That was the world Welch inherited, hated, and transformed. Not too surprisingly, in the preceding decade GE stock had lost half its value after inflation-and still Fortune 500 chiefs said this was the best business they knew.
Bureaucracy had become almost comical: The head of the computer lab in the medical equipment business couldn’t sign for deliveries without a superior’s approval. In one division, computers printed out seven unreadable reports daily for managers to study one of the reports routinely stood 12 feet high. Yet this paragon was managed according to an antediluvian five-volume set of rules.
When Welch became General Electric’s CEO in 1981, the CEOs of the Fortune 500 had just named General Electric the company they admired most.
