Winners, Losers
At 45, Welch succeeded Reginald Jones as chairman and CEO. While GE was profitable, Welch was concerned that it was too big to be flexible. He sorted GE’s divisions into “winners” -- those first or second in their industries -- and “losers,” mostly older units that had to improve or face disposal.

Over a five-year span in the 1980s, he sold more than 200 businesses and closed dozens of factories. Annual dismissals of the 10 percent of employees deemed the lowest performers also became standard. Welch’s moves would shrink the workforce by one-third to 239,000 people.

“A successful leader can shock an organization and lead its recovery. An unsuccessful leader will shock an organization and paralyze it,” Welch said in a 1994 Industry Week interview. “Organizations constantly need to be regenerated.”

GE under Welch spent more than $25 billion on acquisitions, and he pushed into finance as the U.S. economy shifted away from manufacturing. He looked overseas, too, boosting foreign sales by more than 50 percent.

He pioneered widely imitated training programs, including “Work-Out,” in which employees learned to accelerate decision-making with days of brainstorming. In 1995, Welch implemented the Six Sigma quality controls to improve manufacturing processes. Noting GE’s success, companies around the world would adopt a similar methodology.

‘Tremendous Passion’
Welch knew thousands of employees by name and would send handwritten notes to voice his approval or dissatisfaction.

“He had tremendous, tremendous passion for the business, but he also had tremendous passion for people,” William Conaty, whose 40-year GE career included serving as human resources chief under Welch, said in a 2014 interview. “If your wife was sick, he’d want to know how she was doing.”

Welch also worked six days a week, taking only Sunday off to golf -- he called working weekends “a blast” -- and expected similar dedication from those who wanted to get ahead.

“I never once asked anyone, ‘Is there someplace you would rather be -- or need to be -- for your family or favorite hobby or whatever?”’ he said in his 2005 book, “Winning.”

Welch delayed his mandatory age-65 retirement for almost a year for a final challenge: a $53 billion bid for Honeywell International Inc. that collapsed when he balked at European regulators’ demands for concessions.