT, among others.
On January 25, 2006, Welch gave his name to Sacred Heart University's College of Business, which will be known as the "John F. Welch College of Business".
Since September 2006, Welch has been teaching a class at the MIT Sloan School of Management to a hand-picked group of 30 MBA students with a demonstrated career interest in leadership. He is also a global warming skeptic. Yet he has said that every business must embrace green products and green ways of doing business, "whether you believe in global warming or not...because the world wants these products."
Thanks to a donation from Jack Welch, the Jack Welch Management Institute at the Chancellor University in Ohio was founded in July 2009. The institute offers a MBA program based on Welch's management philosophy. Classes are offered both online and at the school’s Cleveland campus.
On March 11, 2010, Welch appeared as himself in the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of the hit NBC sitcom 30 Rock. In the episode, he governed the sale of NBC Universal to a fictional Philadelphia-based cable company, Kabletown, a parody of the actual acquisition of NBC Universal from General Electric by Comcast in November 2009.