The best bosses always put the company first: is Jack Welch really the GE brand, or is he the kind of boss that places his own personal image before the reputation of the brand? (Marketing).

Marketing Week, March, 2002 by Alan Mitchell

In an article last week, the Financial Times expressed concern that former General Electric (GE) chief executive Jack Welch's divorce could damage the Jack Welch brand.

Welch, of course, is the subject of adulation bordering on sycophancy, thanks to his record at GE, which outperformed the market 2.8 times between 1985 and 2000. Now a free man, Welch is capitalising on this adulation with best selling books like Jack: Straight from the Gut, the celebrity speaker circuit and his own brand of consultancy.

Divorce or no, however, one can't help wondering whether the FT's priorities are right. Which brand really matters here? Welch or the GE stable? Isn't this obsession with business leaders going a mite too far?

Empirical evidence that "leadership"...