Jack Welch at GE

Welch recognized the importance of maintaining a strong brand from his first days as CEO. The GE brand carried considerable weight with customers, representing quality and value, but the company had also been in business since the late 1800s. That history was part of what led to the company's bureaucratic structure, but it also provided the company with the resources--because of brands--that could sustain the growth that characterized the company during the 1980s and 1990s. Moving to protect the GE brand, Welch sold the air conditioning business of GE to Trane early in his tenure as CEO. At the time, GE air

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rand on smaller housewares. Selling the housewares business, although it was a wellrecognized GE brand, cause considerable internal strife, but did not greatly affect the company's brand image or its longterm sales (p. 119). Understanding why consumers buy a product, as well as who buys the product, is critical. Marketing Research It is not clear that Welch and GE support marketing research per se, but Welch definitely appreciated the need for current information about the market. For example, when his nuclear power managers forecast new plant orders at the rate of three per year in the early 1980s, Welch disagreed, arguing that the accident at Three Mile Island made it likely that no more orders would be placed in the United States in the near future. His assessment was correct, and he drove his company to enter the power services industry, which proved lucrative and successful (p. 101). Market research also provides a way to keep informed on what customers think about services and products currently offered in the marketplace, which is critical to the ability to serve customers well. Customer Service Customer service is broadly defined by Welch and encompasses everything from delivering products on-time to reducing pr
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Approximate Word count = 2953
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)