Welch Crush the Soul of Corporate America

Welchism is the relentless pursuit of shareholder value, this single minded pursuit of corporate profits at any cost. In his first few years as CEO, he fired some hundred thousand or so employees at GE,. He unleashed a wave of mass layoffs and factory closures which destabilized the middle class. The second one was deal making. During those 20 years, he executed some 1000 mergers and acquisitions. And in the process, he transformed GE from a very concentrated, very sort of discrete manufacturing company into this sprawling conglomerate.